Perceptions of White Women’s Stigma-Based Solidarity Claims and Disingenuous Allyship

Abstract

Efforts to promote allyship often focus on creating a common ingroup identity between marginalized and privileged groups, including making salient stigma-based solidarity. In addition, research on allyship perceptions highlights that allies are viewed as more genuine when they are not perceived as motivated by self-interests. Integrating research on allyship perceptions and stigma-based solidarity, the present research examined Black Americans’ perceptions of White women’s allyship messages that focus on stigma-based solidarity. In three experiments ( Ntotal = 851), White women claiming stigma-based solidarity highlighting shared perpetrators (Studies 1–3) or shared discrimination (Study 3) were perceived as less genuine allies (i.e., less trustworthy and self-sacrificing) who were motivated to reduce racism for their own self-interests compared to allyship claims that only highlighted racism (Studies 1–3) or no allyship claims (Study 2). These findings add to a growing literature documenting marginalized groups’ suspicion of privileged groups’ motives when claiming allyship.