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All Things Dillard - Part 5


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Derick's comment sounds racist to our ears.

But I think if they are in a rural and impoverished part of the world that doesn't see many tourists of different sizes, shapes and colors, that's exactly what the locals might have called Izzy.

When I worked in a rural part of South America years ago, comments on my blue eyes were common. Local doctors said the average baby size was 5.5 pounds, and a baby 7-pounder was a really big boy. I have no doubt Izz is getting comments on his size and his eye colour and possibly even his skin color.

Derrick is sooooo tone deaf in repeating the comment publicly, though. The Dillards are just little kids playing at this.

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My guess is that between Derjill's limited Spanish and the locals limited English, Izzy's features something they can communicate about. Or even have a topic to talk about. Hell, I have command of the English language, but if I met those 2 idiots, I'd use Izzy as a topic of convo as I wouldn't want to hear their Jesus schpeil.

Derick is a moron so he's attaching significance like he's wowing the villagers with his little Christlike child. Instead, he could've said, it's been great having Izzy here to break the ice with the people... before we grind them into submission,,,,muah-ha-ha-ha

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Derrick is sooooo tone deaf in repeating the comment publicly, though. The Dillards are just little kids playing at this.

They're just two normal American tourists who haven't bothered to learn the local language or customs, thinking they are so speshul for being different from the locals. Derick looks like an utter Dweeb in his flashy sunglasses.

So Jill and Derick have pocketed over a quarter million dollars from TLC and magazines, then have the gall to put their hands out to the public for donations so they can live in a gated, guarded hacienda in South America?

Sounds like most of these televangelists who preach about poverty from their multi-million dollar enclaves. Hopefully they aren't asking the locals for donations of money, but it sounds like the locals are having to keep house and clean for Jill and Derick. What a couple parasites they are.

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I hate the Dillards more and more every day. They're not there to help, they're just there to try to convert people (who are probably already Christians) into seeing Christ THEIR way.

Also why do they need your SSN, drivers license, checking account info, etc when you donate? This sounds like a total scam. Some leg humper is going to get their identity stolen.

I just emailed and asked. Made sure to add some god blessings to make sure they knew I was legit. :lol: :roll:

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My guess is that between Derjill's limited Spanish and the locals limited English, Izzy's features something they can communicate about. Or even have a topic to talk about. Hell, I have command of the English language, but if I met those 2 idiots, I'd use Izzy as a topic of convo as I wouldn't want to hear their Jesus schpeil.

Derick is a moron so he's attaching significance like he's wowing the villagers with his little Christlike child. Instead, he could've said, it's been great having Izzy here to break the ice with the people... before we grind them into submission,,,,muah-ha-ha-ha

Yeah, if he'd phrased it like "the area where we are working doesn't get many foreigners passing through, so Israel's become quite the celebrity; we're so glad that we've found common ground with the locals in our shared love of children", it would be a kind of cute story, but acting like the locals are practically worshiping Israel like this is The Man Who Would Be King is really icky.

Also, I would have a lot more respect for them if they chose to live like the locals (a la the Peace Corps), but if they're living in some big gated house (which granted, in some countries those are the norm for the middle class on up), they're no better than those crooked televangelists who claim to preach the word of Christ from their mansions.

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I just emailed and asked. Made sure to add some god blessings to make sure they knew I was legit. :lol: :roll:

You inspired me! I emailed (through their website) and asked where the money goes. My sign off?

"Your sister in Christ,"

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The thing is, missionaries really do believe that their whiteness is inspiring to the people they're trying to covert, so the blue-eyed baby mention isn't a shock. It's not even a subconsciousness thing--they honestly think that seeing white Christian Americans makes people feel hopeful.

Never forget, Fundie=Racist, always, no matter how "sweet" they act.

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Where are you seeing that? I went to their donation page and they just had the usual options - credit card or EFT .

Click on "Donate" and then "Terms and Conditions." That page gives a list of information collected on the people who fill out forms and use those pages, including the possibility of one's social security number. :shock:

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Handmaiden of Dog wrote:

...she probably doesn't have much else to do besides take care of Izzy-- no house cleaning, little or no shopping, possibly no cooking at all. She may not even have to do her own laundry. ...

MatthewDuggar wrote:

Are the missions camps really like this? It sounds like a all-inclusive resort. Where do I sign up?

Jill and Derick as Head Honchos or whatever their title will have a separate room to themselves for privacy so Jill only has to clean one room instead of her entire mansion at home. The locals probably cook, clean, and possibly do laundry. So yes, I see their mission as more of a vacation than a job. Plus for a woman I can tell you that part of the feeling of being on vacation is because you can sit down and not have that nagginng feeling of "I really should wash the kitchen floor, I really should do a load of whites, I really should clean out the refrigerator."

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I'Ve been Googling around looking for a better place to donate to in El Salvador. I think this organization fits what I'm looking for.

https://coarpeacemission.org/

I like that it is educating the orphans and also providing for their daily needs. How nice is it to donate $250 for tuition and books, to $100 for food, to $50 for clinical visits to $10 for a birthday party!

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Click on "Donate" and then "Terms and Conditions." That page gives a list of information collected on the people who fill out forms and use those pages, including the possibility of one's social security number. :shock:

That really looks like just some boiler plate terms and conditions and privacy policy language they pulled from somewhere.

When you go to actually donate none of that information is collected, that I could see. I wasn't going to actually give them money in Oder to be sure there wasn't a hidden page asking for all that and the promise of a first born child 8-) .

I used to be an administrator of a non- profit social service agency. We didn't do international work, but I know there is often information you do need to collect and give to the government to ensure you aren't a front for terrorists or money laundering. Seriously, some of the questions include - " Do you fund terrorist activities?" . They, or whoever they got the language from, may need to provide social security numbers for donations over $5,000 to organizations based in certain countries or engaged in specific activities, for example. I don't think they probably needed that language in there, but probably just picked a boiler plate that covered every eventuality. Kind of like when you click " yes" that you read the 47 pages of updated terms and conditions when you update your software. :?

To the white blue eyed huge baby. I think he worded it very awkwardly. But people probably are cooing over the baby and commenting on his distinctive characteristics, like you would with any baby.

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The thing is, missionaries really do believe that their whiteness is inspiring to the people they're trying to covert, so the blue-eyed baby mention isn't a shock. It's not even a subconsciousness thing--they honestly think that seeing white Christian Americans makes people feel hopeful.

Never forget, Fundie=Racist, always, no matter how "sweet" they act.

This was one of the reasons I ended up leaving my job in rural China. I felt really uncomfortable with a lot of the rhetoric my organization was espousing about bringing foreign teachers to rural schools. Cultural exchange is all well and good (I tried to do fun stuff with my students like building a lesson on the present progressive tense around the lyrics to Don't Stop Believin', celebrating Super Secular Christmas so as not to run afoul of the authorities, teaching funny slang words and idioms as a time filler if they behaved, etc.), and learning language from a native speaker makes a huge difference, but my organization had a distinctly "you're a good teacher because you're from the West" attitude, which is, well, wrong.

That's not to say that I don't think that it's good to go and see new places and volunteer and work abroad and do charity/NGO work, but make sure that you're not going in as a Mighty Whitey savior. Be useful or fill a gap (for instance, Doctors Without Borders and religious based charities that are more about linking up to the wider world and helping isolated/marginalized communities within that religion or meeting spiritual needs that are not met), don't take away jobs from locals, and don't act like you know better, because you likely don't.

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That makes a lot of sense when you think about it, Mama Mia, in terms of the list being more of a boilerplate for the terms and conditions. As I was reading through the page, it honestly looked more like a catch-all terms and conditions page when compared to actual information that would be collected when someone makes a donation.

I wonder if they should or could amend parts of it, though - I think the Dillards would put off some of their most ardent fans from donating if the fans read through and saw the part about social security information being collected.

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That makes a lot of sense when you think about it, Mama Mia, in terms of the list being more of a boilerplate for the terms and conditions. As I was reading through the page, it honestly looked more like a catch-all terms and conditions page when compared to actual information that would be collected when someone makes a donation.

I wonder if they should or could amend parts of it, though - I think the Dillards would put off some of their most ardent fans from donating if the fans read through and saw the part about social security information being collected.

You give their die hard fans WAY too much credit, there is no way they are reading a thing.

I think they probably stole the boilerplate from somewhere else, since god forbid they actually have to think about it or pay money to get one done correctly by a lawyer. It's always on the cheap with them. Despite my ever lowering opinion of them I don't believe it's likely or even realistically possible they are going to collect the social security numbers of their donors.

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While I do agree that the "blue-eyed, white baby" comment was not in good taste, I can see where they are coming from. I went to Mexico in college with a friend who has red hair. Everywhere we went people were always coming up to him and touching his hair.

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I don't remember if I reiterated my belief that they're hangin' with Mike Schadt since their announcement. The dates line up nicely with the event calendar on soshope.org.

I wonder what kind of language training they got. Book learning is important, of course, but Salvadoran Spanish has its own dialect and phrasing, just like any other Spanish (or English) speaking country has evolved from the colonial source. The best way to learn to communicate with people you're living with is to get in there and listen and reply to them when THEY speak. I'll bet Jill tries to correct whoever tells her that dog=chucho --eg "no, dog=perro, my textbook says so" -- instead of understanding that's exactly how many people say dog in ES.

Whatevs, I'm jealous. I hope she enjoys all the pan con pavo chumpe they'll probably feed her. :cracking-up:

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I think ‘Holding the big blue-eyed white baby’ or some variant should be a new Post count. :lol:

It is edging on racist, though to be fair, I worked in a fairly remote part of China where I was the first white person/foreigner in general that some people had ever seen or met (it's quite rural and isolated and doesn't have much tourist infrastructure, unlike places like Dali or Lijiang, which get foreign tourists who want Tibet without dealing with the travel permits). I would have people come up to me and snap photos of me with their smartphones. It got to the point where I would jokingly say that I was charging 5 RMB (about a dollar) per photo. Sometimes little kids would point at me and yell "WAIGUOREN! WAIGUOREN!" (Foreigner! Foreigner!) If you're working or traveling in an area not frequented by foreigners, you're going to stick out and people will be curious. Derick's phrasing, however, was quite uncomfortable.

I spent some time in Asia and I got attention for being blond/blue eyed. I was hit on by men :embarrassed: and had photos taken of me. It was really embarrassing. so not to defend the Dill’s, but I’m sure that everyone dose want to hold the baby. (who doesn’t want to hold the baby?) the thing is I didn’t tell anyone other then a few close friends. When you say it the way he did, to the whole world, it just sounds so wrong.

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I think ‘Holding the big blue-eyed white baby’ or some variant should be a new Post count. :lol:

I spent some time in Asia and I got attention for being blond/blue eyed. I was hit on by men :embarrassed: and had photos taken of me. It was really embarrassing. so not to defend the Dill’s, but I’m sure that everyone dose want to hold the baby. (who doesn’t want to hold the baby?) the thing is I didn’t tell anyone other then a few close friends. When you say it the way he did, to the whole world, it just sounds so wrong.

Having traveled to majority non white countries too and been singled out as a white person I don't think it's necessarily a "white is superior" thing always. I think sometimes people who've never seen a certain ethnicity IRL react weirdly to it. When I was in Japan last year, for example I had a guy say "nice to meet you" several times in a serious accent and wave at me outside a train station, and a reheaded girl I know told me someone took her picture on the train. But I know black people visiting Japan can also garner similar reactions so I think it's more of a thing about the country being 99% the same ethnicity, and most of the ethnic minority being other Asians. Having been to several countries in Central America (but not El Salvador) I think similar things go on, but since I have darker hair and eyes, I stood out less than my blonde, blue eyes sister did.

But I agree, the way they talked about it reeked of ethnocentricism and white savior. Then again, so does the whole idea of these mission trips. I mean, they aren't going to Ireland or Spain or Italy to convert all the Catholics...

Edited for clarification, and again to add:

Having the experiences of being hit on while traveling in Central America, among other places, maybe random men hitting on you can be more of a sign of machismo/sexist attitudes in a culture then anything. But I think racialized attitudes certainly come into play.

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My step-mother was born in Colombia and grew up in Venezuela and apparently got teased a lot because she had light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. It wasn't like, "Wow, look at your glorious Aryan features." It was, "Wow, you're so pale. What's wrong with you? Are you sick?"

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It was a stupid thing to put in the blog. I have no doubt that in fact there may be some fascination by locals with Izzy, but to put it in the blog sounds condescendingly racist.

Getting away from the family compound is a good thing, but at this moment in time neither Jill or Derick seem to have much sense, or ability to think outside of their fundie box. In the early Derick episodes, he seemed like a cool, chill kind of guy. I could imagine him rock climbing, Parkour, kayaking, etc. He kind of had a bit of a hipster vibe. I always questioned his judgment just based on the story that he supposedly sought out JB as a prayer partner, but still I thought he might be a devout but more liberal Christian (Yes they do exist).

But Derick was apparently so in need of a father figure, and desirous of what he perceived to be a big loving family, that he just seems to have lost himself.

I keep wondering what he did in Nepal. Did he just pass out tracts, or did he do useful work? Did he really attempt to acclimate with the local people? Did he respect their culture and values? If So, then perhaps after a few months of the ridiculous shit that we have seen SOS does, Derick will wake up and realize that he could be doing more. And as for Jill, If she is smart enough to not get pg soon, perhaps she could again study midwifery, or at least assist in someway with child care needs. She at least has lots of experience with that. She also apparently can cook for large numbers of people so she could be useful that way as well.

There may even be a school nearby where she could formally study midwifery or nursing. She won't do it of course, but ...

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It was a stupid thing to put in the blog. I have no doubt that in fact there may be some fascination by locals with Izzy, but to put it in the blog sounds condescendingly racist.

Getting away from the family compound is a good thing, but at this moment in time neither Jill or Derick seem to have much sense, or ability to think outside of their fundie box. In the early Derick episodes, he seemed like a cool, chill kind of guy. I could imagine him rock climbing, Parkour, kayaking, etc. He kind of had a bit of a hipster vibe. I always questioned his judgment just based on the story that he supposedly sought out JB as a prayer partner, but still I thought he might be a devout but more liberal Christian (Yes they do exist).

But Derick was apparently so in need of a father figure, and desirous of what he perceived to be a big loving family, that he just seems to have lost himself.

I keep wondering what he did in Nepal. Did he just pass out tracts, or did he do useful work? Did he really attempt to acclimate with the local people? Did he respect their culture and values? If So, then perhaps after a few months of the ridiculous shit that we have seen SOS does, Derick will wake up and realize that he could be doing more. And as for Jill, If she is smart enough to not get pg soon, perhaps she could again study midwifery, or at least assist in someway with child care needs. She at least has lots of experience with that. She also apparently can cook for large numbers of people so she could be useful that way as well.

There may even be a school nearby where she could formally study midwifery or nursing. She won't do it of course, but ...

Re: Derick, I too have always wondered what he was doing in Nepal for two years. Was it voluntourism, or purposeful work? One will never know...

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I did a homestay in a village in southern Africa, and the constant comments about my skin and hair color did get exhausting. Kids would follow me yelling their word for a white person, "lekgoa," (which was originally a derogatory term, but that doesn't mean people use it that way now), and asking to touch my hair. One woman told me her toddler was crying because he had never seen a white person before and it scared him. (She just thought it was funny; she wasn't implying I did anything wrong.)

It's definitely true that when you're somewhere without a lot of white people you can get a lot of comments about it. Something about that comment did still rub me the wrong way, though.

It kind of reminds me of how European explorers told stories about the native people thinking they were gods because they had never seen a white person before (and somehow the explorers knew this despite not being able to speak the language). I'm sure they did react to seeing white people for the first time, but there's not much evidence that they actually believed the explorers were gods. I think many white people, whether they realize it or not, have a tendency to think that everyone else sees white skin as somehow superior when really those people might not be admiring white skin but just reacting to difference.

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Having traveled to majority non white countries too and been singled out as a white person I don't think it's necessarily a "white is superior" thing always. I think sometimes people who've never seen a certain ethnicity IRL react weirdly to it. When I was in Japan last year, for example I had a guy say "nice to meet you" several times in a serious accent and wave at me outside a train station, and a reheaded girl I know told me someone took her picture on the train. But I know black people visiting Japan can also garner similar reactions so I think it's more of a thing about the country being 99% the same ethnicity, and most of the ethnic minority being other Asians. Having been to several countries in Central America (but not El Salvador) I think similar things go on, but since I have darker hair and eyes, I stood out less than my blonde, blue eyes sister did.

But I agree, the way they talked about it reeked of ethnocentricism and white savior. Then again, so does the whole idea of these mission trips. I mean, they aren't going to Ireland or Spain or Italy to convert all the Catholics...

Edited for clarification, and again to add:

Having the experiences of being hit on while traveling in Central America, among other places, maybe random men hitting on you can be more of a sign of machismo/sexist attitudes in a culture then anything. But I think racialized attitudes certainly come into play.

Oh, racialized attitudes are definitely a thing in China. I remember one of my students (who were a good deal darker-skinned than kids from urban areas since they work in the fields with their families when they're not at school) telling me that she wished she could have pretty white skin like mine. I told her that I was just born like this, and my skin was not any prettier than her skin, because all skin tones are beautiful, and she was beautiful just as she was. I hope it stuck at least a little. Some of it is definitely Western beauty standards, though China was very firmly on the Lighter Skin = Prettier train long before white people were even on their radar. Western beauty standards and racial attitudes just add fuel to a very unfortunate fire.

On the flip side, a black colleague in the same program had students who would try to touch her hair (she did not straighten or relax her hair, so it was often in twists or just out and curly) and would just straight up ask her why her skin was so black. They also asked her how she could be American, because Americans are white. It often upset her, but she found a lot of humor in it too, and was glad that her students came to accept her and think more critically about tolerance and diversity (where we worked was the most ethnically diverse region in China, which doesn't seem like it's saying much, but there's a lot of prejudice against Uighurs, Tibetans, and Burmese migrants).

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I doubt Derrick meant the blue eyed baby comment as racist. I have two blonde, blue eyed toddlers and everytime we go out they get "compliments" on their appearance. I think people just coo over babies, my nephew has deep brown eyes and he also got regular "compliments" on his eyes.

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I doubt Derrick meant the blue eyed baby comment as racist. I have two blonde, blue eyed toddlers and everytime we go out they get "compliments" on their appearance. I think people just coo over babies, my nephew has deep brown eyes and he also got regular "compliments" on his eyes.

I don't think he meant it as racist either. But that's the point. They don't think at all!!

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