Thesis title and description:
“Allyship” in the Post-Obama Era: An Analysis of the Organization Showing Up for Racial Justice
Farris is junior in Quincy studying Social Studies with a focus field in Protest and Resistance in American Cities. This summer, Farris will be studying modern practices of white partnership and “allyship” with racial justice organizing. In particular, she will perform an analysis of chapters of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), an organization for and led by white people, and its partnerships with local chapters of Black Lives Matter (BLM). Drawing on historic dilemmas and an intellectual history stretching back to abolition, through the white expulsion from SNCC and into modern debates about the meaning of true “allyship,” Farris will aim to fill a gap in the social movements literature by illuminating different organizational structures utilized by white organizers and the ways participants’ whiteness interacts with and impacts movements for racial justice.