Mark Meckler
The Left never ceases to amaze me with how low they’re willing to go to make a point. Here’s the latest example: mocking volunteers who travel to Africa to lend a helping hand as “white saviors.”
An Instagram account was activated five weeks ago called, Barbie Savior. Supposedly, its run by two former “white saviors” who now regret their volunteer work and aim to expose people who suffer from the “White Savior Complex.” Basically that means any white volunteer who shows up somewhere in Africa and dares hold a black child or worse, has their picture taken with them.
So, in this parody account, Barbie is posed with black dolls in front of African landscapes and mocked for being there. And other leftists, such as Zeba Blay at the Huffington Post, are eating it up. She picked her favorite pictures, one which included Barbie collecting her own tears in a bottle. It is hashtagged #tearpotion.
Of course, Blay offers an obligatory disclaimer that there is of course “nothing wrong with doing volunteer work in Africa.” Yeah, sounds like it.
But the so-called former white saviors running the account are hoping to “ruffle the feathers” of others who aren’t aware of their own white savior complex. Here’s what they had to say in an e-mail to HuffPo:
“It really just started as a joke between us, a way to get some of these things off of our chest. Its hard to pinpoint the irony at times in real life… the wildly self-centered person veiled as the self-sacrificing saint.
“The attitude that Africa needs to be saved from itself, by Westerners, can be traced back to colonialism and slavery. It’s such a simplified way to view an entire continent.”
The women downplay their own complex, stating they “were never as ‘savioresque” as Barbie Savior.” That’s real convenient. They’re also hoping others will realize the errors of their ways and will stop posing with African children while volunteering, because it would be a terrible thing to bring back a photographic memory of such an occasion, or worse yet, inspire others by posting it online.
But even though stupidity like this is occurring at a more rapid pace than ever before, it’s good to know that there are sane voices still around to cut through all the liberal noise. I’ll leave the final word to a Facebook comment that is attached to the report. Raymond Odom sums it all up quite nicely:
“You know what really helps people in Africa? Sitting in the comfort of your first world home and making fun of people who volunteer in Africa.”
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In