Who Is Charity Really For? | Race, Class & the Saviour Complex

When it comes to charity, are you the person who gives or the person who receives? That’s where this episode started. Then we got to the question we actually needed to answer: “Who is charity ultimately for?” We thought we were sitting down to have a routine conversation about charitable giving. Instead, we uncovered just how starkly race, class and colonial legacies have conditioned us to understand what the word charity even means. Aiwan grew up on a London council estate, receiving free school meals, bright orange uniform vouchers, and jumble-sale clothes. Charity caused her to carry the shame of being poor. Tamanda grew up in Botswana, attended private school and was socialised into “community service” and “charitable giving” as an unquestioned obligation of privilege. Something to be patted on the back for, and document on her CV as a marker of her “good deeds” One learned charity from the position of the recipient; the other from the position of the giver. And when those two experiences collide in the studio, the conversation gets unexpectedly raw. From the "single story" of African famine imagery, to the ethics of megachurch tithing and being awarded a certificate for "holding the sickest child" on a school trip to Gambia, we unpack the stories society tells about who deserves help and who gets to provide it. This is not a neat conversation. It's one about privilege, shame, faith, race, class, white and maybe even Black saviourism! We speak on inequality, community, aid and the psychological need to see ourselves as people who “do good”, while making others feel bad. In this episode: The giver and the given-to: How Aiwan and Tamanda learned charity from opposite sides of the class divide Giving without the performance: Botswana, Botho and community service as a collective social responsibility Weaponising Africa’s ‘Single Story’: What 80s famine appeals and BBC Children in Need did to Black and working class children growing up in Britain. Gambia and the gross certificate: Reflecting on elite school voluntourism trip and the moment Tamanda was awarded a certificate for “holding the sickest child” The megachurch’s no-access tithe table: When institutional giving prioritises private jets while turning away an evicted family in freezing weather Who gets to be the “saviour”?: White saviourism, Black saviourism, voluntourism and the class based hierarchies of “doing good” The ultimate systemic question: Does charity solve inequality, or does it merely soothe the conscience of the privileged while keeping structural inequality intact? 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VdQFiJz2VUY 🔁 Share this episode with someone thinking about inequality, classicism, charity and philanthropy ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow This is Part One of a two-part series interrogating the ethics, psychology and structural politics of charity and philanthropy. Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTok Instagram LinkedIn AiAi Studios Roots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.