A review by madqueeen
No More Heroes: Grassroots Challenges to the Savior Mentality by Jordan Flaherty

3.0

I think the issues Flaherty brought up were important, and the voices he elevated throughout were critical to the purpose of this book. However, I found Flaherty falling into the savior mentality he himself was fighting against. He was the one who was choosing which voices to elevate, which voices were the most important to hear. While I agree it is the privileged’s duty to seek out, listen to, and uplift the voices of marginalized leaders, I don’t think this book follows those principles. Recommend books, articles, essays, research, movements, etc. by marginalized folks. I don’t find it necessary to have a white cis man write a book arguing against saviorism, when he could have just shared resources created by marginalized folks that argue his points. I’d much rather read those.

He also had a lot of personal anecdotes he used as citations. For example, he claimed that social media/Twitter played no role in the Arab Spring. When I looked at his citation for that claim, it was his own personal retelling of what he’d heard at one specific event in 2011. I’ve studied the Arab Spring through the lens of social media, and wholeheartedly disagree that it didn’t play a role.

Anyway, it was an okay book.