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"He is calling for students to wait for people to ask for help." (Emily's quote) I agree to an extent, but what I think he is saying is that maybe (probably) these people won't end up even asking for (first world) help, because we are working within an oppressive societal structure that is the reason they would need "help" in the first place (economic struggles etc). 

I think "help" is maybe a loaded term in this case, because it's assuming that something on the oppressed's side needs to be fixed and that it's their fault that it's broken.

Maybe thinking of revolution and change in a more collaborative way than "help" (a word that implies a dichotomy of broken/bad vs. intact/good/healthy) is the key. Actually, that is what I like about teaching...I think we all know that one of the most powerful ways to enact change in a collaborative way is to teach--to start at the human level...to stop thinking of overwhelming idealistic challenges like fixing "broken" things and remembering that these debates are really about individual people. What I mean is, I love the idea that revolution can start by convincing one student that his/her contribution to the world is a valuable one.

What do you think?