Accomplice Quotes

“A good friend will help you move, but a true friend will help you move a body.”
― Steven J. Daniels, Weeds in The Garden of Love

“While in principle groups for survivors are a good idea, in practice it soon becomes apparent that to organize a successful group is no simple matter. Groups that start out with hope and promise can dissolve acrimoniously, causing pain and disappointment to all involved. The destructive potential of groups is equal to their therapeutic promise. The role of the group leader carries with it a risk of the irresponsible exercise of authority.
Conflicts that erupt among group members can all too easily re-create the dynamics of the traumatic event, with group members assuming the roles of perpetrator, accomplice, bystander, victim, and rescuer. Such conflicts can be hurtful to individual participants and can lead to the group’s demise. In order to be successful, a group must have a clear and focused understanding of its therapeutic task and a structure that protects all participants adequately against the dangers of traumatic reenactment. Though groups may vary widely in composition and structure, these basic conditions must be fulfilled without exception.
Commonality with other people carries with it all the meanings of the word common. It means belonging to a society, having a public role, being part of that which is universal. It means having a feeling of familiarity, of being known, of communion. It means taking part in the customary, the commonplace, the ordinary, and the everyday. It also carries with it a feeling of smallness, or insignificance, a sense that one’s own troubles are ‘as a drop of rain in the sea.’ The survivor who has achieved commonality with others can rest from her labors. Her recovery is accomplished; all that remains before her is her life.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“Now mainstream feminism has to step up, has to give itself to a place where it spends more time offering resources and less time demanding validation. Being an accomplice means that white feminism will devote its platform and resources to supporting those in marginalized communities doing feminist work.”
― Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

“...chance is sometimes a wonderful accomplice in crime.”
― Émile Gaboriau, File No. 113

“Ally" here is more clearly defined as the act of making personal projects out of other folks' oppression. These are lifestyle allies, who act like passively participating or simply using the right terminology is support. When sh*t goes down, they are the first to bail. They don't stick around to take responsibility for their behavior. When confronted, they often blame others, and attempt to dismiss or delegitimize concerns.

Accomplices aren't afraid to engage in uncomfortable, unsettling, and/or challenging debates or discussion.

Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex. Taking Sides.”
― Indigenous Action Media

“Resignation of agency is a by-product of the allyship establishment. At first the dynamic may not seem problematic. After all, why would it be an issue with those who benefit from systems of oppression to reject or distance themselves from those benefits and behaviors (like entitlement, etc.) that accompany them? In the worst cases, "allies" themselves act paralyzed, believing it's their duty as a "good ally." There is a difference between acting for others, with others, and for one's own interests. Be explicit.

You wouldn't find an accomplice resigning their agency or capabilities as an act of "support." They would find creative ways to weaponize their privilege (or more clearly, their rewards of being part of an oppressor class) as an expression of social war. Otherwise, we end up with a bunch of anticiv/primitivist appropriators or anarchy-hipsters, when saboteurs would be preferred.

Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex. Taking Sides.”
― Indigenous Action Media

“Allyship is the corruption of radical spirit and imagination; it's the dead end of decolonization. The ally establishment co-opts decolonization as a banner to fly at its unending anti-oppression gala. What is not understood is that decolonization is a threat to the very existence of settlers "allies." No matter how liberated you are, if you are still occupying indigenous lands, you are still a colonizer.

Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex. Taking Sides.”
― Indigenous Action Media

“The work of an accomplice in anticolonial struggle is to attack colonial structures and ideas.

The starting point is to articulate your relationship to indigenous peoples whose lands you are occupying. This is beyond acknowledgement or recognition. This can be particularly challenging for "nonfederally recognized" indigenous people as they are invisiblized by the state and the invaders occupying their homelands.

Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex. Taking Sides.”
― Indigenous Action Media

“Accomplices listen with respect for the range of cultural practices and dynamics that exist within various indigenous communities.

Accomplices aren't motivated by personal guilt or shame; they may have their own agenda, but they are explicit.

Accomplices are realized through mutual consent and build trust. They don't just have our backs; they are at our side, or in their own spaces confronting and unsettling colonialism. As accomplices, we are compelled to become accountable and responsible to each other; that is the nature of trust.

Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex. Taking Sides.”
― Indigenous Action Media

“It gave me no hope to see him doing these simple things with the sluggishness of a somnambulist. It proved nothing more than that he could go like this forever, our silent accomplice, little more than a resuscitated corpse.”
― Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat

“Whatever we call ourselves - an ally, an accomplice, a co-conspirator - we must do better to understand, empathise, and take action to care for each other.”
― Dana Alison Levy, Being an Ally

“A fine line existed between accomplice and useful idiot, and in matters like this the line was often treated as if it didn't exist.”
― James Irwin, Nina's Friends