Vehicles of Injustice: White Savior Complex in Latin America
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Date
2021
Authors
Savoy, Cian
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The white savior complex has an unprecedented effect in our global society but not many people have looked at the vast consequences that occur from it nor the causes that created it in the first place. The classic white savior is someone from a developed country who visits a developing country using resources that the local community cannot utilize in their daily life. For example, a church mission trip based in California bringing paint and other materials to paint homes in the Mexican State of Oaxaca. While in the short term that community is able to have houses that are painted, in the long term they are now reliant on volunteers from an entirely different country. From a historical context, the white savior complex has been an effect or a symptom of a larger problem. Many developed countries including but not limited to the United States, the United Kingdom, and other European countries have influenced other developing countries in terms of elections, war, and other types of interference. The United States’ influence in the world has largely revolved around its economic and military power. Throughout this project, the issues that will be discussed are American involvement in the developing region of Latin America and Mexico and how the modern White Savior Complex is a symptom of that involvement. Coming back to the white savior complex with this knowledge in mind it seems that the people doing the saving are not thinking broadly enough. This project is important because I will be looking at the root cause of the white savior complex and hope to find reasonable solutions to these systemic problems in Latin America and Mexico. The solution to global problems might not be in the developing countries but in the already developed ones.
Description
1 page.
Keywords
Injustice, White Savior Complex, Latin America