Discuss the situation and your approach.
Using Hadley’s ally types, how would you describe Jack?
Using Hadley’s descriptors, the ‘ally of convenience’ would best match Jack’s behaviour.
However, I would refrain from assuming something so fixed as type to describe behaviour, yet another example of othering language like ‘special’ and ‘privileged’.
That said, Jack is evidently not taking the matter of Jill’s unequal payment into consideration, apparently allying with Jill for the sake of the project, perhaps, rather than for her sake.
Look at the actions below and identify which ally type would best describe you.
- You publicly condemn the pay imbalance on Jill’s post and share it on your own.
- You approach Jack privately to advocate for equal pay for Jill. When this doesn’t work, you offer support to Jill privately.
- You express empathy for Jill, but do nothing.
- You approach Jack privately to advocate for equal pay for all disabled artists on the project. You ask that Jack rectify this. If unsuccessful, you publicly post expressing concern for all parties involved. You may even consider withdrawing from the project or stopping work until the situation is resolved.
- I approach the company overseeing Jack and everyone under him, including Jill and myself, and outline the inequity. If their response is to change nothing, I escalate the matter to the level of government (see below for examples).
I begin publishing and campaigning for universal basic income. As with everything, this matter is systemic and therefore requires systemic transformation – to be an effective ally to Jill, I must first be a good ally to the world. A purely economic model concerns itself only with rectifying unequal payment – only with money.
A wider perspective may take into account the significance of the incident when considered at a universal scale, i.e., when the conflict involving Jack, Jill, and Jill’s friend, is understood as a microcosm of the international class struggle inherent in capitalism and its variations. And this is not to view the situation as merely politico-economic; Jack’s discrimination against Jill is the basic, everyday manifestation of competence (power) over equality (compassion).
References
Storyblocks 2022, A woman in a wheelchair and a man sitting at a table, Storyblocks, viewed 21 December 2022, <storyblocks.com>.
