The YWCA McLean County’s Allyship Institute has offered a weeklong interactive virtual learning experience that centers around Black and disabled communities.
This free program took place from Feb. 26 to March 1 in commemoration of Black History Month. Each day was focused on a different topic, and the program is structured as a “choose your own adventure” where participants can select one or two resources per day to read, watch or listen.
The Allyship Institute is in its third year, although "Blackness and Disability" will be its fourth iteration. Previous programs have focused on anti-blackness, sexism, and LGBTQ+ advocacy and awareness.
Hannah Mesouani, director of mission and equity consulting at YWCA, believes that allyship is a verb and includes doing the actual work of pushing conversations to be more representative and inclusive.
“Being an ally is not about being an expert, it’s being humble enough to know that you will always be forgetting the majority of lived experiences that are not your own,” Mesouani said.
The Allyship Institute takes an intersectional approach to racial justice resources and tries to include multiple identities.
“We tend to have a single identity approach to advocacy, and a lot of the times we see that in ground funding and research sharing, so my privilege is to be able to expand those lanes,” Mesouani.
"Blackness and Disability" teaches that mental and physical health is often racialized, meaning Black people often face more marginalization in disabled communities, Mesouani said.
“Thinking about somebody who’s Black and disabled, trying to overcome racism to get treatment and then also trying to move through spaces that are inherently ableist; it’s that double whammy of compounding oppressions,” Mesouani said.
The Allyship Institute has more plans in the future to develop inclusive workplaces, classrooms and organizations in McLean County through YWCA after this program is over.
“It’s been lovely to get to share advocates like Jermaine Greaves and Audre Lorde, who are or were Black disabled activists who tell these stories so beautifully and offer suggestions on how we can do better as a society,” Mesouani said.
