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I Have A Big Problem With The ‘White Savior’ Criticism
As a white American man living in the Philippines, I’ve come across the term “white savior” a lot.
Here’s a definition:
“White savior refers to western people going in to “fix” the problems of struggling nations or people of color without understanding their history, needs, or the region’s current state of affairs.”
For the record, I totally agree that “white saviors” exist. I agree that volunteers can come into a country and do more harm than good.
I believe in the twisted way that “I want to help!” can SOMETIMES show an underlying belief that a volunteer’s home country knows best.
It all depends on what “help” looks like. If it looks like turning a country into the spitting image of a volunteer’s home country, that can be very problematic.
Isn’t the whole purpose of traveling to learn from another country?
When I look at an impoverished country like the Philippines, I simply see poverty as a weakness of the country. I don’t use that as a measuring stick to say “See! America is better!”
America has weaknesses, too. It’s not that one place is better than the other —it’s that both have strengths and weaknesses.
