What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

Efforts to redress global inequality are facing an unexpected adversary: the white savior. It's the idea that people of color, whether in the Global South or North, need "saving" by a white Western person or aid worker.

An eclectic mix of white activists have been publicly accused of being white saviors for trying to help different causes in the Global South. They include celebrities who adopted orphaned children, organized benefit concerts such as Live Aid, or called out rights abuses.

Others include professional and volunteer charity workers and journalists reporting on poverty in Africa. Even activism at home can earn the white savior label, like efforts to refine the proposal for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament in Australia.

We conducted a series of studies with 1,991 representative Australians to find out what people thought made a white savior, how charity appeal photographs create this impression, and how it affected donations.

White saviorism and charities

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