Anti-capitalism is a double-edged sword as far as Black people are concerned.
You have Black people who are devout Marxists who want the whole system torn down. Universal Basic Income for all! No one should be a billionaire in their eyes.
However, the water gets murky when some Black anti-capitalists begin putting Black billionaires on trial as if they’ve committed an act of murder. Don’t kill me. I completely understand the concept of anti-capitalism. I don’t think anyone should break their back to make a decent living.
I just don’t understand why some Black anticapitalists can’t apply that same energy they give Beyonce and Jay-Z to white billionaires who’ve always had generational wealth.
I read some news today on Bill Gates and his wife getting a divorce. Turns out his soon-to-be ex-wife rented out a private Island as a lavish get away from her lover. Apparently, the island costs over 100k a day to rent out. That means it would cost her around a million bucks a week. I could go even further with the math but your head might explode.
Bill Gates has a reported net worth of 127.9 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, Jay-Z just got to a measly one billion dollars and Beyonce isn’t even a billionaire yet!
Do you see the hypocrisy? I’ve seen a ton of Black anti-capitalists drag Beyonce and Jay Z through the mud for no reason. Every time the conversation of capitalism comes up, everyone has smoke for them. I don’t know if it’s because they’re gigantic public figures in the Black community or what, but we need to stop coming down so hard on Black billionaires who just got their money and barely have a billion dollars at best.
Everyone loves telling Beyonce and Jay Z to redistribute their wealth, yet they can’t acknowledge the countless good deeds they’ve done with it like bailing out Black Lives Matter protestors, raising money for hurricane Katrina survivors, not to mention the countless charities they’ve donated to along the way.
Why do we hold them to such a higher standard than white billionaires?
Is it because if we demand Beyonce and Jay Z to redistribute their wealth, they would listen to us more? Or are we just mad that a very small amount of Black people became self-made billionaires?
Like I said before, out of all the billionaires out there, Jay Z is a part of the 0.1% that are actually self-made. It must be daunting for people to see an old drug dealer make it to the upper echelon of wealth.
My main problem with some Black anti-capitalists is that they often use the concept of anti-capitalism to make themselves seem “woke”. Then their anti-blackness starts showing when they direct those problems all on Black billionaires as if dismantling Black capitalism will dismantle all capitalism.
It doesn’t work that way.
No matter how many Black billionaires you get rid of, there will always be thousands more white ones. So please hold white billionaires to the same standard you’d hold a Black billionaire if they’re all the same.
I’m not trying to say that I’m for Black capitalism in this post.
The point of this post is to reiterate how some Black anti-capitalists can use socially conscious concepts like capitalism as a weapon against other fellow Black people for no reason. It’s giving very much “ I don’t want Black people to have any money” and that’s a problem. Next time we rant on capitalism, let’s throw other people like Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos into the mix.
After all, Black people aren’t the inventors of capitalism.
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Previously Published on medium
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