Popular talk show host, Ellen Degeneres, came under some criticism recently after posting what she thought was a nice picture from her time in Rwanda.
The picture depicts Ellen, standing in the middle of a field, flanked by several young children; some of whom don't seem too interested in actually being in the picture. As a caption, Ellen wrote, "Thank you to all of the amazing people I met on my trip, who helped make it so special." Just a normal photo, so no harm done, right? WRONG.
The white person going to Africa and taking a picture with poor kids thing is a cliché for a reason, and Ellen isn't exempt from this either. The phenomenon has taken on a new term recently: "poverty porn," meaning the showing off of people in poor living conditions in order to boost your own clout or make yourself look like a good person.
According to Aol, several people have taken offense with Ellen's display, asking her to do better. One person replied with telling her that African people don't travel to America to take pictures with the U.S.'s homeless population. Others called her out for fitting the cliché too closely.
Ellen was in Rwanda with her wife, Portia de Rossi, and various wildlife foundations in order to facilitate the construction of a protected habitat for endangered gorillas, a lifelong dream of hers. Did Ellen really do something wrong here, or are people complaining about nothing?
