Are we unintentionally teaching our students that all minorities need help?

I’ve been wrestling with this for a while but unsure of how to best get my point across without sounding like a jerk.  But, as summer is getting closer and missions trip training and preparation is happening in many places I thought I’d take a stab at this. I’ve been a youth worker of some sort for over 20 years.  In the majority of those years I’ve done some sort of cross cultural missions experience with students.  In most of those situations it’s almost always been us going somewhere that a different culture of people need help and my youth groups which have always tended to be filled with white kids “take care of them.” A major problem I see happening is that our students associate particular people groups and races as always needing help.  They classify them as needy and it doesn’t matter where they see them they can’t shake it.  This is incredibly unfair and unjust to many people who are actually doing really well but get lumped into the same groups in our students minds. I always cringe when I feel like the “great white hope” has come into any place and we believe we are making a significant contribution.  Sometimes we are but at what cost for that community. So how do we break this cycle? Here’s a couple thoughts. Some I’ve done, some that I haven’t. 1. If your church is in an area that draws from one particular ethnic group you’ve got to find some healthy ways of exposure.  You can do this by partnering with other more diverse youth groups to do anything from a fun activity to an actual missions project. 2. Before going to a place where your students will be exposed to a particular group and needs make sure to talk about the issues that have made those needs so great and focus on the macro issues affect more than just that group.  I realize this sentence was probably not written well so here’s what I mean.  If you are going to Haiti you can talk about the history of  Haiti and the way that the “system” has made it so difficult for people to break free from the bad cycle. But, then apply that same concept to where you currently live and talk about how there are “systems” here in the US that cause the same problems for people. 3. Do all you can to separate race from need.  Similar to #2 above you have to make sure your students understand that there are not any characteristics in any particular people group that cause these things to happen to them.  Injustice and systemic problems affect everyone the same way. 4. Have your students do research on people from particular locations where you will be doing work and learn about people who are doing ok.  The key here is balance. If you only ever exposure your students to the negative side of any particular area that’s what they will think the whole area is defined by. Just some simple thoughts by me. I’d love to know what you think.