Episode Transcript:
Miesha Williams 00:00
Welcome to the networthy podcast, we're talking securing, saving and investing the bag. From side hustles to main hustles, and everything in between, let's get to it. So I've been struggling with this thought for a while now and I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that sometimes it's better to still talk it out even when you don't have it all figured out. So listen, I'm black, I'm a woman, and I live in America and all of these things have aided to my experience growing up in America and growing up in a city like Baltimore. So growing up in Baltimore, I've been able to watch firsthand how racism, oppression and capitalism has negatively affected my community. It has become obvious for me that we cannot combat racism and systemic oppression while capitalism is still in place.
Miesha Williams 00:44
I'm throwing out a lot of words here. So let's get started with capitalism which this whole thing is about today. Your basic textbook, Google definition will tell you that capitalism is an economic system in which private individuals or businesses own capital goods, and the production of those goods and services is based on supply and demand in the general market. I mean, they're not wrong. But they're leaving out like a pretty important piece to the puzzle here. The basic definition leaves out that capitalism depends on the exploitation of the poor. And when I say the poor, let me be totally clear with you. I'm including you and I in this definition, a lot of you will complain about not having enough money in your pockets. But then you still see yourself as being better than someone that you've deemed to be more poor than you. That's called elitism. And it has been ingrained into your mind. And honestly, this is probably just a conversation for another day. But for this episode, just know that when I when I say the poor, I am not just speaking of those living under the poverty line, I'm included those of us who have not hoarded wealth. With capitalism, the rich are able to increase their wealth by exploiting the labor of those of us who lack wealth, duh.
Miesha Williams 01:54
Their money is made from our labor, our work, their wealth is dependent on the exploitation of us, their money is not even theirs. It's the shit we worked for. This is a system in which poverty is required, because without it, the wealthy would not have anyone to build wealth for them. No one to rent their buildings out, no one to work in their corporations. Nada. As long as we live in a capitalist society, this society can never rid itself of property.
Miesha Williams 02:24
So let's just think about it for a second. Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $200 billion. And his net worth just continues to increase rapidly daily, like every time I get on Twitter, he then hit a new number.
Miesha Williams 02:35
And at the same time, there are workers in his warehouses who depend on food stamps to feed their children, right. Where Amazon makes enough profit, and Bezos has hoarded enough wealth that he can ensure each of his workers was paid a livable wage, our capitalist society tells him that it's okay to continue hoarding wealth, then there's someone like you who may be okay with watching this happen because the rich has brainwashed you into thinking, hey, if he makes that much money, there's a chance that I could possibly make that much money too. So why would I be pushing for legislation that would prevent him from hoarding wealth when there's the slightest chance that I could be the next him and I'm gonna want to hoard my own wealth.
Miesha Williams 03:16
So you sit on social media all day, you bash people for needing government assistance to survive, and you protect the rich and you retweet those Oh, I would love to pick Jeff Bezos, (brain) posts, and you go to bat for this man who wouldn't even waste spit on you if he was on fire. I mean, I legit just seen a tweet that praise Bezos for having $200 billion Hello, people are dying, Kim, people are dying.
Miesha Williams 03:43
You're led to believe that the poor are in their position based on bad decisions that they made and continue to make. And let me get off track here. I'm gonna say one of my favorite quotes, which I actually just heard not that long ago, when I was watching little fires, Little Fires Everywhere that's on Hulu. And I try so hard to pronounce that correctly with this Baltimore accent. One of my favorite quotes, and she was like, you know, you think that you make good decisions when in reality, you just had good options. Sit with that for a second.
Miesha Williams 04:14
You're led to believe that the rich deserve what they have, because they work to get there and the poor deserve to go without because they don't work hard enough. So we applaud the rich when they give us handouts. And I'm, you know, you can't see my quotations that I'm making with my hands right now, but handouts. We admire them for giving the slightest portion of their wealth to others, because they blinded us from seeing the correlation between the rich and the poor. They did that specifically so you guys do not see how hard they work to keep the poor in poverty. The fact of the matter is, you probably have more in common with the people that you look down on than you do with someone like Jeff Bezos, you are probably one or two missed checks away from needing assistance yourself. And with the current state of the economy. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a taste of it already.
Miesha Williams 04:58
And this isn't just saying like I told you so. But I literally have to sit on social media all day and watch you guys talking about oh, you know, I just seen somebody use a food stamp card, but they have an iPhone. So the fuck What? Then you also talked about how you would take a meeting with Jay Z over like, y'all blow me. But whatever.
Miesha Williams 05:18
Before I really dive into how capitalism links to racism, I want to reiterate what I said before, we cannot truly combat racism and systemic oppression while capitalism is still in place. And none of what I'm saying is new or even a radical idea. I do a lot of reading. I like Angela Davis, there's definitely gonna be a couple of things that I say that you've probably heard before. But the reason that I say that personally, I've had a hard time putting this into words, is because I literally run a platform that encourages people to increase their income. And like many of you, I do have views that are rooted in capitalism, how the hell am I supposed to convince you that capitalism has been detrimental for us, as I literally encourage you in the same breath to increase your income. As I'm on this journey, I have to constantly check myself, I'm also reminding myself who and what I'm doing it for. Because I do talk about investing. I do talk about putting money in our pockets. But I do not believe that the Black dollar will save us. The true revolution is that replacing white people in positions of power out with Black people, we do not need a Black Bezos, a Black Bezos will not be what saves us. Black capitalists, for damn sure will not be able to save us. But at the same time, in order to be able to give and help the way that we need to in our current environment. It requires money. And obviously I know that we still have to eat, our families still have to eat, it is important that while we are increasing our own wealth that we are distributing it to places and people who need it as well. So that's the difference between me and all these other like increase ya income pockets, secure your bag, people that you see on Instagram, is that I'm like saying, we have to be doing it for the right reasons, we aren't trying to be rich, we aren't trying to be the next Bezos. I'm not them. Like I'm not on that wave like, and do not categorize me with people who are on that wave, because I hate that shit. So yeah, I do my best. And I also have a nonprofit, that's my current balance. And honestly, my business, I'm not asking you to go out and start an organization, but there are organizations that you can support. And if financially, you are not in a place to do that right now, then don't beat yourself up over it. But also, let's stop flexin on Instagram, like we're rich, and let's stop idolizing people who have been able to hoard their wealth because that should not be our end goal in life, let's stop thinking that the end of racism is a society where Black capitalist rule shit, because it's not. It's not, it's not gonna work. But let's get into it. Anyway.
Miesha Williams 07:39
A little sidebar here. I was in the middle of recording this episode, and my MacBook completely gave out on me. I mean, I'm not talking about the battery dying this thing. Just, I think it just uttered its last words before its death. And I was in the middle of recording, but I cannot be upset. I'm pretty sure this thing is the 2011. It has gotten me through some rough times I received it as a gift for college. It has gotten me through undergrad through two masters and part of a doctoral program. So I have to say it has stuck in there with me. Through my rough days, it has seen some of my longest papers. So I just wanted to give a good quick second to shout out to this macbook, but but that also means that anything recorded to this point and afterwards will be recorded on my phone, we're kind of going back to that the beginning of this podcast, to the start to my roots where I was recording in the car. So I'm actually still recording at my desk right now. But I am recording on my phone. So you may notice a little change in audio. I just want to be transparent with you guys. Because like I say all the time on Instagram, people will make you think that, you know, everything is just easy. And the process is simple. But in reality, there's so much that goes on, you know offline, so many hurdles that we have to jump through what Drake say, like it's been a long fight. I just had to keep a warrior spirit. So here's me being transparent with you guys for a second let you know, my Macbook died in the middle of recording. I'ma keep recording, the audio is gonna be off. I can't use my mic with my phone. It's gonna sound a little a little rough, but we don't get through it together.
Miesha Williams 09:33
If you're truly having a hard time seeing how capitalism and racism have coexisted in America over the years, let's just take a look back at slavery.
Miesha Williams 09:41
That just made me think of something. Has anyone seen Black AF by Kenya Barris? It's on Netflix and he's constantly attributing everything to slavery. I think like, all the episodes could be something simple so I'm making this one up. It could be like, oh, why is there no lemonade in the fridge and it's like because of slavery. And that's supposed to be the joke, but that's how I feel sometimes and honestly, this country was built on the backs of my enslaved ancestors. So it should not be a shocker that it is so easy to trace everything that is wrong with this country back to slavery and honestly the murder of indigenous folks, but that's truly not a conversation, you're ready for with me right now. I'm gonna spoon feed it to y'all one day we gon, trust me, I'm gonna get you there.
Miesha Williams 10:21
We all know that Africans were brought to this country by force, the school system doesn't really go into detail about what that entails. But we all have a gist of the story. Africans were brought to this country and enslaved so that white people could profit off of their bodies off of their labor. And supposedly slavery no longer exists. Sometimes you guys may hear me talk about modern day slavery, because let's be honest, we might not be in the field and our conditions may not be the same. But slavery was the blueprint for our lives today. But I'm gonna move on because I don't want to argue this point with you guys.
Miesha Williams 10:53
We had here in America, enslaved Africans being exploited for profit. And now today, we have the poor being exploited for drumroll please, profit. America, you've done it again. I mean, this is a pretty obvious connection to make. But people believe that because we are no longer legally enslaved. And that and because we are able to make our own money, there's not much to complain about, you know, work hard, get rich, but not many people make it to the actual get rich part of that. Let's take this current pandemic, for example. We know that COVID has ravaged through black and brown communities at disproportionate rates, people will lead you to believe that this is due to Black people partying and not taking COVID seriously. And I'm not gonna say I haven't seen parties because I have. But the part that they conveniently leave out is that when the pandemic hit, people with office jobs were able to work remotely while people working in warehouses, fast food, you know, things like that could not like they physically could not work remote.
Miesha Williams 11:57
I have to note my own privilege here because I have been working from home since March. This still does not take away from the fact that the zip codes in my city with the highest amount of COVID cases are also low income areas in which the residents did not share my privilege. If you look, if you look at who live in these communities, you will notice that they are Black. So while the healthcare system has obviously failed, us and, you know, that has racist issues of its own, it is a clear example of how capitalism continues to fuck us.
Miesha Williams 12:27
I also want to point out before anyone says, Well, why don't these people just get better jobs, systemic oppression keys, people of color working low income jobs. In Baltimore, for example, just look at our school systems. I went to school in both Baltimore County and Baltimore City. And I can tell you from personal experience, there's a huge gap in the level of education and resources, ensuring that those who parents make more money and live in better areas, mostly white areas are able to have access to better education, resources and support. But it doesn't just stop at education. Those of us who are able to overcome everything set in place to keep us in poverty, still have to deal with other shit, like not receiving equal pay due to the color of our skin. And that's if we're even able to get the position to begin with, you know how many times I've walked into a tech interview and been and been told I didn't receive the position because of not being a cultural fit, where the only thing culturally different about me is the color of my skin, the entire system has to go from top to bottom, everything is fucked and its connected. And you either stay in these low income communities and continue on a path where your children just repeat your fate. Or you're told to go to college and assimilate as much as you can into white spaces. And then you have people who are able to do this. And then they look down at those who have the same options as them. remember from earlier that we're using options and not decisions, because the thought that you just made better decisions is a horrible take, looking down at people for what we think they couldn't do, should not be our focus. That should never be our focus, as long as our worth and our value is determined by our proximity to whiteness, then who are we really doing it for? You want to empower the Black dollars so that we could get more Black people into white communities. But how does that help the ones still left in low income communities. And I'll watch as y'all get a bag and call people broke, those tweets around Thanksgiving man where y'all make jokes about the hood cousin's coming over? It's gross as Fuck, we don't need more boujee Black people, we don't need more Black capitalists. We don't need people chasing a bag so that they can be the only black person in the room. The only Black person in their neighborhood, we need people putting that energy back into our communities uplifting our communities. So if you don't see the bigger picture here, then this isn't the right space for you. And that's okay. Your goal should not be to be rich. It should be to make enough to where you're able to support the communities who needed the most. And I'ma leave y'all with that.
