Nate Wahl’s Updates

Update 3 The Impact of Colorblindness and The White Savior Complex in Higher Education and in Pre and Post Secondary Public Schools

Media embedded July 7, 2024

Why Color Blindness Will Not End Racism -Ramsey (2016); from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4LpT9TF_ew&t=1s

From 2010 to contemporary books like How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, So you want to discuss race by Ijeoma Oluo, and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander cover one major social issue, racism. These books provide digestible information about race and the pervasiveness of racism on minority populations in the United States. DeAngelo (2018) cites “When white people ask me what to do about racism and white fragility, the first thing I ask is “What has enabled you to be a full, educated professional adult and not know what to do about racism? (p.144). This passage provides the reader an opportunity to reflect on their own positionality as it relates to upholding systems of racial injustice. According to Alexander (2010), color blindness, a belief held by many non-BIPOC individuals before these books came out, is criticized as deceitful and hurtful for claiming "I do not see color." Race is, in fact, a social construct and being a person of color in America has real-life consequences. It is imperative that all teachers are aware that choosing “not to see color” is a form of racism.

Media embedded July 7, 2024

What's Wrong With White Saviours-Joseph (2023); from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK5EQm-B5Q0&t=49s

According to a preservice teacher she observed the white savior complex quite a bit in her undergraduate program. Alexis noticed many White teachers choosing to bring their own ideologies into the classroom of primarily BIPOC learners and being met by resistance from the students (Helmick,2022). Instructors who teach preservice practitioners must explain to their students that as they enter any learning space they must do so with a spirit of curiosity and discovery. If students who identify as BIPOC notice that their teacher is trying to save them, then they could respond by isolating themselves from their teachers. Students also respond to acts of saviorism by defying the adult in the room. Black students do not want to be saved they want to be taught, listened to, believed, cared for, and challenged.