yes white savior with blue eyes, we need your leadership
Well, I'm glad that you asked me about the White Savior...I’ll be the first to say that genre maybe...HEAVY on the maybe ha good intentions at first when the trope first hit the scene…but now it's just a stale repeat in a lot of Civil Rights film or any film that involve a group of POC-looking/needing a change in their lives.
Let us begin; what is a white savior you may ask? I am so glad that you asked.
The term white savior is a sarcastic or critical description of a white person who is depicted as liberating, rescuing, or uplifting non-white people; it is critical in the sense that it describes a pattern in which third world peoples are denied agency and are seen as passive recipients of white benevolence.
You know those trips that conveniently mainly white churches take and they go to third world countries and then snap a photo with all the little kids in the village to post on Instagram. Yeah like that or when the Spanish came to America and made all the Indians suffer through the intention of religious and racial genocide to "help" them like that..
The “White Savior” Trope has such a chokehold on society. You can barely find a film that focuses on race; particularly around civil rights efforts from the black community there for some reason has to have a white character in them who is just trying to lend a “helping hand”.
White people don’t really wanna see movies about race because it will make them feel bad and uneasy, possibly even make them look back at their country with disgust. SO, what do you do when there is a dominant group of people that you need to have in your market. You cater to them. In these films, they have this white person who for some reason plays a more pivotal role in creating change than the people who actually have been putting in the work; day and day out. It could be the bare minimum of just repeating the same message as the oppressed people word for word. In these movies, they insert these white characters as if they are going through the discrimination themselves, and they have this great storyline of growth and overcoming while their POC counterparts face nothing but negativity throughout the whole film. These films do nothing but help accelerate the “ These people need the white men to help them, because if not change will never happen because our voice is more powerful and we get things done. They NEED us.” and help rid movie go-ers of their white guilt because now they can say “see not everyone was racist and bad back then..”
I absolutely like the message of the movie “Freedom Writers” but COME ON..this is a classic white savior movie. The main character a white woman, she decides to willingly and excitedly with doe eyes to go to a predominantly black and brown school, where most of the children are having academic or behavioral problems. She fights tooth and nail to uplift these poor kids even though people on the outside are telling her to give up on them... In the end with her ever so gracious help, they reach their full potential and thank her for believing in them.
Hi Reshe,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! Your definition of the white savior trope and how it removes agency from non-white characters sums it up perfectly. It's sort of ironic that these movies with White Savior characters communicate that people of color need white people to help liberate them, when really, people of color who have been marginalized in this country took it upon themselves to combat racism and gain civil rights. White people might have been allies, but they weren't the ones in the trenches doing the real work.
Creators of films with white savior characters might think they are being progressive, but really, they are just perpetuating a white dominant culture. It reminds me of this MLK quote, "The majority of white Americans consider themselves sincerely committed to justice for the Negro. They believe that American society is essentially hospitable to fair play and to steady growth toward a middle-class Utopia embodying racial harmony. But unfortunately this is a fantasy of self-deception and comfortable vanity.” A 'comfortable vanity' is a good way to describe these films, especially the ones you mentioned like The Help and Freedom Writers. Like you said, the white savior trope is a way to comfort white audiences and make them feel like they are not racist, which shouldn't be the aim of films that deal with racism. These films should be making one critically examine themselves, even if it uncomfortable.
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ReplyDeleteHey Reshe and Mahali. I think you both made some great points! I love the energy. And while I do agree with both of you I think it's a very complex topic that depends a lot on perception and intention. I think the "white savior complex" can be negative and positive. While it is a good thing that some white people want to help black people, sometimes it can be condescending or self fulfilling in a way that doesn't seem or isn't genuine. And aside from real life "white saviors", film is a completely different story. I definitely think that sometimes the stories told in film are not being told with the best intentions, while sometimes they may. I think it's honestly best to have people of color tell their own stories as well. A lot of times these films are directed and produced by white people and are missing an authentic point of view. For instance, the film you mentioned, "Freedom Writers" casted a white woman for the lead role when the actual teacher in real life that the movie was based off is actually Mexican-American. In that case I feel like the movie was actually offensive and probably not done with the purest intentions. I can't think of a time right now where the "white savior" has been appropriate or positive but by definition, if "white savior" is "a white character who saves a person of color from their troubles, troubles that the person of color can't save themselves from" then I think that especially back in the days it could be a positive and helpful gesture; seeing as black people couldn't save themselves in some instances, back in older times. The story of the "white savior" is definitely a double edge sword and it needs to be handled by a person of color especially when it is from the perspective of how the person of color was or is affected. - Suzanne
ReplyDeleteReshe!!!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this!! I had a big laugh at the end. My thoughts on this: You are so right! I feel you are very direct and astute in your analysis of every modern-ish film and premise (and through this, the film production teams-- who by the way, also tend be more white than not) with activist undertones has fallen stale. I have had that thought so often before, and I feel as though we simply catch on to things now. I like this sentence you write; "White people don’t really wanna see movies about race because it will make them feel bad and uneasy, possibly even make them look back at their country with disgust. SO, what do you do when there is a dominant group of people that you need to have in your market, you cater to them--& this one: "These films do nothing but help accelerate the “ These people need the white men to help them, because if not change will never happen because our voice is more powerful and we get things done. They NEED us.” -- My thoughts on this: spot on! It is quite unfortunate and even tragic that this is essentially revealing a certain observation in society-- which is that some groups have voices that get heard while the rest do not. REALLY AWESOME POST! I want to tell you about how I also considered missionaries to be questionable as they were always white and their missions were in countries not of the first world. Between you and me, I think its rare to find a truly "woke" character in media, even if if the film is very left-leaning. Here's a link that I find relates to your words on this: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-09-et-freedom9-story.html