It is quite annoying to observe certain progressive types and their attitude towards various minority groups.  As I have written about multiple time in the past, minorities have agency.  Yet even well-meaning progressives seem to think that minorities cannot navigate through life without the paternalistic hand of a white person.

   The term, “white savior” can be defined broadly as a white person who believes that their job is to patron blacks or other minorities.  For whatever reason, various progressive types who espouse values of multiculturalism and equity do not seem understand that to patron minorities in such a way is to “patronize” minorities in minorities in a negative way.  Take this article as an example from a few weeks back concerning specifically transgender awareness but in the sentence in question encompassed all minorities.  The sentence reads as, “Transgender awareness goes beyond one week a year, and we need to make sure we are keeping minority communities safe.” 

Now, no doubt well-intentioned, the author has made a distinction between “we” and “minority.”  The “we” in the above quote explicitly describes this dichotomy of relation to minorities. “I write this from the position of an ally,” the author explains further explains, solidifying an “us” and “them” dynamic; otherwise known as “othering.”

      An “ally” in intersectional circles is defined in this way from Vanderbilt University: A is a person whose commitment to dismantling oppression is reflected in a willingness to do the following:

• Educate oneself about oppression;
• Learn from and listen to people who are targets of oppression;
• Examine and challenge one’s own prejudices, stereotypes, and assumptions;
• Work through feelings of guilt, shame, and defensiveness to understand what is beneath them and what needs to be healed;
• Learn and practice the skills of challenging oppressive remarks, behaviors, policies, and institutional structures;
• Act collaboratively with members of the target group to dismantle oppression.

I am not sold on an intersectional definition of “ally”, but it is not important.  In the context of the article and line in question, the claim is that those who are not part of minority groups must protect minorities does not come across as an ally in any way; it only serves to imply that minorities are helpless without a white to uplift them.

  I am mixed black and white, that identity hardly matters to me in any practical way, and I can promise that I am not so oppressed or so much a victim that I must rely upon some other non-minority to get along.  Such thinking is not productive, and subtly implies that minorities are helpless without the benevolence of a non-minority; patronizing indeed!

     If exploring the justifications for African and black slavery in the middle of the 19^th century, one would not have to go far in finding slave owners’ and a slave society’s answer.  Take Robert E. Lee, of Confederate army fame in the American Civil War, and his thoughts on the peculiar institution.  Lee was a slaveholder and he was very much a product of his time.  An oft quoted 1856 letter explaining the rationale behind slavery, is telling.  Read the whole letter here, but a few lines demonstrate a paternalistic, benevolent rationale for slavery, “The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things.” (My emphasis).  In other words, “white providers” (slaveholders) believed slavery the best system to “instruct” an undisciplined, immoral, and lazy race.

     Lee’s rationale for slavery was emblematic of the major justifications for slavery after 1820.  Colloquially in our 2019-time, Lee and the old slave society’s justifications would be called paternalistic or benevolent racism.  This is not to say the author believes in slavery or is a classical racist by any means, but I wonder why it is the duty of “allies” to keep minorities safe?  I am glad the author cares about people, but at the same time, I can tell you as a minority I do not need a savior to rescue me, nor will I buy in to the notion that a non-minority has power and privilege over me.  Perhaps, we can think about treating people as individuals and react to people’s situations as they are, not as one perceives them to be based upon arbitrary immutable characteristics. Whether transgender, gay, black, or brown, everyone’s situations differ.  The ubiquitous undercurrents in the rhetoric of Progressives in the mainstream seem to believe that minorities do not have agency and that minorities are all politically and socially homogeneous.  This is not so.  Those narratives ironically play into classically racist ideas.  Nobody actually progresses with that mindset.