“Hey, we’ve run out of things to call racist and white privilege.”
“Huh, that’s too bad. So, I was reading a story on the Peace Corps..”
“Stop, that’s it! The Peace Corps!”
Peace Corps’s complicated relationship with the ‘white savior’ complex
A serious “white saviorism†reckoning is afoot. Internet searches for “white savior†have grown steadily over the past decade, following Teju Cole’s searing critique, “The White-Savior Industrial Complex,†in 2012. Commentators such as Cole often target archetypal white saviors — missionaries, voluntourists, celebrities — who make short-term trips to “help.†Also included in the fray are “poverty porn†journalists. Until now, government organizations such as the Peace Corps mostly have been spared. That’s starting to change.
As a former Peace Corps teacher in Malawi, I believe that saviorism is real, pervasive and toxic. The longstanding power imbalance between the Global North and South, including bastions of white privilege in the former and atrocities of colonialism in the latter, makes the white variety of saviorism especially pernicious. I applaud nonprofits such as No White Saviors and the Instagram account Barbie Savior for sparking a long overdue discussion about “decolonizing missions and development work.†While their screeds are difficult to hear, they resonate deep within us and our institutions.
Peace Corps, an institution I hold dear, exhibits hallmarks of saviorism. A prime example is the motto: “Make the most of your world.†The message is clear: The world is yours, go forth and fix it. In fairness, the consultants who likely concocted this messaging faux pas are hired to craft sound bites that resonate. And marketers are acutely aware of how a $173 billion voluntourism industry, which competes with Peace Corps for recruits, has turned white savior mythology into a thriving business.
So, if I’m getting this right, the uber-compassionate folks who join the Peace Corps, and, I think I’m safe in making the generalization that most vote Democrat, are really just white knighting racists. Seriously, this is Wokeness on steroids. Of course, if we got rid of the Peace Corps, that would then be called raaaaacist. There’s just no winning with these nutballs
