When Christmas is just around the corner and we often feel a little extra generous and generous. Employers buy goats for "poor African families" for their employees, movie clips with malnourished children make us cry, and from the speakers in our shopping centers, Band Aids song from -84 is played Do they know it's Christmas?:
"And there will not be snow in Africa this Christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life"
It is clear that we, who are doing so well and who have succeeded so well with the development, need to help those who have not reached it themselves. It practically becomes ours responsibility to save the poor poor people from poverty.
Or?
How do these black-and-white messages about generosity and poverty affect how we Swedes perceive ourselves and our role in a world that is unequal? In order to address these issues, we need to address difficult and sensitive issues related to identity, inequality and - often benevolent, but extremely deep-rooted - racism towards people living in vulnerable situations. This "racism of benevolence" is called in English White savior complex, or white saviorurism, and is the belief that the white population must save people in low-income countries, as they are not considered capable of doing so themselves.
How can we talk about aid and charity without it becoming "us and them"? Is it okay to dilute stereotypes to bring in money for the needy? What happens when black people become "props" in pictures and do not get their name printed? Is there a correct answer in this situation? This, and much more, we will talk about on December 3 in a panel discussion in Zoom with:
Marcus Lundstedt, Director Media and Advocacy at We effect, which, among other things, produced the report "Everyone has a name”, Which highlights who gets their name printed in the media, with a focus on aid reporting.
and Barakat B. Ghebrehawariat who works with norm-critical communication and runs the change agency Democrat team. Barakat also sits on the board of Orten.io, is a member of the transparency council at the National Museum and a member of the Reach for Change advisory board.
The panel discussion is moderated by Mona Nechma, project manager at LSU with responsibility for anti-racist work in the youth movement. She has a special commitment to public education and equality and is also involved in producing the podcasts Vidga normen-podden and TALET.
Welcome to a panel discussion that addresses topics that are difficult to talk about, but which are therefore extra important.
The conversation is arranged by FUF - The Association for Development Issues. This is done via Zoom and requires pre-registration as there is a limited number of places. observe that registration closes on 2/12 23:55.
