Interrogating White Men’s Allyship: Implications of Performativity for Qualitative Methodologies

Abstract

In recent years, social movements have drawn attention to injustices and demanded action. In response, some White men have come to activism as allies. However, activists and scholars have problematized allyship by highlighting performative allies who claim the identity, but continue to replicate racist, sexist, homophobic, or colonial oppressive practices. To examine the methodological implications of this tension, I used a meta-methodology approach to select and analyze 13 qualitative allyship studies that drew on phenomenology, grounded theory, and critical theories/methodologies. I appraised the recruitment methods, data analysis, and trustworthiness procedures, and I assessed how the voice of the target group was integrated in each methodological genre. As a White male doctoral candidate in social work, I was drawn to critical ethnography’s focus on historicized power relations, the practice of co-implication, nomination procedures, member checking with minoritized groups, and other research practices that begin to address the tensions of performativity in allyship.