ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests the removal of the concept of ally from the lexicon of higher education practitioners and scholars. Through an extension and application of the Indigenous Action Media’s conceptualization of the colonizing Ally Industrial Complex to higher education contexts, the author calls for the eradication of allies and a thriving illness, the ally complex. The ally complex is a disease overtaking society that is based in a driving desire to ally with marginalized groups in order to be good rather than do good. This project is based in a settler colonial and imperial epistemology, frequently referred to as a savior complex. The removal of allies requires an analysis of how power and privilege play out in higher education and a critique of who is allowed to be deemed good because of the actions taken. It also requires an analysis of the ways in which higher education institutions reify the Ally Industrial Complex and support a system that actually harms marginalized communities rather than supports them. Instead of teaching ally development in courses, offering ally trainings, and linking forms of capital with one’s ally identity, the author suggests instead an intersectional and humanistic approach that requires those wishing to engage in solidarity to historicize their understanding of oppression, build foundational knowledge-bases around structural oppression, and ultimately take action by utilizing their privilege/capital to do better.
