I'm a Cliché.
During the Great "Bethany Has To Save The World And Cannot Chill" freak out of 2015, I'm stuffing Chacos, two new pairs of sweet Nike's, shampoo to last me six months, an external hard drive of design resources, and a sacred, filtered water bottle into this 29" brown suitcase. I'm traveling to west Africa, the country of Ghana, one of the poorest countries of the continent. I don't hike. I've never been to a gym in my life. On top of a full-time student course load, I work and design 35 hours a week to pay rent, food, and splurge at Nordstrom Rack. I have a strong GPA, and top awards in the nation have been handed to me from Ivy League universities. And worst of all, I am the white girl with the blog. Am I anything more than a cliché?
It's my God-given right to freak out and not chill about traveling to a developing country. As is evident by now, I have net zero Chill. Anyone with real Chill would never do something so erratic and shrill as capitalize the first letter of the word. Because that is making it a thing. And people with Chill do not make anything a thing.
THE OBSESSED
These white girls taking trips to Africa all fall into the white savior industrial complex, where white, wealthy Westerners feel like they have the power and the entitlement to “save” the poor, helpless "Other" who cannot help themselves. At the end of it, the result is far more about making ourselves feel good and moral and altruistic rather than about having any impact in development, poverty reduction, or social justice, like we're some sort of self-directed samaritan. Let's face it. The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening.
Now I'm not actually as cynical as that last paragraph might have sounded. I think it's fantastic that more and more people are interested in learning about global cultures and making a difference in the world in some shape or form. I do not doubt people's intentions or their drive to do "good". Those in the nonprofit sector are some of the most resourceful people out there. This climate of fear has made us into some of the most creative people around. I am one of them, after all. And I think this drive is something positive that we should be harnessing and tapping into. But my educational background forces me to look and think beyond the rhetoric of benevolence.
THE HYPOCRISY
Anthropologists Arthur and Joan Kleinman note that images of distant, suffering women and children suggest there are communities incapable of or uninterested in caring for its own people. These photographs justify colonialist, paternalistic attitudes and policies, suggesting that the individual in the photograph,
"... must be protected, as well as represented, by others. The image of the subaltern conjures up an almost neocolonial ideology of failure, inadequacy, passivity, fatalism, and inevitability. Something must be done, and it must be done soon, but from outside the local setting. The authorization of action through an appeal for foreign aid, even foreign intervention, begins with an evocation of indigenous absence, an erasure of local voices and acts."
Volunteers largely choose placements in the “developing” world for selfish motivations, for the form of career advancement or personal growth. These experiences become more like commodities that we as students from the developed world buy and then cash in as “international experience” when we return home, perhaps to beef up a grad school application or to open doors to new job opportunities. We may leave behind token projects and some little pieces of trivia about our home countries, but what we contribute pales in comparison to what we gain; it’s really all about us in the end. It shows the hypocrisy of the whole experience, because we want to suffer and live through the peril of these people's lives, without ever having to make a real sacrifice in our lives at home. Simply put, there's a vast ocean of shit Westerners don't know shit about. Developing world people know every fine grain of said shit, and then some. Most of us would never give up meat or shopping at supermarkets, or buying brand name clothes for the rest of our lives if it meant really saving these people. But the conversation does need to shift away from this obsession and towards solutions, results, and impact. Isn’t that the whole point anyway?
THE SOLUTION
My goals for Ghana:
- wake up
- know that God is Lord over all
- know that no matter what, He is good
- know that He is within me, I will not fall
- be smart
- be kind
- kick butt
- repeat
As for reflecting on global systems of inequality: it’s hard to see these systems clearly sometimes when we’re wrapped up in them, but it’s something I think about a lot. Recognizing and reflecting on how the West is complicit in global poverty, and how I benefit from privilege in many ways? Sure, I can do that. How to go about changing it with design, with cultural appropriation and true social good? Much more difficult.
I'm not passing judgment on everyone traveling abroad. It's as much a reflection on myself as it is on the whole industry of voluntourism and its relationship to development. I put myself through this same kind of scrutiny—I ask myself, why do I want to be in the nonprofit sector? Why am I so keen on studying international development? I'm an insanely type-A workaholic. I've read dozens upon dozens of books on productivity, mindfulness and leadership habits purely for the joy of learning, and often got lost in creativity for it’s own sake, rather than just as a means to make money (I'm sorry mom, for never going to bed due to this). My dedication to mastering my skill set feels borderline religious. I’ve never felt the level of excitement about my career and life than now. My mission is to make the world a better place by designing humanitarian aid campaigns, international social change, and global innovation. I want to use technology and design to teach presence and make it as intuitive and natural as breathing, for as many people as possible. Today, I have so much excitement and enthusiasm about my work and living in Africa that I’m overwhelmed by the ideas in my pipeline.
“The more present we are in practice, the more present we will be in competition, in the boardroom, at the exam, the operating table, the big stage... Presence, must be like breathing." -Josh Waitzkin
I want to work on behalf of whole companies, designing for programs that provide a direct response to the community’s specific, communicated needs (not perceived needs) and empower them toward a long-term, sustainable community that is not dependent on international volunteers to thrive. That’s right: it might be a five-, ten-, or twenty-year plan, but if the project has no exit strategy then I cry foul play.
As an industry, we owe it to communities we impact to continually build stronger projects. These aren’t the elusive holy grail either, we simply need to build imperfect projects that might not photograph well for the glossy brochures, and they might not need short-term volunteers. They might have crazy-strict rules, and they might need a bevy of day-trippers. There’s no single solution, but what all of these projects will have in common is the support and collaboration of those affected. These are the projects that deserve our advocacy. Of course, we only rescue the humanity of places, when we get in touch directly with humanity. When we meet with the diverse locals of Ghana, when we take the time to really listen to their stories, when we strive to learn about their history and struggles and accomplishments and hopes—only then are we really successful in this endeavor.
One of my absolute favourite TED Talks is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Danger of a Single Story. In her talk, she captures so eloquently the need to move beyond one-sided narratives and dig behind our mainstream headlines to discover a wealth of experiences. Of lives lived in prosperity, in poverty, in heartbreak, in bliss, in the mundane. What if we trained our people to go with an attitude of leadership with cultural learning? What if we asked them to be humble and ask questions?
“I’ve always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.”
FORGET INSPIRATION
I hate blogs. They're cute, and sparkly, and don't get me started on over-righteous mom blogs who talk about the latest hair braids. If I have not gotten my psyche situated straight, it's because the shit's continually been hitting the fan without respite on this. This is all just words. If I'm successful, these are words that make you feel empowered and emboldened for fleeting moments. Honestly, I think inspiration is overrated. Find something that really pushes your buttons. Something that really enrages you and makes you question what the hell the rest of the world is doing. And then do something that will change that.
Leaders don't “search” for inspiration. They saw something wrong with the current system and they got out there and did something about it. They saw that there weren’t any accessible resources for recent graduates to look for work in this already shiteous economy. They saw the lack of realness in the world. They saw the travel volunteer industry being dominated by companies charging students exorbitant amounts of money to “do good” overseas. They saw the way international institutions blinded themselves to human rights violations because of bureaucracy. They saw all of these problems in their respective fields and they went out there and they became the change they wanted to see. They didn’t just talk about being the change they wanted to be or watch videos about it—passively waiting to be inspired. No—they went out there and got their hands dirty.
So let’s just cut the fluff. Forget inspiration. Get mad and rant (thanks, mom). And get to work.