Allied Activism: Advantages And Disadvantaged Group Groups

While allies may be well intentioned, their efforts and the “help” they offer may halt the disadvantaged group’s progress towards equality. Allied activism involves members of an advantaged group acting in solidarity with, by offering help to, members of a disadvantaged group. Social identity theory argues that group memberships are important to one's identity and if a person’s group membership is negatively valued, he or she will want to change it. Collective action is a means to do so and is dependent on a combination of identity, anger, and efficacy and permeability, stability, and legitimacy (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Tajfel & Turner, 1986; van Zomeren, Postmes, & Spears, 2008). If a disadvantaged group is motivated to engage in collective
Allied activism is intergroup helping because members of advantaged groups offer help, in the form of resources and support, to disadvantaged group members. However, disadvantaged group members differ in the preference of the type of help they receive due to how they perceive the current status relations, which is dependent on three variables developed in the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) : stability, legitimacy, and permeability (Nadler & Halabi, 2006: van Zomeren, Postmes, & Spears, 2008). Stability refers to whether change is possible, while legitimacy refers to whether status relations are fair. Lastly, permeability refers to whether the group identity is fixed or lose. For example, while someone who is homosexual can hide their sexuality from others, and leave the stigmatized group, through social mobility, a woman cannot easily dissociate from her
Dependency oriented help is help that the advantaged group gives in order to remain in power and continue current status relations (Nadler & Halabi, 2006; Nadler, 2002). Advantaged group members offer the disadvantaged group the full solution to the problem, which increases the stability of the current relations and undermines the disadvantaged members’ collective action. Collective action is action taken by a group in order to improve the treatment and status of said group or on behalf of another group. These actions are dependent on three factors: identity, anger and efficacy in tandem with the sociocultural variables of stability, permeability and legitimacy (van Zomeren, Postmes & Spears, 2008). How important a person’s group membership is to himself or herself is identity. If the disadvantaged members are given the solutions, their efficacy, or their belief in their own ability to solve the problem, will be compromised. If the group’s belief in their own ability is low, they will more likely to view the status relations as stable and legitimate. On the other hand, by offering autonomy oriented help, advantaged groups supply disadvantaged groups with the resources or the method to solve the problem, but do not solve it for them. In this case, the disadvantaged group members still views the status relations as unstable and their efficacy remains