The Struggle
The struggle story has become glamorized in recent years; everyone wants to tell their tale of coming from rags to riches. But with that comes the added pressure to give back. For some, there is this genuine desire to give back to the community but for others its pressure rather than choice. Recently Twitter went crazy following on from Kylie Jenner’s Instagram story in which she encouraged her fans to pay towards her makeup artist GoFundMe for his surgery after he had a road traffic accident. Outrage from social media users resulted in the 23-year-old billionaire’s name trending on Twitter, with several people finding it cheeky for her to ask when she could have paid for it with her healthy salary. It sparked the conversation as to whether celebrities need to do more than just promote, particularly if they can aid financially.
Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner is just one of the multiple celebrities that have been scrutinized for what seems to be their lack of effort to contribute financially to other people or their own communities. It appears the more identities a person has the more they should ‘cough up’. A discussion I had with a few people had helped in bringing my attention to the further pressure women, black people, Muslims and other underrepresented groups in the media endure once they’ve ‘made it’. The concept ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’ is very fitting. In many cases is valid but where is this energy for those who have reaped the benefits of generational wealth, particularly white middle class men, and have gotten away scorn free. Take a look at the richest people in the world and you’ll find more than a few similarities in the individuals, and yet Jeff Bezos is never ridiculed for his lack of financial help within poorer communities.
Taking A Different Angle
Taking a different angle on this topic, in today’s media saturated world if the charity hasn’t been made public it seems it never happened. Yet those who show off their charitable activities are seen as boastful and arrogant, no? The top 2 richest people’s money combined could end world hunger, so why don’t they? There’s no answer anyone else can provide besides the top richest people in the world, so until then all we can and should do is put this angry energy towards celebrities into playing our role in the society for the future we want to see.
Blog, written by Rachel Boateng
