Written By: Anuva Mundra
Edited By: Farwa Din
The White Savior Role: a term used to describe white people who think of themselves as “helpers” to the BIPOC(Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community, but instead do more harm than help. This term doesn’t mean that all white people play this role, rather, those who do think that they know what's best for the BIPOC communities. The white saviors believe they are helping these “hopeless” communities who they believe lack the intelligence and willpower to create change for themselves. This role can be seen in many ways, from parts in history, to the modern era, and can even be seen in pop culture.
In history, the white savior role can be seen played over and over again. Many white people believe that because they are white, they are somehow superior to the people of color in other nations, and decide to “save” them by “teaching them” the ways they like to do things
In the modern era, this can be seen in our day to day life. From our colleagues to our friends, the white term role can be played in many ways. Once again, this role isn’t played by all white people. However the role can be played very subtly or be very obvious. An example is when white people go to a foreign nation for the first time. for example South America, and try to make decisions for the people who reside in the area they visited,despite not knowing their language or culture.
In pop culture, very few movies/novels play out this role either without meaning to or have purposefully done so. One example is the movie, “Green Book”, which is based on a true story. The movie follows a Black pianist, Don Shirley, and his driver, Tony Lip, a white man.Throughout the book, Lip defends Shirley on many occasions, but it’s very obvious to the audience that Lip is playing out the white savior role. In fact, Shirley’s family was upset at the movie, his niece stating, “The thing that bothers our family is that the focus of the film is about a white man who is an extreme racist and who was still a racist at the end,”.
In today’s date, the White Savior Role is still present, and will continue to be present if no action is taken. What won’t help is avoiding the problem, leaving it for someone else to take care of it. We must call it out, and educate people on the complex/role, and even the term itself. One big place to do this is social media, because of how big it is and how popular it is. Don’t be afraid to call out people on it. Drawing out people’s attention to the problem, and educating them on it will help them understand what not to do and help decrease the problem.
Some examples of what being a White Savior may look like:
“What I think we should do for this community is….”
“This community should obviously do this….”
Making assumptions of the community
Not allowing people to tell their own stories
Acting like they know what the person of that community goes through
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