On Haiti, Helping and Hurting
So, you want to help? Great. Here’s a list of charities. However if you feel the need to sound anything like Pat Robertson I’m going to need you to go sit down somewhere and be silent. The last thing anyone needs after a crisis is the bigots swooping in with lies to bolster their racism. And after all the things that have been done to Haiti over the years in the name of U.S. Foreign Policy the last thing they need is white American missionaries handing out condemnation and vilification in the guise of help. Aside from the major logical flaws in these arguments; what makes anyone think offering a helping hand in a crisis is dependent on approving of someone’s religious or social status? Oh wait, if you think that way then you’re a bigoted asshole. Stroking your ego by paying lip service to the idea of assisting victims while bashing them for some imagined sin isn’t true charity or particularly Christ-like. If you’re going to claim to be a Christian you might want to act like one.
Wow, saying he’s a jerk would be an understatement.
I know missionaries in Haiti. White missionaries. White American missionaries. Pat Robertson is no frakkin missionary. In fact, what Pat said today will set my friends’ work back years. Years. All the hard work they do, gone. Poof.
And the real sad thing is that there are honest Christians who will absolutely agree with what Pat said without even doing any research or follow up on their own. As a Christian myself, that makes me weep.
Thanks for this post. Robertson and others like him make me sick. When I was on a medical trip to Haiti we saw so many white missionaries that came down to spread their Jesus love. Unfortunately they only spread their assistance if you gave yourself up to Chrisitianity. If you chose to remain a “heathen” then you did not get assistance. It’s disgusting and very un-Christ like behavior. Total hypocrites.
Missionaries go to other places to bring them the Gospel. Pat sits on his behind in a news studio fairly close to his home. That’s being an entertainer, not a missionary.
Is there supposed to be some hierarchy where Pat Robertson’s job is at the bottom and missionaries are supposed to be better? because i actually think missionaries are worse than Pat Robertson. At least Pat is preaching to the choir. Missionaries go out and try to push their religion on others (had a fun time growing up in one of their “third world” churches) lol
JUST SAYIN Mary Sue. Just Sayin.
Pat Robertson’s comment wasn’t a racist comment. Hell, there was a black girl sitting beside him nodding the whole time.
Pat Robertson’s comment was a stupid, ignorant, holier-than-thou, self-righteous comment made by a man who thinks every major disaster is caused by some sin. Katrina, 9/11–for example, were caused by homosexuality.
Robertson is a moron. But please, don’t try to put down on white missionaries and look at this from a racial point of view. I’m white, and I’m sick of people like you looking at everything from a racial point of view. Can’t you just accept that Pat Robertson is a moron without having to tie his skin color into it? THAT is racism.
Get the chip off your shoulder and figure out that the rest of the world doesn’t see everything through racial lenses. I have no regard for idiot white people who happen to be white and I’ve never felt the need to consider a white man as more of a “brother” than a black man just because of his skin color.
Seriously, get over your own pigment.
The fact that a black *woman* was sitting next to him doesn’t change the racism of his comment. If you think racism has nothing to do with why Haiti is in the state it is, missionary movements, or even the way the rest of the world views POC? You need to pick up a history book and a newspaper. Get over your entrenched aversive racism long enough to check out some facts because I’m sick of people like you claiming that mentioning the race of bigots like Pat Robertson is racism.
Ooh, let’s play spot-the-racist-subtext!
“black girl” — racist AND sexist
“people like you” — coded racism, “othering”
“get the chip off your shoulder”, “get over your own pigment” — coded racism that translates to “stop being so uppity and get back in your place”
Seriously, Ashton, you might want to visit the “Required Reading” links at the top of this page before commenting here again.
“Seriously, get over your own pigment.”
This is the incisive commentary to bring to a blog called “the angry black woman.”
Really?
So much THIS. I can’t shake the feeling I get every time some hushed-voice (usually white) reporter refers to Haiti as “the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere” — like it’s a sin or a crime committed by the entire population. There’s some serious racist subtext going on there.
I heard it called the poorest country in the Southern Hemisphere. Does that mean there’s some Northeastern country giving them a run for their er.. well, that was not a well-thought-out phrase I was headed for there.
Though when I heard it, I interpreted it as meant ‘they really, really need help’ and as a plea to the audience to give that help.
I’m mostly okay with Pat Robertson spouting off like he does. It makes it so much easier for me to discredit him and the rest of the right-wing in conversation than when their ilk are more quietly batshit. When he says stuff like that, even my right-wing religious cousins give their money to some other relief effort rather than whatever effort CBN is pushing.
Besides donating my own money to Haiti, I will continue to pray for them. Lifting everything up to Heaven for them.