Perhaps you’ve heard of YouTube sensation and global superstar Jimmy Donaldson — well, you probably know him better by his online moniker, MrBeast. Donaldson shot to social media fame by giving away literally briefcases of money to people for doing weird stuff like staying inside a box for days or playing hide-and-go-seek in a mall. Now he’s caught in a controversy over giving shoes to children in South Africa.
Lately, after a Rolling Stone cover, he’s more famous than ever. He’s been getting attention for a new line of chocolate bars, for which he gets his fans to make videos of straightening up in stores, but his latest stunt of giving 20,000 shoes to children in Cape Town, South Africa, bringing up some underlying issues with celebrity charity that are not that great.
This isn’t the first time a supposedly well-meaning entity has tried to give footwear to underprivileged children. Toms Shoes was launched in 2006, with the catchy hook of donating a pair of the footwear to someone in poverty for each pair bought. It seemed like a win-win for everyone.
…But was it?
The Toms model was copied by quite a few companies during the mid aughts, including brands like Smile Squared and Warby Parker. But what seems like a generous, altruistic act can actually cause more harm than good. There are systemic problems afflicting poorer nations — including crippling national debt, greater climate disaster vulnerability, sanitation issues, period poverty, and a dire need for greater access to educational resources and reliable electricity — that celebrity charities serve to distract from, and may, in some cases, exacerbate.
Putting shoes on children actually harms local shoemakers, which in turn disrupts an already-fragile economy. It could also create an unsustainable “economy of dependence,” per Forbes.
Thankfully, Tom’s listened to similar criticism, and now donates birth kits and money for clean water in impoverished communities, but it didn’t happen overnight. Is MrBeast repeating those mistakes for a new generation? If we’re being honest here, the idea of giving to less fortunate to make yourself look good is a type of “poverty porn.”
Nevermind the implications of simply giving away money to people under the guise of entertainment. Not that it’s inherently bad, but when you have have 10,000 people lining up for our events in the hopes of scoring cash, it underlines a bigger issue of wealth inequality in our society.
No one is saying that MrBeast is evil, but acts of giving with the obvious intention of promoting yourself doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. Forbes put it this way:
“The fact that these videos are created primarily for clout and profit imbue them with a dark undertone, especially when young fans view them as acts of messianic empathy; after all, one can’t always depend on the kindness of YouTubers.”
There’s something dystopian about having to rely on crowdfunding or publicity stunts to get basic things like medicine and surgery to better your life. Turning tragedy into something heartwarming only perpetuates this capitalistic system of selfishness and narcissism.
Hopefully, MrBeast will take a cue from Toms, and his new charity, Barefoot No More, will remain invested in helping South African kids, instead of putting a self-serving band-aid on systemic issues.
Published: Mar 9, 2023 02:17 pm