ABSTRACT
The moral dilemma of allyship refers to a theoretically irreducible ambivalence between two complexes of motivation: (1) the desire of allies to be good and authentic anti-racists and (2) the pressures of moral selfhood. In the contemporary racial justice movement, the moral expectations of the socialized self—which desires and seeks confirmation of its moral worthiness from significant others—are pitted against the normative demands of allyship, which serves as the only authentically anti-racist path for whites. Therefore, this chapter begins to present the ambivalence of allyship as a “dilemma,” or a conflict between choices, neither of which can readily be sacrificed to the other. Through this analysis, the constitutive importance of dilemma for allyship begins to become visible as allies reflect upon their attempt to become anti-racists precisely by challenging their morality at the level of self.
