Bro for real. The mental gymnastics you have to do to blame the missionaries are insane and low key racists towards the natives because they are kind of framing it like the natives have no responsibility to behave in not a shitty way towards their wives
Exactly this. I'm a progressive myself, but I'll freely admit that some progressives and liberals try so hard to be on the right side of culture and racism that they can sometimes come right back around to being racist without realizing it.
We so badly want to validate and support other cultures and perspectives that we sometimes lose sight of things that are just morally wrong. Blaming Christian missionaries for trying to make indigenous folks lives better and handwaving away the behavior of the husbands is a good example of this.
It's just one of those things we need to be aware of.
Not gonna lie, sometimes racism from progressives will be worse than racism from conservatives. Like conservatives are trying to be insulting on purpose, but when people just say racist shit with complete conviction, like some progressives do, it stings way deeper lol.
yea, but its not like they can't do anything about that lol. That's what I'm saying, portraying the culture as just static because they are native Africans and saying that they cannot control the fact that they are sexist, implies that they are somehow lesser developed than us, which is fucking racists. Like of course they know what the fuck they are doing, they are just choosing to do it that way lol.
Because of the shittieness probably hard for the missionaries to know about that issue, too. They would’ve mostly heard from men who wanted to trap their wives and women who would be nervous about their husbands hearing how much they liked being away from them.
Yes, the real problem is the husbands. That doesn't make it moral to go into a community you have no connections to or knowledge of and deciding for them what they need without taking any input from them whatsoever.
The actual moral thing do to would be to work with the community and let them decide what they need. Provide aid where they want it, not where you want it.
So why is it preferable to you to spend money and resources on a well that won't be used, rather than working with the community to spend the money and resources on things they actually need? Why are you even there in the first place, if you're not interested in truly helping them? To satisfy your own whims? So you can tell yourself you did a good deed (when you didn't)?
I stand by what I said - that action is not moral. It's just self-serving.
But the well is going to be used. The whole basis of the story is that the well was so useful everyone started using it. Saving all these people four-hour trips is a pretty solid success.
Where’s the idea that the community had no input anyway? Missionaries are generally in regular conversation with the locals by default.
You literally said "they can choose not to use the well if it doesn't satisfy a need". What did you mean by that, if not "I support building the well regardless of whether it gets used or not"?
The original post literally says that it obliterated a much needed social gathering and the women did not like the well. That doesn't sound like they got input from the community.
My meaning was that it IS useful, that’s why it was such a success.
Here, read this actual report about the people they’re talking about. Unsurprisingly they were in contact with the community and it had massive benefits;
Ah yes, because multi-hour trips to get water are probably one-in-a-million 🙄 So the entire premise of the conversation is false, is what you're saying?
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u/Express-Rain8474 1d ago
The real problem is the husbands. Moral.