Coming Home Feels Like Surrender

March 31, 2012

vicemag:

But what do these clean, fresh-smelling giants do when they go back home in a month? They finish their university degrees, they get a job, they get married, they have children, they buy things ALL OF THE TIME that will effectively ruin your life more and more each day. But that’s OK, because when they go home, you die. You die before you turn ten. You die from, like, the common cold. Except it eats your face. And your whole family’s faces too.
“But what about confronting the extreme forces on the opposite end of the spectrum? What about the external pressures that take power away from people?”
It simply isn’t your problem, nosey. Who fought for the abolishment of slavery in America? Black people (not fucking Abraham Lincoln, you idiot). Who fought for women’s rights? Women. Who fought in labor movements? Laborers. I’m talkin’ bout grassroots, ya’ll. Ain’t no crime, ain’t no joke. If you are a young person thinking about volunteering in an underdeveloped country (is the word “underdeveloped” controversial yet?). I commend your initiative to spread positive energy all over the universe, but just please remember that it’s a skewed, fucked-up, Western kind of energy, that’s all. Like, maybe instead of volunteering in Africa, you could simply consider hanging out in Africa.
—Kara Crabb does not want you to go try to help Africa

But what do these clean, fresh-smelling giants do when they go back home in a month? They finish their university degrees, they get a job, they get married, they have children, they buy things ALL OF THE TIME that will effectively ruin your life more and more each day. But that’s OK, because when they go home, you die. You die before you turn ten. You die from, like, the common cold. Except it eats your face. And your whole family’s faces too.

“But what about confronting the extreme forces on the opposite end of the spectrum? What about the external pressures that take power away from people?”

It simply isn’t your problem, nosey. Who fought for the abolishment of slavery in America? Black people (not fucking Abraham Lincoln, you idiot). Who fought for women’s rights? Women. Who fought in labor movements? Laborers. I’m talkin’ bout grassroots, ya’ll. Ain’t no crime, ain’t no joke. If you are a young person thinking about volunteering in an underdeveloped country (is the word “underdeveloped” controversial yet?). I commend your initiative to spread positive energy all over the universe, but just please remember that it’s a skewed, fucked-up, Western kind of energy, that’s all. Like, maybe instead of volunteering in Africa, you could simply consider hanging out in Africa.

—Kara Crabb does not want you to go try to help Africa

2:36am | URL: http://tmblr.co/Z5c_WyIqtkYy

(Notes: 210)