Colleen, Lynn Leigh, and Casey

Service: to supply a person with something.

“I want us to talk about why, in the context of conflicting interests and the historical dominance of one racial or gender group over another, it is possible that ’service,’ in and of itself, can have racist or sexist outcomes despite good intentions. For example, I resist the notion of service learning for U.S. students in the Philippines, my country of origin, because I think it perpetuates a ‘colonial mentality’ among Filipinos and a kind of ‘manifest destiny’ amoung U.S. students. To my way of thinking, the results of the history of U.S. dominance in the Philippines is so overwhelming that it is almost impossible for a U.S. student doing what is regarded on both sides as ’service’ not to deliver a message of superiority.”

How does the notion of modern Americans supplying less wealthy countries with goods and services effect the people being serviced; what are the racial and cultural ramifications?

Americans often do without thinking causing harm to others unintentionally. It is important for Americans to be more aware of what effect they have on the people they are “serving” and how these people view them as a result of their actions.

Another question we could be asking is “do the people Americans provide services to really want our ‘help?”‘ It is hard as Americans to really know the impact we have on others. As Americans we seem to have a mindset that since we have a more developed country (often viewed by Americans as the best country), that it is our duty to help those we percieve to be less fortunate, regardless of whether our help has been asked for or not.

Hopefully our question will lead American service learners in foreign countries, or in any cultural setting different from their own, to stop and think about the effects of their service, and whether it is really needed/desired, and possibly even humble them a little.