A general note on allyship...

If you're not quite sure what it means to be an "ally", you might find this page I created a helpful resource: https://www.bethsampsoneducation.com/allyship

We all have blind spots based on our own identity and privilege. If engaging with my work brings up uncomfortable feelings for you, please know that these are feelings I deal with too! You can check out my blog if you want to know more about how I try to contextualize these hard feelings as I process them.

Please know that nothing I share is ever meant to make you (or anyone) feel bad. However, I cannot ethically call myself an ally without calling attention to, and working to address systemic issues I see and feel as I move through this work.

That said, I acknowledge that I am myself an imperfect ally; I have done, and will continue to do harm to communities I care about because of my own blind spots. When this happens, I:

• listen and believe others who let me know I have hurt them

  • • even if I don't fully understand how or why they feel that way

• take ownership & apologize

• ask questions and do research to learn how to do better (a continual process)

• take concrete action (with a focus on inuuqatigiitsiarniq, which to me means a focus on restitution/repairing relationships)

• share my own missteps transparently in ways that can help others learn from my ignorance/mistakes/poor behaviour.

  • • BUT ... with the goal of education and action.

    • ​because the last thing the world needs more of is entitled white women's tears! ;)

A word to my fellow white women:

BUT... there is a history of white women, in particular, weaponizing their tears in ways that can result in imprisonment, serious violence, & even death, especially for Black men & other people of colour. For this reason, it is particularly necessary for us to learn more & carefully reflect on that history & the power dynamics at play when others let us know we have behaved poorly/harmfully. We have a lot of privilege that comes from being white, and I say this as a queer kid with a developmental disability who grew up poor & has a trauma history!

But privilege is power, and I want to live in a world where people with power of any kind (money, freedom, authority, voice, education, platform) view that power as creating a responsibility of service to others who have less. If we want the tiny humans we love to inherit a more just world, it's our job to help them create it!

This website contains only part of my work for my MEd SCI program, which has now branched out into the three websites and three social media platforms you see above. While I have created six different primary resources in total for this work, if you choose to visit and engage with all six of them, you will find:

1. they each have a different tone, focus, depth of treatment, and many different resources I have curated or created BUT...

2. there are many interconnections between all six resources, as they are intended to represent six differentiated access points to the same body of knowledge I am building as I move through this work & build my skills & knowledge.

The digital business card I designed above is meant to easily link you to all of them. :)