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A mass conspiracy is a kind of a disingenuous characterization of classist/racist oppression. The Ku Klux Klan is, by definition, involved in racist conspiracy - they are famous for meeting together to plan and execute racist acts of violence/oppression. People who work at Microsoft are obviously not involved in planning violent attacks against poor/brown people, but are often still involved in a much more complex and convoluted racist/classist conspiracy. When large companies, e.g. Wal-Mart, donate to political causes, they often contribute to ones that will help their bottom line. No matter how benevolent Google and Apple might seem, they and some of their employees and executives DO provide money to political campaigns that do some of the following: 1. Prioritize issues irrelevant to limiting race/class oppression to the top of their talking points. For instance, Hillary Clinton is memorable to voters not because she provided a good solution to widening income inequality, but because she held feel-good positions about immigration and LGBT issues. That's not to insinuate economic/racial issues are the ONLY thing worth caring about, but that they should be a top concern for those who want to eliminate racism and classism from our society. The effect is that by voting for such candidates (who often quietly fall more towards the center, economically), you perpetuate inaction on income inequality. 2. Directly support racist/classist legislation. Giving money to (or voting for) a campaign that opposes a drastically higher Federal minimum wage law directly supports income inequality. Giving money to a campaign that will not support deindustrialization of prisons, drastic improvements in education in low-income areas, or healthcare for all directly supports income inequality and institutional racism. Giving money to a presidential candidate who insinuates that minorities and immigrants are criminals, similarly, directly supports institutional racism. Now, even if you are one of the "good" ones who only votes for Bernie Sanders, etc. you may still be the beneficiary of racist/classist laws that your company seeks to uphold, implicating you in this conspiracy. For instance, Amazon's political funding that opposes higher Federal Minimum Wage means that they have more money to pay Data Scientists and Marketers and Front-End Designers, hence their ability to hire you. And if you're a good employee, your work will enrich both you and your employer, and some of this cash will flow back into the cycle of supporting racist and classist legislation. So we (assuming readers of HN are largely well paid FTE employees) are left in a situation where it's REALLY hard to escape our connections to this conspiracy. We can choose to work at places that aren't Amazon or Google (often for less money than they'd give us), we can try extra hard to make our individual efforts efficacious, we can vote with our dollars, we can support other non-political causes to lessen racist/classist oppression, etc. TLDR; this is what people mean when they say "all White people are racist" - not that you're personally going out there each day and doing all that you can to make black people's lives suck, or purposely waking up and thinking "how can I take more money from the disadvantaged today?". But rather that you benefit implicitly from systemic racism and classism and don't do a whole heck of a lot to fix it. My involvement (and some of your involvement) in perpetuating racism and classism is much higher than I'd like to admit and it's really hard to fully disentangle myself from the privileges that my race, class, upbringing, and place of residence have afforded me so far in life. |