Our aim is to foster a collective commitment to allyship at Open SU, ensuring a shared understanding of what it means to be an ally.
Allyship
Being an ally isn’t just about signing a pledge or saying you support someone. At Open SU, we see allyship as something you actively do, not something you simply are. It’s a continuous process that involves learning, taking action, and unlearning assumptions and biases you may not even realise you have. Being an ally means challenging unfair systems that affect marginalised groups and standing up for those communities, even when it feels uncomfortable or unfamiliar.
Listening and amplifying marginalised voices
A big part of being an ally is knowing when to step back and when to step up. This means listening carefully to the experiences of those directly affected by inequality, believing them, and using your own privilege to help their voices be heard, rather than speaking over them. At Open SU, this includes actively seeking input from our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion reps and student groups that represent a wide range of identities and experiences.
Recognising privilege
Understanding your own privilege, whether that is related to race, gender identity, class, disability, sexuality or other aspects of identity, is key to being an effective ally. Privilege means having certain unearned advantages, and recognising it helps you see how different experiences and opportunities are shaped within our communities, the OU, and society more broadly.
This is a live page, and its subpages will be regularly updated to reflect our ongoing learning and commitment to active allyship at Open SU.