TikToker Kylie Brewer Says Mission Trips Often Act Like 'White Saviorism' and Calls Them 'Modern-Day Colonization'

# What Kylie Brewer said Kylie Brewer posted a TikTok titled "'Missionary work' is white saviorism." In the video she said, "People who have done mission trips are genuinely some of the worst people I've ever met, and specifically the worst white people I've ever met." She argued that many mission trips mix aid with evangelism in ways that come across as patronizing and self-serving.

# Main criticisms Brewer raises Brewer singled out three recurring behaviors she objects to:

• Traveling to developing countries, taking posed photos with local children, and posting those images on social media with religious messaging.
• Using missions as a way to claim moral status or to prove one's goodness, especially when participants' lives revolve mainly around their church or youth group.
• Providing aid in conditional ways — withholding resources or control and attaching conditions such as accepting religious teaching.

She called those behaviors "incredibly patronizing" and said mission trips often do more to serve participants' image than local communities' needs.

# Her view on effectiveness and power dynamics Brewer questioned whether mission trips actually help. She said that groups sometimes withhold resources or control how aid can be used, rather than giving communities the authority and means to build what they need. She framed that approach as a form of modern-day colonization and urged people who are considering mission trips to reconsider.

# How she framed motivations Brewer suggested some participants take mission trips because they lack other meaningful activity in their personal lives and want to showcase themselves as good people. She described that behavior as "gross" and linked it to a white savior complex.

# Tone and closing plea She ends the TikTok with a direct request: if you're considering taking a mission trip, "please, please don't." The video pairs her statements with the original sound and social tags including #leftist, #antiracism, #ushistory, #humanrights, and #sociology.

# Source and publication The video and Brewer's comments were reported by Sarah M. Stone on WhereIsTheBuzz. The site reproduced Brewer's statements and summarized her main claims about photography, conditional aid, and perceived motivations.

# What this brief does not cover

# Concrete takeaway Brewer's message is a direct call to reconsider how and why people participate in mission trips: she urges alternatives to short-term foreign missions that, in her view, center the participant rather than empowering local people.