White savior
The term white savior is a critical description of a white person depicted as liberating, rescuing or uplifting non-white people; it is critical in the sense that it describes a pattern in which people of color in economically under-developed nations that are majority non-white are denied agency and are seen as passive recipients of white benevolence. The role is a modern-day version of the "The White Man's Burden", a poem by Rudyard Kipling from 1899. The term has been associated with Africa, and certain characters in film and television have been critiqued as white savior figures. Writer Teju Cole combined the term with "industrial complex" to coin "White Savior Industrial Complex". Feminist and postcolonial scholars also argue that the trope is deeply gendered and classed, often centering white women’s humanitarianism as rescuing “Third World women” while obscuring local agency and structural causes.
Usage
The concept of the white savior originates from the poem "The White Man's Burden" by Rudyard Kipling. Its original usage was in the context of the Philippines, but the term has since become associated primarily with Africa, as well as with other regions of the world.Association with Africa
Africa has a history of slavery and of colonization. Damian Zane of BBC News said due to the history, Africans find the "white savior" attitude to help them "deeply patronising and offensive". Zane said, "Some argue that aid can be counter-productive, as it means African countries will continue to rely on outside help." Bhakti Shringarpure, writing for The Guardian, said, "Westerners trying to help poor, suffering countries have often been accused of having a 'white saviour complex': a term tied up in colonial history where Europeans descended to 'civilise' the African continent." The Washington Posts Karen Attiah said the white savior framework in Africa "follows the venerable tradition" of the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and that the tradition included the film Machine Gun Preacher, the public relations campaign related to the documentary Kony 2012, and the writings of journalist Nicholas Kristof.For example, actor and producer Louise Linton wrote a memoir about her gap year in Zambia, In Congo's Shadow, and wrote an article for The Telegraph, "How my dream gap year in Africa turned into a nightmare", to promote the book. Michael Schaub of Los Angeles Times said, "The reaction to Linton's article was swift and negative, accusing her of using clichés and misrepresentations... Several people have described Linton's memoir as a 'white savior' fantasy." Zambians and other Africans negatively criticized the article on social media. Attiah said the popular Instagram account "BarbieSavior" was inspired by the backlash to Linton's words. Special Broadcasting Service's Amal Awad said the Instagram account parodied "a reckless trend" of voluntourism in which "'white saviours' use the less fortunate like props in their social media profiles". Awad said the interest in volunteering encouraged a business model that leverages a country's existing social issues and charges tourists for volunteering to be a "saviour".
Baaz, Gondola, Marijnen, and Verweijen, writing in Foreign Affairs, were critical of the "white savior complex" in the 2014 documentary Virunga, which features the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Virunga National Park and the conservation work of its park rangers. They said, "The movie features endless footage of a park guard hugging and playing with the gorillas, evoking the notion of the 'noble savage' who is close to nature, honest and naive, and dependent on the white man for his salvation. Rarely do we see the Congolese exercising political agency, even though there are numerous civil society activists in the region, often working at great personal risk."
For decades, the British charity Comic Relief sent white celebrities to African countries in order to film their emotional reactions to impoverished conditions as part of asking the public for money. In 2020, they suspended the practice after criticism that it perpetuated white-savior stereotypes. One of the key critics was British Labour Party politician David Lammy, who in 2019 criticized the charity for "white savior" media in its African campaign. Reuters reported, "Lammy, who is of Guyanese descent, said online photos... evoked negative stereotypes about Africa and its reliance on Western white people for help." The charity and its presenter Stacey Dooley initially argued against the criticism. The Uganda-based campaign group No White Saviors said of the controversy, "There are levels to the white savior complex. You can mean well, do some good along the way and actively be perpetuating the." NBC News said No White Saviors "tries to raise awareness about the negative impact many 'mainly white' aid workers have had on 'black and brown communities in the name of charity or mission work'".
Musician and activist Bob Geldof has been called a white savior for organizing the 1985 Live Aid event to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief. He called the accusation "the greatest load of bollocks ever".
Association with the Middle East
The term has been used to refer to white Americans and Europeans that independently partake or assist in Middle Eastern wars. T. E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia", can be seen as the prototypical white savior figure. Similar accusations have been made against white European men that traveled to fight alongside pro-democracy rebels in the Syrian civil war.Protection of Muslim women
White feminists are sometimes categorized as white saviors when supporting causes relating to the protection of Muslim women, especially as the implication of Muslim men as oppressors is seen as Islamophobic. The case of Malala Yousafzai has been criticized as advancing white saviorism in Pakistan, due to her high approval in the West and her life having been saved by white doctors.In media
Appearance in film
In film, the white savior is a cinematic trope in which a white character rescues people of color from their plight. The white savior is portrayed as messianic and often learns something about themselves in the process of rescuing. The trope reflects how media represents race relations by racializing concepts like morality as identifiable with white people over nonwhite people. White saviors are often male and are sometimes out of place in their own society until they lead minorities or foreigners. Screen Saviors: Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness labels the stories as fantasies that "are essentially grandiose, exhibitionistic, and narcissistic". Types of stories include white travels to "exotic" Asian locations, white defense against racism in the American South, or white protagonists having "racially diverse" helpers.The white lead character is often delegated the role of racial leader in films, taking it upon themselves to save non-white minorities and immigrants from their struggles. In the 2011 film The Help, set in 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi, a young white woman strives for a career in journalism and encourages black maids to share their personal experiences despite the racism prevalent at the time. This has been described as an example of a white main character exploiting the lives of under-served African Americans to financially benefit herself, without giving much relief to that community.
Appearance in television
Stephanie Greco Larson, writing in Media & Minorities: The Politics of Race in News and Entertainment, said Diff'rent Strokes and Webster were "shows in which white families adopt black children" and represented versions of "the white man's burden theme on television". Robin R. Means Coleman said, "In these comedies, Black children are rescued from their dysfunctional families or communities by Whites." In particular, Diff'rent Strokes featured the white millionaire character Philip Drummond. Film historian Donald Bogle said, "The millionaire Drummond becomes a great white father figure, able to provide the material comforts and the cultural milieu that the Black community supposedly could never hope to match." Dustin Tahmahkera writes that Coleman labeled Drummond a "white savior" type who uses "his representational power to save the day by determining a conflict resolution that appeases all parties" including the indigenous representative Longwalker in the episode "Burial Ground". Tahmahkera also said a 1985 episode of Punky Brewster featured the girl protagonist telling a ghost story about her alter-ego Princess Moon helping "ancient Indians suddenly appear... as cave dwellers who need a white savior... to defeat an evil spirit and help keep their Last of the Dogmen-like secret existence intact."Larson said, "Inner-city schools have been the site of white man's burden dramas on television for decades" with TV series featuring white savior teachers. Larson identified the following series with such teachers: Room 222, Welcome Back, Kotter, The White Shadow, and Boston Public. Larson said while Room 222 and Boston Public also had black teachers that "challenge the assumption that blacks are inherently inferior... these shows continue to avoid laying blame on social institutions for the status of blacks by showing the success of the individual black teachers."