"What does it do to a person’s soul to be constantly told—implicitly and explicitly—that they are superior?"
This is the question Abraham Lateiner unpacks in a piece written years ago—one that feels ever more urgent today. He writes:
“There’s a common type of American movie in which a white teacher is assigned to an ‘inner-city’ classroom (meaning a class with Black and brown students). The teacher faces huge challenges in connecting with the students, but their dedication pays off, and the students decide to turn their lives around. Films with this dynamic are sometimes referred to as ‘white savior’ movies because they imply that white people can ‘save’ people of color from themselves.
What would happen if these white savior characters committed (with the same level of rigor, dedication, and sacrifice) to returning home—to the privileged white ghettos of the mind and spirit—to teach young white people, especially young men, how to get free?
During the civil rights movement, organizers set up ‘Freedom Schools’ throughout the American South to help Black people break free from the racist oppression of Jim Crow laws.
Imagine: a Freedom School for rich white boys. Conscious white men teaching about liberation from racism, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, classism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and all other forms of hate—drawing from the vast body of work that people of color, women, queer people, immigrants, and others have created in the pursuit of their own freedom.”
Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/eaniiWUn
