Growing up in the early 80s, my Saturday cartoons were routinely interrupted by commercials begging us to save the hungry kids in Africa. These commercials were designed to tug at your heartstrings. They pitched the idea that for the cost of a cup of coffee (this was pre-Starbucks), you could feed a Black child in Africa. There were evocative images of Black children wasting away covered in flies. The music was stirring. This was juxtaposed by the blonde-haired White woman with her porcelain-colored skin. She was clean and dressed well but modestly. She was pleading for the change in your piggy bank.
These commercials were a source of embarrassment to me as they provided my White schoolmate’s fodder to harass me with. It also was a tool used to make slavery seem more benevolent than the nightmare hellscape filled with rape, beatings, torture, murder, and family separation. People could point to Africa and say how horrible it must be not to have enough food or clean water. Never even attempting to explore colonialism and the devastating trauma it sowed around the globe. People never asked if Africa was so blessed with natural resources; why are many Africans in poverty? Even better, why are most of the precious metal or stone mines owned by white corporations? Instead, they looked at these fly-covered Black children with repulsion and despair, but a seed was planted: slavery was bad, but was it that bad?
Then missionary trips started occurring with more and more frequency. I know many college and high school classmates who flew halfway around the world to hand out toys to African children. They felt commanded by God to make these treks. They would spend a couple of days visiting various camps, spreading the gospel, and taking photos. Then they would go off on a safari or do something else that was luxurious or quasi-lux. To my knowledge, not one of them has kept in contact with any of the people they met while they were on these missionary trips.
When they returned home, they would testify how God had talked to them and stirred their hearts, and they recommended this to others in their church or on social media. Yet, all of these people are ardent supporters of the Republican Party. All of these people voted for President Trump, despite him famously calling the places they said they felt the spirit of God moving: “shithole countries.”
To me, this was the zenith of white toxicity. Leaving your home and traveling around the world to hand out toys and sing songs about God, but support policies that keep these people famished and improvised. It’s clear that many people are fleeing Africa because of climate change. The reduction of resources makes war inevitable. War produces refugees who seek to escape with their lives. Soldiers need food, and one of the selling points for people to join the war effort is a full belly. So the warlords take food from the people and hoard it for the war effort. The party that many of these white evangelical Christians overwhelming support is the Republican Party. A Party that does not believe in climate change, which is the root cause of war and displacement.
As a child, I knew these commercials were distasteful, but I lacked the words or wisdom to articulate why. I now have read, lived, and learned enough to see these acts of misery tourism for what they are: selfish. They are selfish acts to inspire a false sense of piety. I once admired these people and their faith in God. Now I view them with contempt. They could easily send the money they would spend to travel to Africa to local NGOs; instead, they want to travel across an ocean to be seen as the savior of these poor people. This is the white savior concept taken to its ultimate end. The people who traditionally do this are not powerful people or pillars of their own community but people working mundane jobs and living uninspiring lives. This is their opportunity to be important to some people. It is a chance for them to make themselves the center of attention.
Perhaps I am wrong! I am very arrogant, and maybe I need to go on one of these misery tourism tours myself and bring some toys to some refugees or children who currently lack food, water, and safety. Perhaps, me and some Black folk should board a plane with our suitcases brimming with candy, toys, and clothes to distribute to White people who have had to flee war-torn Ukraine. I can see it now: my Black ass is surrounded by a bunch of weary white children as I pass out trinkets and bubbles.
Maybe if I traveled to Europe as part of a majority Black envoy to bring comfort and security to those who have been displaced by war, I might experience what my classmates experienced in Africa. This envoy could consist of Black preachers who spread the real message of Jesus and his radical love, not the tepid false teachings of those who seek to maintain White supremacy.
I can see myself and other Black folk working in the kitchens preparing food, handing out toys, singing gospel songs, and helping them erect more structures for the refugees. Perhaps, if I did this, I would renounce my contempt for those who take relief trips to Africa to pass out toys. I might even track each one of these white Republicans down and apologize for my own ignorance.
I need some Black folk to travel to Poland to offer pity and pittances to the refugees of Putin’s immoral war. That is the only way to determine if I am out of line.
First, we would fly to either London or Paris and spend some time sightseeing. It would be time for us to network and build friendships as we fellowship, wandering the streets of London or while we dine in Parisian cafes. We would steel ourselves as we prepare for the despair and sorrow that we would find waiting for us in the refugee camps. Perhaps, we would visit the local refugee centers in these two cities as a level-setting exercise then we would be ready for our mission as we traveled to Warsaw. We would remind people of Brittney Griner and make sure everyone knows the rules: do not bring anything that could be even considered contraband as we travel to these famously anti-Black regions of the world.
Once there, we would connect with local charities supporting the refugees. We would all be dressed in our Sunday clothes or modern-day interpretations of Sunday clothes as we worked in soup kitchens, read to the kids, helped teach them English, and got them assimilated into the Western World. We would also bring a professional photographer as we looked to enlighten the rest of the world about the plight of the refugees and the cost of this ungodly and unprovoked war that Russia has waged on this smaller country. We might even supplement our Sunday’s best with fly helmets and flak jackets because we are on the edge of a warzone. We need the people on the Gram to know that this is life and death.
I suggest we bring a couple of pastors who can spread the gospel. I suggest our envoy spends time learning gospel songs we can sing as we spread the word of God. We also need to distribute some age-appropriate Christian literature to the children so we can preach to them about the goodness of God. While we are dancing, singing, and stunting, we make sure that the world sees our good works as we plaster our IG feeds and go live. Unless other people see what we are doing for those who have suffered the ravages of war, does it really count?
We would stay for two days, maybe three days at max, then we would leave and perhaps fly to somewhere nice like Ibezia, Spain, where we could warm up and enjoy the luxury that Europe has to offer.
This would be our trip.
Now, imagine the righteous outrage.
This is all cringe because you are making yourself the center of attention of people who are hurting and who are desperate. You have somehow managed to center yourself amongst a wartorn nation. You have supplanted the misery of others, people who have lost loved ones to this war, for your own selfish desires. You have taken the focus off of the cause of this detestable reality for many and placed it on yourself, despite how temporary or transitory it may be for what? Clout?
The 2nd Amendment was sacrosanct until the Black Panthers started walking around public with long guns, and then Governor Reagan and the NRA agreed to ban assault weapons in California. Yet, Reagan is viewed as a gun-loving President, despite his banning long guns in California.
The FBI has habitually infiltrated and disrupted Black paramilitary organizations and even peaceful ones, and no one cared. The moment that they started doing it to White organizations, politicians and White folk are fervently appropriating the language of black folk to Defund the FBI.
When unarmed Black folks are killed by the police, the whole right-wing ecosystem says nothing or blames the victim, but when black officers do the same thing, we need to look at who is qualified to be police officers, according to these same pundits.
It should not take Black bodies doing the exact same thing that white bodies do all of the time for people to analyze the behavior as harmful. In fact, sometimes, it is downright racist. Many well meaning-white folk who were grieving from the loss of access to abortion healthcare would quickly posit to supporters of a total ban on abortion, what if your daughter or wife was raped by a Black man? In their eyes, this was the most cogent and salient example they could offer to sway the other side to their point. Yet, such a remark is the high watermark of racism. The old saying rings true: with friends like these…
If Black folk did what I proposed and went to Europe and took the same type of photos that white people do all of the time in Africa, the outrage we would see manufactured would dwarf anything we have ever seen.
The outrage would be justified because what I have proposed is gross. Yet, this practice would only be explored if Black people did it. That is the problem with systemic racism.
I have no contempt or ill words for groups like Doctors Without Borders. What they do is actually in the spirit of Jesus. They travel worldwide and provide medical, vision, and dental care for free. These people provide a valuable service to our world. On the other hand, I would argue that going to an African village that has been created by a white Christian church is the opposite. The teachings of Christ in too many White churches are devoid of Christ. The fact that many believed that Donald Trump was the most Christian President of all time is all I need to know about them and the religion they proclaim they follow.
That is the disconnect from the espoused teachings of this faith; you travel thousands of miles for meaningless gestures but at home champion the people who are actively harming the people you traveled thousands of miles to help. There is no introspection. No additional examination of the value of services rendered to those you went to serve. All that remains is craven narcissism.
Your visit will not change the trajectory of any person that you handed a plate of food. The toy you gave a child will not inspire them to create a cure for cancer. The baby you held will not develop superpowers as a result. Your trip did nothing to improve the lives of others. However, your vote back home will alter their lives for the better or worse. Despite being moved by God to travel thousands of miles, God has not moved you to vote in a manner consistent with the teachings of Christ. Really?
Unfortunately, misery tourism will never be analyzed with any depth until Black people show up holding white babies and passing out toys in Europe to white refugees. Only then will we denounce this white savior narcissism. So, who wants to go to Poland and experience misery tourism?