White Saviour Industrial Complex
Voluntourism - the integration of voluntary service to a destination mixed with traditional elements of travel and recreation... and unfortunately usually more emotionally useful to the provider that the recipient.
Andrea Freidus, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina, writes that voluntourism gets in the way of recognising the structural issues that create humanitarian crises. “My research suggests that those who engage in these programmes actually contribute towards the mystification of larger systems that produce inequality, poverty, particular patterns of disease distribution and various forms of violence.” (In other words the "do-gooders" and perpetual aid groups dab at the symptoms while masking the systemic causes).
Dubbed “the White Saviour Industrial Complex,” novelist Teju Cole pleads for humility and greater perspective of those streaming in "to help". It is “not about justice” for those coming to visit, sharing smiles, and then leaving. “It is about (the visitors) having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.” Voluntourism, he argued, perpetuates the myth that change happens as a result of expressions of caring from rich white people.
peace @clumsysilverdad