Comic Relief ditch 'white saviour' celebrities such as Ed Sheeran and Dermot O'Leary
 

Comic Relief ditch 'white saviour' celebrities such as Ed Sheeran and Dermot O'Leary from 'poverty porn' fundraising films

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• Comic Relief to stop using celebrities to tell stories of people living in poverty
• Comes after clip of Ed Sheeran offering to pay for boy's housing was slammed
• David Lammy MP also criticised charity for portrayal of Africa as poverty-ridden

Comic Relief has stopped using celebrities such as Ed Sheeran and Eddie Redmayne for 'poverty porn' appeals that reinforce white saviour stereotypes.

Liz Warner, CEO of Comic Relief, said the organisation had taken its 'first steps' towards change.

It comes after David Lammy MP slammed the charity for portraying Africa as a continent of poverty-stricken victims and stereotypes.

Aid watchdog SAIH also criticised a video of pop star Sheeran meeting a street boy in Liberia and offering to pay for his housing.

The watchdog said: 'This is a video is about Ed Sheeran. It’s literally poverty tourism.

'The video should be less about Ed shouldering the burden alone but rather appealing to the wider world to step in.

'Massive improvement in the end. But is Ed Sheeran willing to pay for the boy's housing forever?

'What an irresponsible thing to do, and for this video to glorify that is terrible.'

Other fundraising challenges fronted by celebrities included Dermet O'Leary's 24-hour Comic Relief Dance Challenge in 2015.

Ms Warner said Comic Relief had replaced celebrity storytellers with Africans, following a record-breaking 24-hour telethon that raised £55.4million in 2016.

She said it allowed Africans to speak for themselves.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ing-films.html


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The main thing is - does it get people donating? If so, keep doing it, and let people moan about "white saviours" while the charity benefits.

that's the point of the exercise, and why celebs are used in the first place. Funny they don't seem interested in that side of it

It sounds a bit weird that people are moaning about celebrities promoting the charity, even if it's embellished videos by people like Ed Sheeran, if it does the charity some good then that's all that should matter surely?

Exactly. I only watch CiN or similar shows because I like the celebrities involved, or because I want to see the Call the Midwife skit or the Dr Who trailer/clip, or to see the bands perform etc. and if the stories being presented make me feel so inclined, I'll make a little donation.

I'm conflicted here, I can see the 'white saviour' aspect that said hoe are comic relief going to reach the audiences to donate without the draw of 'pop culture' celebs?

By filming Africans talking about their lives, apparently.

They whole thing needs scrapping

I do think that there are other ways to encourage people to donate than this and I can completely understand why people disagree with it. Sometimes I've even thought to myself, 'Isn't that a bit insulting? What is that going to accomplish?' Yes, perhaps people are influenced by seeing their favourite artist/band flying out to an LEDC for a couple of days and showing us what they're living like, but we're not learning anything new about these conditions. I remember when I was younger, about seven or eight, my father showed me a newspaper clipping with a story about how young children were drinking their own urine because they were that dehydrated... I've helped to raise money for and donate to these charities since then. My point is, a celebrity has never encouraged me to donate. It was that conversation I had with my father eighteen years ago.

Of course, these celebrities play a good sized role in encouraging people to donate, but there are better ways of doing it. I don't feel as though it's necessary for them to fly over to poverty-stricken areas and fall into this "knight in shining armour" role, treating these countries like a tourist attraction, walking through their home and pointing out everything that's wrong about it. Could it encourage people to donate? Maybe. But it's at the expense of those who are less well-off than us.

We wouldn't be doing it if they weren't would we?

Not all the celebs are white that highlight issues in Africa, I can't help but think it's counterproductive, for genuinely involved people like Ed Sheeran to reduce him to his skin colour to prohibit him from contributing his money and efforts is unfair and effectively prejudiced.

The UK is predominantly a white country, there will be white people donating, what's wrong with white people promoting the cause? :/

In the name of inclusion and integration this is a bad call, worse it's regressive. The image of the colonialist white saviour was nothing like Ed Sheeran... surely that's apparent?

It's not just that it's insulting, it furthers an image of Africa as "poor and dirty" that actively damages Africa, stops African nations from being taken seriously as real nations, and KEEPS African people in a cycle of poverty. African nations need help being taken seriously as places where real trade, tourism, and economic development can occur for things to ever change in any meaningful way... they don't need Ed Sheeran digging a well whilst wiping a single tear from his cheek.

It's not really about the literal colour of his skin in my opinion; these videos and propaganda are just as much of a problem when it's black "rich western celebs" sitting wringing their hands.

And funny how often its the artists who have something to sell themselves that miraculously are able to donate "their time" to the cause.....

It's not an image, there are huge swathes that are poor and dirty, you can't coddle people from that. Whether Ed is there wiping tears or not they will still be there still be poor and still be dirty... What's the alternative?

Govts don't decide who to trade with based on how many telethons their country has, corruption and exploitation play a part.

Celebs could still provide entertainment and make appeals, just not star in those reports from Africa. Instead let the locals tell the story.

It's still highlighting the issue though isn't it and bringing it to a wider audience, as I said what's the alternative, if it's a corrupt government failing their citizens how do you convey that to a wider audience... how does it help those people survive now?

They do don't they? There are lots of personal accounts on comic relief. There might be one or two celebs that make the effort to travel to Africa to actually report annually... It can't be Lenny Henry forever :/

yeah
there's always a new single/book/show/film etc

i'm not interested in the video stories, its always contrived to invoke an emotional response and make you part with cash. Very little of it reflects how life really is there. Go to any city in the world and you could film a kid experiencing hard times. It's emotional blackmail, and shouldn't be broadcast with out a "you are being exploited" warning.

then have charity workers do that, imo

Part of the reason for them being poor and dirty is that people consider them to be poor and dirty, though. It's a vicious circle, and parading these nations as victims on national television doesn't help matters. They might raise £50 million but that is absolute piss in the ocean when it comes down to the sort of economic troubles that these countries have.

Many African nations themselves have said that rather than feeling sorry for them and sending chump change, it would be much better if people simply started buying from these countries, visiting these countries, and basically allowing them to function as a "real" country.

The perception of the African continent as the world's poor neighbour is massively damaging.

Are you saying the people depicted are actually in real life comfortably off?

Have you ever been to Goa.... How has that concept helped the poor there?
Billions are spent there and there are STILL areas of absolute and total destitution, undeveloped urban areas.
We have great trading links with India so what's gone wrong there then?

I would direct that question to the people who run business and government there. ie the people who live there.

it is emotional blackmail and it goes for all charity appeals, the clue is in the name: appeal for charity by presenting the cause and asking for help
all charities do that; I donate to Dogs Trust and rspca and the letters I get are this and that dog is in a bad way (cue upsetting phots), give some more and we'll be able to save them