Celeb Donations Are About Accolades Rather Than Making A Difference
This pandemic in the US is showing a clear delineation between the haves and have nots in our society. We are also seeing who is worthy of saving versus who doesn’t do enough or isn’t educated enough to have an opinion.
Expectations at this point are low for many celebrities to understand there’s a clear difference in the struggles we will experience because of this.
The reason “eat the rich" is spreading on socials is because our celebrities are giving us songs rather than aid and you have some, like Jeff Bezos, so desperate not to dip into their millions that they are asking for contributions from people who are literally out of work! The level of disgust many are feeling is, unless this significantly turns around, going to effect a lot of these celebs incomes when they look for people to buy their albums, see their movies, buy their makeup or clothes after this pandemic passes and realize the crickets they hear is our silent middle finger raised.
So let’s explore our problematic pandemic celebs who seem to be unable to read the room and understand the severity of the current situation.
Mark Zuckerberg
One of the original places online for misinformation, lies and propaganda, Facebook’s creator just kind of shrugs off the major issues with his site and only gets upset when there’s accountability. Still, like Trump, he has fans who seem to view him as friends to the “working class".
He’s donated 700,000 masks and is pledging 25 million to aid the fight against COVID-19.
NET WORTH: 55.1 BILLION
DONATION: 25 MILLION
PERCENTAGE of INCOME: 0.00045%
This is the equivalent of having $600 to freely donate for a crisis but donating $0.01 (rounded because the actual amount $0.0027 is not even a cent).
Kim Kardashian
No one would expect her to be anything but shallow and narcissistic. It’s doubtful that any “good deed" she does is based on a moral plane. She may even hear ka-ching as she plots or appraises a person or cause’s value to elevate her and her bank accounts.
The amount of vitriol she may be getting currently is well deserved. Honestly, for all her shallowness she is intelligent and particularly crafty when it comes to earning and she knows how to play with outrage culture.
She recently posted on her IG that her company for her shapewear, Skims, is “dedicated to donating” 1 million dollars to those affected by COVID-19. They’re restocking the shapewear and “by doing so, [will] be able to bring relief.” So, what it sounds like is a carefully worded “if you buy we will donate" sales grab. Either way, she could win…usually. Because even if she worded it that way to incite outrage, it gets word of mouth going so typically she would still profit from sales. However, the amount of anger and pain people are feeling, given the fact that few are working and millions are literally a part of “those affected", may cause this to go in a direction she hadn’t anticipated.
NET WORTH: 350 MILLION
SALARY: 80 MILLION PER YEAR
DONATION: 1 MILLION (VIA SALES?)
PERCENTAGE of INCOME: 350M (0.003%), 80M (0.0125%)
If you decided to donate this percentage out of $600 you could give to “make a difference" you would be giving either $0.02 or $0.08 (rounded from $0.018 and $0.075 respectively).
Kylie Jenner
Shouldn’t be surprising that Kim Kardashian’s sibling would also see 1 million as the magic number — it seems to be popular for a lot of celebrities.
NET WORTH: 1 BILLION
DONATION: 1 MILLION
PERCENTAGE of INCOME: 0.001%
Out of $600 to donate you would give $0.01 (rounding it to the nearest cent because the actual amount is $0.006).
Jeff Bezos
The Amazon tycoon that said they never asked for individual donations for their Relief Aid, but it’s set up so that individual donations are possible. Yuck. This guy is raking in money, the same way the others do, through our purchases, and with that he lines the pockets of the wealthy, while conditions and treatment of the individuals actually working to ensure our orders are processed, products are made and shipped are worker in hazardous subpar conditions before the COVID-19 pandemic was even here.
NET WORTH: 119.9 BILLION
DONATION: 25 MILLION
PERCENTAGE of INCOME: 0.0002%
So, again, out of the $600 you have to donate, you are choosing to give less than a $0.01 ($0.0012).
Keep in mind that it’s going to depend on how you view this. There are still so many arguing that donating something is “better than nothing” and if that’s where you are, any amount they give will be praised. However, it isn’t only about the amount, but the fact that they can do more and they are choosing not to. Should the government be stepping up? Of course.
But should we all be telling that to individuals who are mourning loved ones, who can’t even be in the room with them during their final moments. People are dying and saying “it’s not my job” doesn’t change that. People will be facing evictions and increased debt by the time this passes and there who can ease the burdens both emotionally, physically and financially and they aren’t doing enough.
Religiously speaking, God points out this is one of the reasons why the the wealthy will not enter heaven because when a person who is poor donates in ratio to their possessions they donate a lot more and so it has more value. The wealthy don’t give what they can afford to, but what soothes their conscience and will usually silence dissent.
Seeing a celebrity that has millions offer a pittance based on sales is finally bringing many to fully comprehend what the poorest and/or marginalized among us have long since come to terms with: the wealthy do not give a damn about any of us. Pittance donating is one of the most grotesque forms performative unity.
Hearing the wealthy gripe about the hardships of staying indoors, faux unity, and these “see I gave a little" donations are pushing people to a unique level of dislike for the wealthy. Even Friday night, the trending hashtag on Twitter was RichFolkLockdownProblems. World problems dealing with healthcare, hunger and poverty could be solved easily. The simple truth is the wealthy elite need and want it to stay.
Want to show you give a damn? How about donating at least 10 percent of your income? Add in supplies, help pay for the necessities for hospitals to function and staff to be as protected as they can be. But of course, many of them won’t because even if a large swath of us lose our lives or those we love to this pandemic, they’ll still be foolish stans ready to line their favorite celebrity’s Louis Vuitton pockets and be grateful for the opportunity to do so in the hopes they’ll get a retweet.
There are others so may create another piece in the future or update this one. If you have a recommendation for who you’d like to see let me know.
