Dr. Victoria Farris is a disrupter, a truth teller, and a justice seeker, and through her 12+ years of a experience as a higher education professional, she has developed framework for effective allyship that outlines an action-based guide for disrupting racism on individual, group, and organizational levels. Victoria shares with us both her personal experience and growth as well as the product of her research, explaining how white people can disrupt and dismantle systemic racism.

Definitions of Race with Sources: Courtesy of Jen Fry, jenfrytalks.com

Race: A socially constructed system to classify humans based off of phenotypical characteristics, like skin color, hair texture, and bone texture. Source: Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (Multicultural Education Series)
Racism: Racism is a system in which one race maintains supremacy over another race through a set of attitudes, behaviors, social structures, and institutional power. Source: Barbara Love, 1994. Understanding Internalized Oppression
Whiteness: The academic term used to capture the all-encompassing dimensions of White privilege, dominance, and assumed superiority in society. These dimensions include: ideological, institutional, social, cultural, historical, political, and interpersonal. Source: Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (Multicultural Education Series)
Anti-Racism: Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably. Source: NAC International Perspective: Women and Global Solidarity

Recommended resources for further learning:

Books:

I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
How to be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
The Very Good Gospel by Lisa Sharon Harper
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson
Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Renni Eddo-Lodge

Websites/Articles:

Jen Fry’s Resource Page
Austin Channing Brown’s The Next Question Show
Unpacking White Feminism by Rachel Cargle
Seeing White Podcast by Scene On Radio
1619 Podcast by NYT
CodeSwitch by NPR
Intersectionality Matters Podcast
The Secret Lives of Black Women Podcast

To learn more about Victoria’s work, to join her book club, or to sign up for a workshop, please visit her on Instagram, Twitter, her website, or text DISRUPT to 55-444 that will sign you up for Victoria’s updates.