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The Daily Northwestern Friday, April 24, 2015
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Cole discusses ‘white savior’ By MARIANA ALFARO
the daily northwestern @marianaa_alfaro
When novelist Teju Cole first heard about the KONY 2012 viral campaign, he immediately took to Twitter to express his disbelief about the “white savior” in a series of tweets. These seven tweets garnered national attention and resulted in Cole writing a piece in The Atlantic called “The White-Savior Industrial Complex.” At an event hosted by the Buffett Institute for Global Studies and other campus organizations, Cole spoke to a crowd of about 300 people in Leverone Hall about this concept. He said white people often try to show their charitability by volunteering for or giving money to programs that help people in other countries, especially in African countries like Nigeria, where Cole is from. “People just try to generalize (the white-savior industrial complex), try to soften it a little bit, ‘let’s not bring race into it,’” said Cole, whose comment was met with laughter. “It’s definitely about white people.” After writing the Atlantic article, Cole realized that he wasn’t only criticizing organizations like KONY’s Invisible Children — which he says are triggered by sentimentality — but organizations that he actually respects, like UNICEF.
“The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon and receives awards in the evening,” Cole tweeted in 2012. Cole said Thursday that people who cooperate with groups like these and fall under the “white-savior industrial complex” go out and try to “save the world” without knowing exactly what they’re trying to do. “Why don’t you ask the people you’re trying to save what it is that they need?” he said. He also made a point of saying how people in the U.S. became invested in KONY 2012, something happening on the other side of the world, but don’t pay as much attention to racial issues going on in their own country. He added Americans try to solve other countries’ problems that can only be solved by the countries themselves. He used the Nigerian presidential elections in March as an example, when people took to the ballot boxes to vote out the incumbent president. “As people who want to help the world, we have to think about (how) each place has its local politics,” he said. “And you have to understand those local dynamics before you can say anything about that place.” Madhuri Sathish, a member of the NU Community for Human Rights who attended the event, agreed that » See COLE, page 6
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IN STEP Students march through campus Thursday to raise awareness about sexual violence. Nearly 80 students participated in the Take Back the Night event.
9th Ward candidates debate By JULIA JACOBS
the daily northwestern @juliarebeccaj
Julia Doran/The Daily Northwestern
CONSCIOUS CHARITY Novelist Teju Cole discusses the “white-savior industrial complex” Thursday night. Cole, author of the novel “Open City,” said he was surprised so many people attended the event.
Commissioner of NFL Roger Goodell to speak at NU
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will speak at Northwestern on April 29. Goodell will speak with USA Today sports journalist Christine Brennan (Medill ‘80, ‘81). Brennan recently joined the faculty of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing
Communications as a professor of practice teaching part-time at Medill’s Washington newsroom as part of the new sports journalism graduate program. Goodell will be in Chicago for the NFL draft, which will take place from April 30 to May 2 at the Auditorium Theatre. The Northwestern event, which is not open to the public, will be held at 4 p.m. in the McCormick Foundation Center Forum.
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Five candidates for the 9th Ward alderman spot shared Thursday their visions for the ward and solutions to city issues, such as affordable housing and public transportation. About 80 people attended the debate at the Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave., where one candidate, Kristin Brown, debuted her candidacy after entering the race the previous day. “Why am I doing this? It’s the next logical step,” said Brown, a lifelong Evanston resident and member of Rotary International, who will vacate her position on the McGaw YMCA board of directors in June. “I want to take my community involvement to the next step.” Coleen Burrus left her 9th Ward alderman seat this month for a position at Princeton University. All candidates spoke about prioritizing the $5 million that Northwestern will give the city over the next five years, with the majority of them honing in on needs for infrastructure and mental health programs. “Good government is good infrastructure,” said candidate Brian Miller, chief of staff to Cook County’s 13th district commissioner. “The day-to-day face of government is our streets, our parks, our police cars, our fire trucks …
We have an aging infrastructure that we need to address.” Brown highlighted a need for the Northwestern funds in the wake of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget cuts. She said she would devote some of the grant money to enhancing transportation for lower-income residents, including adding transportation for youth in afterschool programs. Candidate Shawn Jones, an attorney and former reporter who said he brings an “outsider’s perspective” after moving to Evanston in 2008, is focusing his campaign on small businesses and improving affordable housing.
Candidate Schona Buranda, a human relations expert who works at an affordable housing organization in Chicago, said the city has a long way to go to achieve socioeconomic diversity and improve the quality of life for homeless people in Evanston. In the part of the discussion that focused on senior citizens, Candidate Dan Coyne, commissioner of south Evanston’s Ridgeville Park District, suggested a city-run shuttle system with 14-passenger buses to bolster transportation for senior citizens who are often left » See 9TH WARD, page 6
Julia Jacobs/The Daily Northwestern
ARGUMENTS FOR ALDERMAN Kristin Brown, who announced her candidacy for 9th Ward alderman on Wednesday, speaks to a crowd of 80 alongside her opponents. Five candidates for the vacated 9th Ward seat debated at Levy Senior Center on Thursday.
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