Let's Save Afric An Example Of Epistemic Racism

I chose the image of the “Let’s Save Africa” campaign because the image is an example of Epistemic Violence and Anti-Black Racism. It is a form of epistemic violence it generalizes the African as a continent in need of saving. Such campaigns such as “Let’s Save Africa” are often organized by western countries or people from those western countries with the aim of appealing to people to donate their money to a cause such as to reduce poverty, diseases, and crime that Africa faces. These often show images of poor skinny children lacking necessities of food, water and shelter, a community of impoverished people, people suffering from fatal diseases, and naked women. Even though these campaigns are good intentions, the fact that western countries organize them and only show the impoverished places and people of Africa is a form of epistemic violence as it portrays Africa as “the other” while portraying the western

In addition, it silences Africans voices as most of the time, the Africans in the campaigns are always quiet while the westerners talk about how if people just donate 25 cents, they can save a child in Africa. Additionally, these campaigns often neglect to show the developed African areas and the different fifty-four African countries but instead focus on the impoverished areas while other media romanticizes Africa as a beautiful place to go on vacations, specifically safaris as it is home to many wild animals. This creates a different perspective of what Africa and cause Africans to lose control over their own identity based on the way they are represented by the media. The western countries are the ones who now tell the African story while neglecting the voices of the African people. Consequently, this form of epistemic violence leads to Anti-Black racism toward