In this day and age, it seems like we are increasingly surrounded by opportunities to fight such things as poverty and AIDS. Whether you are walking through a shopping mall or even on campus, it is likely that you will come across provocative images of celebrities showing us how to save Africa from AIDS, or students coping with liberal guilt who tell us we can "make poverty history."
How? The (Product) Red campaign, which makes not-so-clever use of parentheses, suggests that we buy products with the Product Red logo made by Gap, Converse, Motorola and Apple. Also, American Express has a Product Red credit card available for residents in the UK.
These companies have so generously pledged to give a small portion of their profits to the Global Fund "to buy and distribute anti-retroviral medicine to our brothers and sisters dying of AIDS in Africa." According to Time magazine, the campaign has raised $18 million while spending $100 million on advertising.
There is also the One Campaign, a movement supported by a number of non-profits, private foundations and celebrities. This campaign only requires you to sign a pledge online and sells shirts and wristbands with the word "One" so supporters can proudly display their affiliation.
So let us set the record straight: corporations that exploit cheap labor and benefit from an inherently unjust economic system and celebrities who are among the richest people in the world are telling us that our salvation and absolution can be attained through purchasing more products, signing online pledges and wearing white wristbands. Absolutely inc(red)ible.
Never mind if the companies use sweatshop wage slavery as a normal means of production or these celebrities are the embodiment of wealth concentration and global income inequality. Never mind that on the American Express Board of Directors there are people with links to the pharmaceutical industry, which has fought tooth and nail to prevent the distribution of generic AIDS medicine.
Who knew that striving for social justice had become so easy? Isn't it amazing that each one of us can play a role as savior in this latest re-formulation of the white man's burden?
Unfortunately, diverting a small percentage of a massive corporate profit to some anti-AIDS/poverty campaign is nothing more than a way to market the brand name while masking the reality of systemic oppression that many corporations no doubt perpetuate.
It should not surprise anyone that rampant, unadulterated consumerism has become intertwined with charity and relief work. In our society, it has gotten to the point where one's identity is defined by consumption. Before, you could go to the mall, buy some commodity and bask in an illusory sense of contentment. Now, in addition to these things, you can feel like you have done your part for the world.
Protest, direct action and the broader social justice movement, a radical upheaval of an existing social order that is hierarchical in terms of gender, race, class, religion and sexuality are essentially minimized to the point where only consumption is required now, a process through which one is rewarded with a commodity and somehow absolved from any guilt.
Surely, one response to this argument will be that doing something is better than nothing. In this case, where corporate consumerism is behind a mask of charity, it might be better to find solace in nothingness. We should put some serious thought about how doing less will be beneficial. Less consumption, less use of resources and less environmental degradation are related to one another and are necessary if we are ever to conceptualize and implement a model of sustainability.
Perhaps instead of buying more things that we know we do not need, we should all think about donating directly to charities and non-profits. At the same time, we should be willing to criticize the arrangement of our current global system and recognize who all of us in the so-called developed world benefit from the subjugation and exploitation of many, many others.
Rajeev Ravisankar is a recent OSU graduate in international studies and political science. He can be reached at ravisankar.2@osu.edu.
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