Jordan Flaherty on Grassroots Responses to Savior Mentality

Tristan Taormino welcomes veteran anti-racist activist Jordan Flaherty to discuss his book No More Heroes: Grassroots Responses to the Savior Mentality. No More Heroes traces "savior mentality” in pop culture, politics, non-profits, and major events including Batman, Teach for America, the flood of young white activists to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and Project ROSE. We talk about how white saviors often begin with good intentions and where it goes wrong as well as how different grassroots responses can both help people on the ground and challenge the oppressive systems that undergird racism, poverty, and inequity. Quote: “I don’t believe you can get rich while doing good. Wealth and justice are mutually exclusive.” Plus, we talk about his newest short film on the community of resistance behind New Orleans’ historic protests including members of Southern Solidarity.

Jordan Flaherty is an award-winning journalist, producer, and author. He has appeared as a guest on a wide range of television and radio shows. He is the author of the books No More Heroes: Grassroots Responses to the Savior Mentality and Floodlines: Community and Resistance From Katrina to the Jena Six and has produced television documentaries and news reports for Democracy Now, teleSUR, The Laura Flanders Show, and Al Jazeera, including as a producer on the Emmy, Peabody, and duPont award-winning program Fault Lines on Al Jazeera. Jordan’s print journalism has been featured in dozens of major publications around the world.

Jordan has produced award-winning fiction films, documentaries, music videos, and news reports, and his reporting and analysis has been published in several anthologies, including Live From Palestine, What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race and the State of the Nation; What is a City; Red State Rebels; Bury The Dead. He has appeared as an actor in HBO's television series Treme playing himself. He produced the fiction film Chocolate Babies, which won best picture awards at South by Southwest and New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.