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Is there a name for this trope? Kinda like racism, but a little bit different? (details)

Asked by Aethelflaed (13752points) November 16th, 2011

So there’s that sort of trope where someone of the privileged group cares so much about the group that’s oppressed/marginalized, that they have to help save the oppressed/marginalized group – even if the oppressed/marginalized group doesn’t want this person’s help, even if they really disagree with this particular course of action, even if they’re actually totally fine with what’s going on. For this person, they can’t just be an ally (for whatever reason, which they assure us is totally noble), but need to be a leader. Some examples are: white person being so pissed off at racism that they have to be the president of a POC activist group, or a man being so feminist he can’t let a woman be president of this feminist group, or an American being all “Don’t worry, Africa, I’m here now to save you”. Or maybe it’s not an American, but Che Guevara. It’s sort of in the mansplaining/whitesplaining/thinsplaining/etc area, but more as a personality than an act. And I figure, this is such a common thing, such a common problem, that someone has to have come up with a name for this trope. Do you know what the name of this trope is?

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