Me and White Supremacy - Days 17/18: Tokenism and White Saviorism

Resource: Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

Tokenism

Tokenism is the “practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.” It is a way to use BIPOC as props or meaningless symbols to give the appearance that someone/some organization is antiracist while continuing to maintain the status quo of white as the dominant norm. There are 4 types of tokenism:

1. Brand Tokenism - When “predominantly white organization/event engages a few token BIPOC or uses BIPOC cultural elements to give the visual effect of diversity without being actually committed to inclusion or antiracism in policy or practice.” Usually brand tokenism occurs without committing to longer-term antiracism practice or policy change. In other words, BIPOC are used for photo opportunities and number count but not engaged in meaningful way beyond their usability as tokens.

2. Storytelling Tokenism - BIPOC characters are used on-screen to give the visual look of diversity or to supplement main white characters. These characters’ roles and storylines often underdeveloped or lacking in nuance.

3. Emotional Labor Tokenism - When a person of a predominantly white organization places the emotional labor of working on anything related to racism on token BIPOC. This is not referring to BIPOC whose paid work is intentionally focused on race, but some who happens to be BIPOC and is expected to answer all questions related to racism.

4. Relational Tokenism - When a person with white privilege uses their proximity to and relationships with BIPOC as proof they can’t be racist.

Tokenism is dehumanizing and treats BIPOC as “get out of racism free cards.” It places BIPOC as objects to further a white person’s/organization’s agenda while protecting people with white privilege from having to do the work of disrupting white dominance.

Reflection: How have you justified your racism by using proximity to BIPOC? How have you tokenized BIPOC to prove you words, thoughts, or actions are not racist?

I joined a book club recently, and the book for this month was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas In our discussion of the book, we spent some time talking about tokenization (although we didn’t label it as that), and someone (an educator) brought up how we need to fight against using our BIPOC students as justification for not being racist. I had not thought about, and even though I’ve never vocalized the idea that “I’m not racist because I teach Black students” or necessarily actively thought it, I think that idea has consciously or subconsciously has prevented me from doing more than surface level anti-racist work until recently. I think I did hold the belief that working with Black and brown students was “doing the work,” and while I was working intentionally in my teaching practice to be aware of my own biases and teach all of my students equitably, just that was not enough. I love my students, but that feeling is not synonymous with practicing anti-racism or doing what I can to disrupt systems of white supremacy that disproportionately impact my BIPOC students. You can’t use love as an excuse to not do the work.

I am now more critical of diversity efforts in companies/organizations, and I am trying to consume more consciously from companies that are genuinely working on inclusion.

White Saviorism

White saviorism the belief that people with white privilege have an obligation to “save” BIPOC from their supposed inferiority and helplessness. A foundational idea of white supremacy is that BIPOC countries and people are inferior in worth, capability, intelligence, and self-determination as compared to white-dominated countries and people with white privilege. One element of this is the “White Savior Industrial Complex,” coined by Teju Cole, which describes the phenomenon of well-intentioned white missionaries and volunteers traveling to countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to help “rescue” BIPOC from their country’s poverty. In these situations, there is often an emphasis placed on volunteers having the right solutions to a country’s issues without listening to and partnering with people they intend to help. There is often little attention placed on the impact that colonialism and imperialism have had, and continue to have, on these countries, and these actions center people with white privilege as benevolent saviors or heroes.

White saviorism shows up in:

• Missionary/voluntourism trips to BIPOC countries with intention to do good but poorly prepared on how to serve instead of lead.

• White savior narratives in media, tv, and stories

• Feeling urge to speak on BIPOCs’ behalf rather than leaving them the agency to speak for themselves

• Belief or perpetuation of narrative that BIPOC are from “shithole countries” full of poverty, underdevelopment, and corruption.

• Centering of white narratives on BIPOC liberation (like Muslim women who freely choose to wear hijab needing to be freed from oppression)

• People with white privilege leading organizations that address BIPOC issues of discrimination rather than following the lead of BIPOC-led organizations that are already doing the work

As Layla Saad explains, “White saviorism puts BIPOC in the patronizing position of helpless children who need people with white privilege to save them. It implies that without white intervention, instruction, and guidance, BIPOC will be left helpless.” Often white saviorism is done to soothe white guilt, and ignores the fact that people with white privilege have historically colonized, harmed, abused, kidnapped, enslaved, and marginalized BIPOC.

Reflection: What white savior narratives have you noticed yourself buying into (whether consciously or unconsciously)?

I would say that my white saviorism overall is unconscious, and I think the most obvious time that I have engaged in white saviorism is one that I didn’t even really recognize until it was over - my time serving as an AmeriCorps member in City Year. City Year is an organization whose mission is to lower the achievement gap through a model of near-peer tutoring (so young adults working with 3rd - 9th grade students) focusing on Attendance, Behavior, and Coursework. I ended up applying for City Year because a friend from college who had served in City Year Orlando suggested it as something that might be a good fit for me, and because I had no idea what I wanted to do after graduating from UCF. I chose to serve in Seattle because I wanted to get as far away from Florida as possible.

My initial decision was not based in white saviorism - more on my own desire to just do anything to get out of Florida - but I landed myself in a situation that definitely felt like white saviorism. I was a white woman serving in a school with a student population of predominantly BIPOC (with a predominantly white staff). Although there was some racial diversity within the City Year Corps (about 90 of us total), it definitely wasn’t reflective of the students we were serving. After spending time in the organization and recognizing how it functioned, I realized how much more valuable my position would be with not only corps members who looked like my students, but also corps members who were from Seattle or who grew up there. Like myself, I would say that most of the corps (definitely a majority) came from outside of Seattle and even outside of Washington state. While I lived in the neighborhood I taught in, I would have been able to connect better to my students had I spent more time in the area before working there.

While I don’t think I joined with the intent of being a white savior (at least consciously) or felt like that during my year of service, and that the services City Year provides are beneficial for schools that lack resources, I wonder how much of the organization as a whole (There are corps in 26? cities throughout the country) upholds the idea of white saviorism. Looking back to its roots, it was started by a white man serving primarily non-white communitites. Serving as an AmeriCorps member means low pay which favors people who have the privilege to relocate using their own money or having their own money to supplement their AmeriCorps stipend, more often people with white privilege.

I am also thinking more now about my role in supporting BIPOC-led initiatives versus leading them (not that I have led anything, but I could see myself falling into white saviorism in that way). It makes me think about my role in environmental education as I am moving (or at least hoping to move) in leadership positions within the field. The field of environmental education is very white, and many organizations are focusing more and more on how to provide equitable and inclusive EE. While these changes are primarily affecting BIPOC students, I wonder if, as a white woman, I am the one to be in charge of making these changes. I know that getting BIPOC into leadership roles in the field of EE starts with the students I teach and helping them become invested in the stewardship of their land and their communities, but I also don’t know how me taking space in these organizations takes space away from BIPOC. Perhaps my role is to create culture in organizations and design programs in a way that allows for inclusion of BIPOC and to create the space for more BIPOC leaders in these very white organizations.