For Anyone Who’s Trying to “Save The World”

Woodside, Jamaica ◆ June 28, 2016

For those who plan to spend nearly $2,000 to hop on a plane to “Africa” to you know, save the entire continent. For those who have been called to God to do some humanitarian work. For those who are hell-bent on solving the world’s largest problems like extreme poverty, water insecurity, and the ever-too present educational fault lines that we see everyday and everywhere.

I have some sad, sad truths for you that we, and even I as a social entrepreneur have to face everyday: our efforts, no matter how well intentioned, wholehearted, and earnest they are cannot eradicate entire oppressive systems that have purposely been set into place.

We can throw thousands of dollars toward water and educational programs, spend countless hours or even years doing positive impactful work, we can put all of the effort our bodies hold into non-profit organizations and missions and that will still not be enough. In fact it’ll be very small and minuscule compared to the larger, systematic atrocities in place. And although helping a few lives feels noble and even heroic at times, it’s important that we understand that our individual work is not going to eradicate all that we want it to.

The lies we’ve been told in the west are fairytales at best.

And with cultural and societal differences in place, our work abroad may fall even flatterer compared to our long-lasting expectations and dreams. Especially for those of us doing work in a place that we hold no direct or ancestral ties to. In fact, we may find that the veil of our work may be emptier than we anticipated after we dig a little deeper at the surface…

So what do we do from here? If all is lost why even bother? And isn’t that a little negative anyway? Actually, it’s not. What I am telling you is that our individual work is not enough, but it can be if it’s mobilized in the right way. If we want poverty to end, to really, really end, we must be willing to push for structural changes. And in a capitalistic world, structural changes often mean losing some, or all of the privilege one holds over other human beings who have historically been seen as “less than”.

Because the truth is that societies experience poverty because someone or some countries are oppressing them; whether that be economically, socially, politically, or even psychologically…

That’s just how capitalism works.

So my question for you is: are you willing to lose your privilege for the good of people you have never even met? Or technically, may never even have to face?

Can you handle not receiving a job opportunity because competition rose 20% due to more people of color having access to education?

Can you handle not having every possible, consumable option available to you at your will because companies are no longer exploiting child or outsourced labor at $1 an hour?

Can you handle America’s politicians, military, and economics restructuring before your eyes because they are no longer stealing from, occupying, and/or manipulating what you refer to as “third world countries”?

And lastly, do you walk with, or even support, or even acknowledge the “Black Lives Matter” movement which speaks out against worldwide injustice?

If you say “no”, or “maybe”, or “But what if..” to any of these questions, then maybe the intentions behind your humanitarian work aren’t as earth shattering as you think they are…

Because making the world a more just place is less about how much residual income you can throw to a poor person or an abstract idea before returning the comfort of your upper-middle class home and more about how much you’re willing to lose or give away permanently if that means oppressed people are being treated justly; and living a life where their human rights are respected and upheld universally.

Carey J.

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Carey is a senior at the University of Oklahoma studying entrepreneurship with a minor in african american studies and social justice. She is a founder, writer, and photographer. She’s studying abroad in Kingston, Jamaica. Check out her personal site here.