Why Photography Lends itself to Exploitation | "Mission Trip Aesthetic" | White Saviorism
** the opinions and thoughts written below are only mine, Emily Frazier’s, and do not represent any NGO or Company I have partnered or worked with. **
Quite a while ago, I unearthed a very scary thread on Pinterest. One that was all too familiar in my early days of Jr High and Highschool in the States. Before I open up this blogpost, I want to lay some ground rules for comments, conversations, and hopefully your mindset reading this.
I am operating within the belief that I cannot decide another’s intentions; that many communicate something they did not intend to communicate.
Cancel culture is not welcome here in this little space of the internet I can attempt to maintain.
I posted some months ago on Instagram the thread I found on Pinterest. I was actually considering just posting it on my “close friends” list which means only about 20 of my closest friends would see it. I’ve always felt hesitant about breaching this conversation online. So much of how I’ve learned/was convicted and fumbled through changing my behavior has been from in-person conversations. I am blessed to have people in my life that do not flee from hard conversations, don’t back up when I react defensively, and are willing to come alongside me as I try and grow. But then I thought, if not now, when? When am I going to talk about this? I’ve been convicted and passionate about this subject matter for a few years now.
As I scrolled through the images on Pinterest, I started clicking to see what/why these images were being “repinned”. The pinboards titles included “Inspo”, “Future Dreams”, “Future Inspiration”, “Africa Aesthetic”, and “Left My Heart in Africa”.
I was horrified that when I typed out “Mission Trip”- before I pressed to enter the search “Mission Trip Aesthetic” popped up to finish the phrase. This means that this was actually a common search. And I confirmed that when finding that there are pages of results…
So what is the Mission Trip Aesthetic?
White girl holding black baby monopolizes the screen. There are a few nurses with patients scattered in there, and some white guys playing soccer with local African kids too. This is “mission trip aesthetic”. I think many of us have had this conversation. The term "What Savior Complex” is often discussed in my adult circles.
When I asked my followers when the first time they had been introduced to the concept of being a “White Savior”, almost everyone responded with adult ages. “Senior year of college”, “post-college”, and “in training to go overseas as a longterm missionary.” However most of the people who responded also shared that they had been on at least one short term mission trip at ages as young as 13.
Urban Dictionary defines a White Savior like this:
“White savior refers to western people going in to “fix” the problems of struggling nations or *people of color [IE. miniorty people groups] without understanding their history, needs, or the region’s current state of affairs. “
When I first heard about White Savior Complex I felt confused, convicted, and ashamed. I start questioning a lot. “Can one ever not be a “white savior: if one will always be white?” “ Can I never take or post images of me with someone I grow a relationship with within a foreign country?”
I remember the first time someone pointed out that if I were to go down my street in America, start playing with some neighborhood kids, and then pull out my phone or camera to take photos of the children OR with the children, how inappropriate would that both be and feel? Without permission from their parents - perhaps even without their parents knowing that I was playing with their kids outside at all. Oh, and what if I posted the images online. What if I shared details of their life and family that they had shared with me while we were playing. Their name, age, parent’s relationship status, their medical history, ect.
That is what is going on in Haiti, Guatemala, Uganda, China, India, and every other country that is receiving short term and long-term missionaries and humanitarian teams. Actually, scratch that, this is what is happening down the street in your city when a church goes and “serves in the hood.” This isn’t limited to “overseas” work.
I think it is important to repeat here, that I don’t think every single image of a white person holding a black baby makes that person a BAD person, or that the image is inherently wrong. IN fact, I believe that would be a complete oversimplification of such a deeply rooted issue. Sometimes I feel lost at where to even begin to unpack this topic because I know I haven’t unpacked it all within myself.
One of my followers, Cari Griffith, replied to this concept so well, “Reworking that ethos of service is so huge for getting out of a savior mindset. What you said about posting yourself holding neighborhood kids without their parents/personal permission and how weird that is, is 100% the point! That’s exactly why a neighbor's ethos is important. Cause we’d be protective against and repulsed by a bunch of random high schoolers with zero experience coming in and trying to build a house on our street, or open a medical clinic with no doctors, so why isn’t it alarming when we send kids to other countries to do that?”
Personally, after my friend shared that example of kids down the street, I started to spiral into realizations - I began to recognize my desire to feel good about myself, and that I want others to see me as a good person. I was and still can disguise these selfish and vain desires as “compassion” and lump them in with “servant's heart”.
Intentions needs to be separated out, to be constantly challenged. I started to have A LOT of questions (and still do). I was confused and ashamed, as many of us are when we learn about our participation in White Saviorsm.
To grow, we must listen. To grow, we must practice not getting defensive when something stings. That instead, we need to lean in and listen even more when it stings. Asking ourselves, “Why does it sting?” One of my friends typed out that she felt “UNCOMFORTABLE!” when she learned about White Savior Complex. Isn’t that just it? I felt uncomfortable too and wanted to flee, and never claim that I had an ounce of that in me. I wanted to blindly assume that my intentions are pure, so my actions are okay. thinking, “I mean, I am a cultured missionary kid - I don’t see people different - I am immune to White Savior Complex.”
As a believer, though, I have to realize I am called to the uncomfortable. That conviction will NEVER be comfortable. By its nature, it is a CONVICTION - aka, something that stings, is uncomfortable, and is difficult to swallow.
I wish I could say white saviorism is easy to target and eradicate, and that it can be fully eradicated, but just the minute we say we are above it, the minute we become blind to it again. It is a constant conviction. I believe that is why having friends and mentors in your life that dialogue and challenge you is so important.
The idea of “Mission Trip Aesthetic” is a symptom. There is a narrative. There is a narrative that “they” need us. Phrases are tossed around like “taking Jesus to them.” I saw a post by @TheImmigrationCoalition that said “Bold of you to assume that Jesus isn’t there already.” That perhaps it’s an honor to behold a community and be welcomed in as a foreigner when you wouldn’t welcome them into your own home if the narrative was swapped. There has been a lack of education around photo/video consent, ethical storytelling, respecting cultural/human boundaries, and dignifying development.
If mission organizations/church trip leaders were to just say, “No phones, no cameras, no photos.” That might eliminate a symptom, but it will no eliminate the actual core. That is why it is so vital we challenge our assumptions and consider that perhaps what we’ve celebrated and seen as “good” has actually been corrupted. That we have gone unchecked. That we are exploiting in the name of good. That we are “helping” to feel and look good. That we are creating problems in the name of fixing problems. What if its upside down?
I just learned a new American idiom recently “boiling a frog”. Apparently, a frog will stay in water that slowly comes to a boil until he dies, but if you threw a frog into boiling water they would jump out! This goes for most corruption within culture and religion, doesn’t it? I feel like we have been slowly coming to a boil. That we haven’t noticed the way so many Western churches/organizations portray other countries and cultures is untrue, harmful, and exploitive. That we haven’t noticed that we encourage our young teenagers and adults to raise unreasonable amounts of money so they can go and take photos of children that have “changed them” while leaving these children in confusion just a week or two later as their new friends drive away to never be seen again. The pot is boiling over, because this is the norm, this is not the exception. Before you say, “but there are so many doing it right.” let’s sit in the uncomfortable together… That those who are doing it right are not nearly as funded, nearly as supported, or nearly as known. Why? We know why. Because they aren’t showing the images of starving children sitting in their own feces, or piles of bodies outside hospitals or white people smiling among dozens of doe-eyed children they’ve given a weeklong camp to. They often are not run by white people, and/or they are not staffed by white people/westerners. They don’t offer the “sexy” version of missions. They require long-term commitments, extensive cultural training, and constant accountability. They have strict guidelines that make marketing hard because marketing people should be hard - because marketing people is WRONG. They are the organizations building relationships with those they serve and support. They offer services and resources whether or not that person agrees to have their photo taken and shared.
This topic of white savior complex has also been stirred in with the surge of conversations about systemic racism in America. How often are white Christians quick to head to Africa, Asia, or Central America to serve, advocate for, and empower black and brown people, before we will do it here, in our city, in our company, in our school, in our country?
Is it because going “overseas” shortly doesn’t impact “our” lifestyle? Or the way people/family sees “us”. Is it because black babies are only cute when their moms want “us” to hold them? Is it because “we” are uncomfortable and dislike the idea of not being needed, being told no, and not getting access to anywhere we ask?
I think race and privilege are very important in this discussion because white people do hold cultural privilege. Often in places where white people are coming to serve and support a community, the community leaders, NGO representatives, or individuals will not share concerns or guidelines because they need the service and money.
For example, a patient coming to get surgery is asked if their photo can be taken for the organization that is providing the surgery. The patient says yes because they are in need to get the free surgery and is unsure if they would get it if they said no. The person asking for that image easily could not have thought to clarify the patient will receive the services- regardless if they say yes to being photographed. Or what if a family comes for social services, a safe home, and are first approached by a person holding a video camera, “Can we interview you? We want to tell people your story.” Do they know they could say no?
When we try to eliminate the reality of the privilege of our passport, the color of our skin, and the historical role in cultures, we do cause harm. To deny the cultural / race dynamics is to disregard the reality of White individuals’ responsibilities in places we hold power (that we, personally, maybe didn't ask for but still have.) as well as disregarding and not acknowledging the history of colonization, abuse, and trauma from the West. We can abuse that power without even knowing it, if we don't talk about it. Just because we don’t want to be treated differently, doesn’t mean we won’t be. To actually eliminate this power dynamic, we can’t just pretend like it isn’t there, we have to actively dismantle it.
It sounds overwhelming, right? It sounds limiting to have to ask all these kinds of questions to an organization you want to volunteer or work for. To quote Martin Luther King’s letter from the Birmingham Jail:
“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
We cannot be lukewarm. I have fallen into silence concerning many matters due to the fear of speaking too bluntly and harshly. I’ve hesitated to speak on this topic because I know I am constantly battling White Saviorism. I also know many of my friends, family, and social media followers have participated and/or are participating in White Saviorism. If you did so unknowingly, I implore you to go forward in acknowledgment and humility. It is natural to be defensive and justify your intentions or actions.
Photos are only a symptom. It’s vital we know that photography lends itself to exploitation. Are we making ourselves the hero of a story that isn’t about us? Are we telling stories that are not ours to tell? “Mission trip aesthetic” exists and IS harmful, but the mindset, the actions, the deep-rooted White Saviorism, the slow boil of mission, and humanitarian work corruption is the true issue. Truly this is only scratching the surface. This post does not exhaust this conversation at all - the context, history, and solutions for change. I hope that I have only started or continued the self-reflection and change of mindset and behavior. I hope some of these questions challenge you to discuss with friends, local NGOs, and your own church and youth groups.
If you are a Christian, I hope that this inspires you to pursue being like Christ even more. I’m learning that as Christians, we like to excuse actions for intentions. We like to deflect accountability with terms like “but God is good” and “God still used ______”. These statements may be true applied to many situations, however God’s grace and power despite the presence of our evil, our irresponsibility, our egos, and abuse/oppression by our hands does not excuse that behavior. In fact, as believers, we should be absolutely dismantling and engaging in ways to be sure WE do not get in the way or become an obstacle of the empowerment, development, education, beauty, joy, and dignification of human beings.
Actions:
Start a conversation with your church’s missions pastor/staff about what they are doing to combat White Saviorism. Go with questions and concerns. If their response is “that’s not our intent”, push further for change of action if you observe harmful behavior/actions in your church’s city mission work, short-term mission trips, and long-term missionaries.
Reconsider going on a short-term mission trip. Even if your flights are booked. It’s really hard. It’s really overwhelming to pulling out of something, but if you feel uncomfortable or unsure about what you are participating in, step out. Educate yourself.
Reconsider your intentions or current work with a church/organization. If you see yourself or others participating with white saviorism and harmful behavior. Start the conversation. Accountability is essential.
Educate yourself. It can start small. There are books, podcasts, documentaries, classes. Engage with the uncomfortable. Take the role of learner. Read the hard books.
Just a few places to start are listed on my website: