Why do so many people with privilege end up making things worse when they try to help? How can a person with privilege challenge systems of injustice without playing into the savior mentality? In what ways does our culture create and celebrate saviors, and how does this infiltrate our movements? These are questions posed in this book, which we will dive into in this dialogue. We will also try to go further than the content of the book and add some perspective on the ways gendered dynamics play into these questions.

Suggested readings:

• You can still get a copy of the book and read some or all of it! And if a whole book is a tall order right now, we recommend focusing on the first chapter. This chapter covers a lot of ground, whereas other chapters in the book are more of a deep dive into specific examples of both saviorism and grassroots challenges, looking at everything from charity to disaster masculinity, and from Teach for America to anti-trafficking campaigns.
• If the book is not in your future, check out this Truthout interview about it.