In her novel Small Great Things, Jodi Picoult—a white woman—tackles the notion of allyship in her author’s notes, writing, Most of us think the word “racism” is synonymous with the word “prejudice.” But racism is more than just discrimination based on skin color. It’s also about who has institutional power. Just as racism creates disadvantages for people of color that make success harder to achieve, it also gives advantages to white people that make success easier to achieve. It’s hard to see those advantages, much less own up to them. And that, I realized, was why I had to write this book.
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