Thank you all for your helpful and thoughtful responses, both those direct here and those back-channeled for more dialogue. As someone who has lived abroad in a couple of countries other than the U.S., I found my own defensive and justification systems triggered by this article. While I really appreciate the critiques on “voluntourism” as an ego-gratifying, instagram positioning, and post-colonial entrapment of the privilege divide, I do find the use of language extreme and edging towards conflating any white person with white supremacy. I have met amazing people working in other countries, from all walks of life, who I felt were there for reasons other than “voluntourism” and who were offering their work and skills in a community-oriented, thoughtful, and sustainable way. Some of these people were white, often from European countries, a handful from the U.S., and some of these people identified with the global-majority (non-white identifying people) and were living outside of their country of origin for many of the same reasons their white colleagues were- greater experience, competency building, encounters with other cultures, opportunity to work with students from across the world, etc. I think the cautionary tale of this article is wise for any educators working with students who are requested or encouraged to do “service” or community engagement with local (or distant) communities. The more distant the community, the more the level of thoughtfulness, intentionality, justification, and precaution that Joe so aptly highlights is needed. I also think risking assuming we know anyone’s story who is a visitor or immigrant to a country not that of their birth, or further reducing people to stereotypes based on visible dividers alone, is misguided and is not going to help us move forward in trying to do something different than our collective past (I am in the metamodern camp on this one). Cole, I really appreciate your reflections on this and the quote you shared about evil. To be clear, I in no way condone the heinous acts of the token people addressed in this article. I also have my disgust and judgement activated when white friends post pictures with people from different races in an obvious “look at me, praise me, aren’t I so woke” type of way. Yet, I am not a fan of the blame and shame game of the current social justice movement, as I have seen it shut down and turn away more people than win sincere allies. I see friends starting to use the language, preach the talk, but not integrate or be able to skillfully navigate how these identity complexities play out in one-on-one interactions. It makes it so obvious why we have the polarization we do in the U.S. at least. When a door is cut the size of a pinhole, how many will continually effort to fit through, only to be shamed for being too big? Is the solution that white people never travel anywhere and cluster in their own silos and continue to spread racist propaganda (because that is inevitably happening in the U.S. behind many now open doors- some within big white houses)? Makes me wonder at the increasing trend of closing our own borders, as goodness knows we are now only letting in those who can fit through our own justified pinhole of access. Is tit for tat really what we want to keep perpetuating? Do we need 1,000 years of white silence, of men as stay at home dads and home-makers, of pesticide companies and corporate giants trapped within piles of their products and money, to appease the atrocities of the past? I actually humbly ask as I just am not quite clear anymore about what is being asked of people for redemption of the sins of their ancestors or people who looked like them. What shocked me most I guess was that this article was circulated by educators I admire and have worked alongside and was being held up as a gold-standard of what not to do and how to call out their white counterparts. I am just sitting with how diverse and international teams of educators work through some of these concepts together before attempting to guide students, often from very different places and without a unified voice around what community engagement means and how your race will inherently play a factor in it. I appreciate some reminders from the article, I just don’t think it is the overall frame that will actually empower and create the change and recompense that I think is being requested. Still open for thoughts or critiques if people have them. thanks all, K On Mar 6, 2020, at 3:31 PM, Cole Butler <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Just as a quick follow-up to clarify my position, my comments were not meant to attack the identity of the author, nor to make any evaluative claims about the truth of her statements. I simply wanted to point out that some of the argumentation tactics are grounded in an ideologically-biased framework, and that the article should be read with a grain of salt. Best, Cole Butler TPAC Project Coordinator University of Maryland UMD ADHD Lab<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.umdadhd.org_cole&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=bbTs59Q4ArM1acXGSxko6A_m_SjZqGnHsl76IINmYsg&s=iCANGXZC9ZiWTLCU3GKIGmIpxlKzfDEPstzwLj1DR5M&e=> 2103W, Cole Field House | College Park, MD 20742 tel 301.405.6163 On Fri, Mar 6, 2020 at 3:14 PM Cole Butler <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Thanks for sharing this article. Though I should loathe to participate in the same identity politics that I detest, there are some aspects of this article that stuck out to me to suggest that this is an exaggerated piece meant to play into the culturally dividing social justice warrior mentality rather than an intellectual analysis of how much harm versus good is done by travelling and offering aid to socioeconomically disadvantaged foreign countries. First, the author opens by immediately explaining away the fact that she uses Tinder. Clearly, it was important for her to immediately establish herself as "not the type of person who would be seen using a dating app." Instead, she makes an excuse that she uses it to pass the time like one would with some attention-grabbing pointless game like candy crush. Yet, she immediately follows this with a statement that she doesn't expect men who use it to stray away from their "programming." Is she not doing the same thing as them? While they're labeled as mindless biologically programmed robots... strange. She also lends credulity to herself through the usage of novel words (e.g., blanditude, which isn't a word, by the way<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.google.com_search-3Fq-3Dblanditude-26rlz-3D1C1GGRV-5FenUS872US873-26oq-3Dblanditude-2B-26aqs-3Dchrome..69i57.2609j1j7-26sourceid-3Dchrome-26ie-3DUTF-2D8&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=bbTs59Q4ArM1acXGSxko6A_m_SjZqGnHsl76IINmYsg&s=GpN4btUupGGuBlChKrtuY_d8Gq9Nw91676fSVZF7SFc&e=>; misogynoir) and through almost instantly establishing herself as 'one of them' as a local to the area. While not inherently bad tactics to engage the audience, I believe the usage of these tactics immediately sets the stage that this is a piece that's more wrapped up in the identity and ideology of the author (and those who identify with this ideology as readers), rather than as objective piece holding any real meaning. The article cites several examples of wrong-doing portrayed by individuals in the situation she's writing about. While no one would excuse such behavior, I think it's important to recall that these are extreme cases of wrong-doing that are identified to aid in the argument that she's portraying. What this makes me think of is the inherent evil in mankind at the individual level. A lovely quote in this regard recently appeared in some of my social media memories... "If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being." - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. With this in mind, it seems, at least to me, that evil is bound to appear even in the context of acts that are meant to be social goods. It is easy to label "white people who travel to Africa to 'help'" as the evil doers who need to be gotten rid of, and to simultaneously justify oneself as a good being without having to do anything. The bio of the author lends further credence to the claim that the author is writing this as an ideologically based hit-piece rather than any type of objective look at a social issue. I'll leave the interpretation of that to the reader :) Best, Cole Butler TPAC Project Coordinator University of Maryland UMD ADHD Lab<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.umdadhd.org_cole&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=bbTs59Q4ArM1acXGSxko6A_m_SjZqGnHsl76IINmYsg&s=iCANGXZC9ZiWTLCU3GKIGmIpxlKzfDEPstzwLj1DR5M&e=> 2103W, Cole Field House | College Park, MD 20742 tel 301.405.6163 On Fri, Mar 6, 2020 at 2:30 PM Wilson, Katherine Christine - wilso3kc <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Dear ToK Crew, I am often very shy and intimidated to post on this list serve. It can be challenging for those of us with a more sensitive nervous system to open something up for conversation today given the extreme views, polarizations, intense political climate, reductionistic tendencies, and often shaming and blaming language that is becoming increasingly used on the internet (Gregg, I may have succumbed to some “toxic sensitivity” of the day). However, there is an article that is trending right now on facebook that I am struggling to navigate; my own reception of it is a mix of repulsion, concern, frustration, and deep sadness. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__wearyourvoicemag.com_news-2Dpolitics_voluntourism-2Dcolonialism-2Dwhite-2Dsavior-2Dcomplex&d=DwIGaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=LOkKGImSUYqjd6F0-wN92ByDtraDDuCnoMlGB9syJvc&s=9Vm5Bjpp1BIMSVv7F2z6jI0AI1kg6fNa5inkn0oap1w&e=<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__wearyourvoicemag.com_news-2Dpolitics_voluntourism-2Dcolonialism-2Dwhite-2Dsavior-2Dcomplex&d=DwMGaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=VPQ4SciI7VcrC7-WPowgx4XdYc4Tfj5bmosQ0Wn29m8&s=-H-ELcPhX_Vh6zaurhFex6NRXMkaji1-2jI-6lLvZPA&e=> It is a short read, though not without intense references to some awful human acts. If you get a chance, I would really love to hear your thoughts from whatever lens or angle you may receive this type of piece. thanks, K ############################ To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:mailto:[log in to unmask]> or click the following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1 ############################ To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:mailto:[log in to unmask]> or click the following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1 ############################ To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1