Tag: capitalism

Introduction

Welcome back readers.

This post will deal with faux-gressism and how being politically correct has been coopted by the media and corporations to seem woke without doing anything substantive to advance the progressive causes they claim to care about.

In the current political climate saying or doing the wrong thing could cost you your career, so often you’ll see people on social media spouting buzz words like inclusion, diversity or saying that Black Lives Matter or trans right s are human rights.

Faux-Gressives

 Now while some of them are genuine with their beliefs in these causes and movements, others have realized they can make bank by hopping on the band wagon of whatever cause is trending. And still others will virtue signal in an attempt to seem progressive when all they care about is gaining internet clout and woke points.

An example of both was how the summer following the murder of George Floyd, many people put #BLM in their bios, and in the case of many white editors they opened their DM’s to Black and brown writers. Yet, months later when people had moved on many of those same white editors ghosted the Black writers who queried them. An here we are over two years later and the  publishing has all but forgotten about The movement for black lives and resumed publishing the same white authors and their whitewashed stories.

A similar thing happened with Asian and Pacific Islander writers in the aftermath of  the Atlanta spa shootings last March. In both cases the response wasn’t authentic and done to seem like “one of the good ones.”

This is problematic for several reasons.

First, it tells communities of color they only matter when it’s politically convenient, something which we already know and are sick of.

Second, it shows us how little Faux-gressives think of us. We aren’t stupid and see your actions as the performative allyship that it is.

Third, it proves like we’ve been saying all along that the publishing industry could have been giving us priority but chose not to until doing so would get them likes and retweets. Moreover, it shows us how little Publishing values us and our work.  Repeatedly Black writers have called out Publishing’s race problems, only to be met with charges that we’re blowing things out of proportion or to be told that we’re being the stereotypical angry Black person.    

 If publishers and others who claim to care about Black lives, trans rights, and violence against the Asian and Pacific Islander community actually did, then they’d be implementing permanent policies to address these issues.

Instead, they post a few tweets and call it a day. Don’t open your DM’s to marginalized folks when doing so is trending, do it year-round. Moreover, don’t just tweet, donate to these causes and advocate for them because people’s lives are at stake. We aren’t statistics or a demo to be pandered to. We are whole people and deserve to be treated as such.

Walk the walk and don’t just talk a good game. Which brings me to my next point.

PC Police

Second to the faxu-gressives who are all about hollow actions, the pc police are all about words. They monitor others’ language and actions for anything that might be offensive, then rile up the internet hate mob. As with faux-gressives, they don’t do anything of substance to improve the conditions of the peoples whom they claim to be acting on the behalf of

. Instead, what happens is people dogpile on the offender, who then either doubles down, apologizes or is bullied off social media. This results in people becoming more polarized, marginalized folks getting more harassment from the other side attacking in response, and nothing changes.

This is bad enough, but there have been several cases of popular progressive YouTubers who’ve policed others language and behavior to hide their bad behavior.

 You have Onision who is alleged to have been grooming underage girls. Then there’s Shawn Dawson who is alleged to have asked several underage girls to make twerking videos for him. You also have Shawn Dawson’s friend James Charles who is also accused of grooming girls. Yet, because they are “progressive” they’ve been given a pass.

I don’t think I need to go into detail why this is a problem. There is no excuse for the above behavior. Instead of making echo chambers where criminals can hide, we need to focus on actionable ways to help progressive causes flourish. And that starts by allowing for dissenting opinions and open debate based on facts. However, this doesn’t mean entertaining Nazis, transphobes or anyone else who believes marginalized folks don’t have a right to exist or have the same rights as everyone else. 

But as I will explore next, even sincere movements have been coopted by corporate America seeking to make a quick buck.

Woke Capitalism

Anyone who’s paid attention over the last decade has seen a shift in how businesses market depending on the time of year. In February, they play up caring about the Black community by showing ads that predominantly feature us. Then they go back to ignoring us once March First hits. Then in June they turn their logos rainbow-color in honor of Pride Month. In November they go pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In each case, these half-assed attempts are heralded as though they’re doing the most, when they’re doing the least. This is performative allyship at best and pandering at the worst.

Most of these companies couldn’t care less about these causes and communities as you only need look at their donation history to see that many of them support politicians who are trying to strip the LGBTQ+ community, communities of color, and women of their rights. They also have horrible histories when it comes to hiring from the marginalized communities they claim to support.   

Furthermore, in recent years there have been multiple reports of how companies like Meta (formerly Facebook), Apple, Google, and other large corporations have engaged in less than stellar behavior while pretending to be progressive.

In the case of Meta, they actively pushed misinformation and inflammatory posts to their users because their algorithms said those would get the most engagement, something which continues today. And when it comes to Instagram and teens, the higher ups at Meta knew that the app was detrimental to the mental health of their young users but continued promoting it to them. They in fact were planning a version of Instagram for children 10 and under. And they only reason they haven’t released it yet is because of the backlash they receive following the announcement of this app.

In the case of Apple, they make their products in countries where workers are paid slave wages and treated horribly.

As for companies like Google and Disney, they actively censor their products and media for totalitarian countries like China and Saudi Arabia, which have a long history of human rights violations.

Repeatedly we see Big Tech and large corporations willing to do and say anything to make money, even if people suffer for it.

Conclusion

And it’s this commercialization that I take issues with. People’s lives and existence aren’t something to be packaged and sold. “Black Lives <atter” isn’t a slogan to slap on a shirt and sell at the swap meet for $20. There are people behind those words, and they demand to be respected. Our elders fought and died for the right to exist, the right to vote, the right to not be gunned down in the streets like a rabid animal.

And how do we repay that struggle?

By turning it into a cutesy key chain or tote bag.  

We need to do better.

We can’t depend on corporations to do the right thing; we can’t wait for superman to save us. We have to be the ones we’ve been waiting for. It’s up to us to be the change we want to see. And that means voting with our wallets and supporting causes we care about, because as long as we live in a capitalist society, money rules the realm.

Call to Action

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. If you liked this post, please share it with your friends on social media and join my mailing list (link in menu).

Also check out  Palingenesis, my debut YA novel about a Bullied Black boy who learns he’s evil’s chosen one and must fight the devil to protect the boy and world he loves.