The White Savior Industrial Complex By Shawn Humphry

The â€Å"challenge† of living in simulated poverty is only half of what the Two Dollar Challenge is really about. The other side is doing the fourteen readings, short stories, and blog posts and five films. These readings focused on topics surrounding the â€Å"white-savior industrial complex† and how local people are working to solve their communities’ problems. The conversations that took place surrounding these readings and films were also helpful when analyzing some of the more controversial articles. Shawn Humphry’s The Do-Gooder Industrial Complex describes the current way that many people â€Å"do good† in relation to global poverty. Humphry argues that we should move from â€Å"Be a voice for the voiceless† to â€Å"Why not try listening?† and â€Å"Barefoot†¦show more content†¦Meg went on to say that they realized that her group’s main purpose was to just learn about the people and culture. Barefoot in Church by Gary Adams, et al describes a situation where the white-savior complex is alive and well. A couple essentially uses a boy who does goes to school barefoot for personal gain. They bring him to church where he is humiliated, while the couple most likely receives praise for helping the boy. By the end of the story it can be inferred that the entire process did more harm than good for the boy. Stories like this are frustration because the couple benefited at the expensive boy who they were trying to help. Even if they had good intentions, it is hard to be â€Å"okay† with what they did. In To Hell with Good Intentions by Ivan Illich This reading was hard to deal with and we had a long discussion about volunteering and intervening in other countries. The idea that we should not participate is valid in many circumstances. However, the extent that Ivan pushed his point of non-intervention is too far. A total hands-off approach does not seem to be that beneficial. His perspective is necessary in that it causes those who plan to go work abroad or even in just a different environment/culture to think critically about what they will be doing. The paper emphasis that it is about learning before doing (or not doing depending on the situation), which is an