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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It wasn’t a PAPER people! It was a live zoom presentation at the end of a tiring intense semester at a very multicultural graduate program abroad where many are there for the explicit reason of wanting to take their lifetime of awareness like nonother generation of rising white nationalism globally, diminishing resources regionally including 3rd world countries where plug-in stations are not high on their list- the whole pint of me the old white broad wondering about how woke people are being misinterpreted for being superior saviors because they, too, like their international peers, may want to affect change from the roots of the problem up.

It is getting pretty damn tiring to hear there are so many buzz words that must trickle down to the students who are in positions at selective grad programs from maybe their own parents to be suspicious of white kids also studying your cause. It is boring at a certain point, we all need each other and have to stol the labeling.

Finally, as I began this post- I’m a parent who always felt in DC we made conscious choices about weaving in our entire fabric of DC culture as important since our kids were born- I was raised Catholic which used to mean what Jesus taught/ help the poor, do unto others, give etc- and recognize we are all equal in the eus of God. I mentioned this discourse to my 90 ur old mother yesterday, who took in foster babies in the 60/ until they were adopted; who made a lint to invite the first black family on the block to a dinner party in 1970, who raised her children visiting all parts of DC and eating in restaurant Gs run by people of color (is that term still ok?). Her response? Through her hearing aide on the exam table where we hope it isn’t Lou Gehrig’s, while holding g her rosary, ‘what’s so bad about being a white savior? We were entitled and that’s what we should do’.

I mean people - we all want to get there. If there is a new code of ‘nuance’, one can’t extrapolate that a fellow grad student decided another student- based on his white skin even though his partner female presenter was Pakistani and in tandem with him- if we can’t see that perhaps the white savior label is an unconscious bias in itself that is part of the problem. 
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You are way too invested in this. I assume you know nothing about the international development field (at least it seems that way), and you are getting your information from your 22 year old "kid" who is off in grad school rather than working for a few years in int'l development to see if he actually likes the work. The concern about white saviorism has been around around a long ntime in the international development community, and has tried to be addressed in various ways institutionally and programmatically since at least the mid 90s, so, this is nothing new. I used to work with a program that placed POC in undergraduate internships in the international health field. These kids were always shocked when they went to Latin American and African countries and people viewed them as privileged Americans rather than "one of them". In my experience, if you are an American of any color, you are going to be suspect for "white saviorism"and basically seen as a walking checkbook. It is hard not to get very jaded in this field. The more you know, the more you wonder if you are actually helping. Your kid is going to need to grow a thick skin and learn that there are lots of challenges in trying to address poverty, hunger, etc. in developing countries. We haven't figure it out in this country, not sure why we think we'd do any better overseas![/quote]

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