In today’s day and age, its virtually impossible for people’s actions not to be contributing to sweatshops, climate change, and other world problems in one way or another. By someone simply owning an iPhone, using a vehicle, or wearing brand name clothes, they are (probably unknowingly) contributing to the oppression of others, the heating of the environment, and other world problems.
The 77 annual Golden Globes were held on January 5, 2020, and were hosted by Ricky Gervais. Gervais is known for being very open with his controversial opinions, and he did not hold back as host of the golden globes. With Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., in the audience, Gervais said “…superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing made by a company who owns sweatshops in China. You say you’re “Woke” but the companies you work for — Apple, Amazon, Disney — if ISIS started a streaming service, you would call your agent, wouldn’t you?” This quote highlights the hypocrisy if the elite.
Many celebrities stand up on stage and speak out about world problems, such as, sexual abuse, climate change, sweatshops, etc., while most of them are actively contributing towards these problems, rather than taking action to solve them. Gervais also said that many Hollywood personnel stood by and watched, not saying anything, when they all knew about the years of sexual abuse that was being conducted by Harvey Weinstein within Hollywood. While many of these people may have spoken out against sexual abuse and have been a part of the Me Too movement, they watched the very thing they fought against occur in front of their faces, not batting an eyelid.
It seems hypocritical of rich celebrities, who have the money to actually make a difference and help solve some of the problems they speak out about, preach against these problems to their middle-class/poor audiences, while they stand by and do nothing, or even contribute to making the problem worse. If celebrities truly cared about these problems, they would not be working for Apple, they would not have been standing idly by while Weinstein assaulted numerous people, and frankly, they would not hoard all of the money they have for themselves.
So next time, if a celebrity is going to talk about a world problem on a stage but do nothing about it to solve the problem or contribute to making the problem worse, they should just remain silent and kindly accept their award with a smile.
