Black Lives Matters fails to see that wage hikes will remove job opportunities for those they are trying to ‘help’…
Black Lives Matter activists have partnered with Fight for $15 groups to schedule nationwide protests to raise the minimum wage. They claim that racism and economic exploitation are inextricably linked. This post isn’t going to rehash the same arguments over minimum wage, as I’ve already written about them. I was thoroughly unsurprised, for example, when the local McDonald’s installed automatic touch screens. When unskilled labor becomes too expensive, things are often automated, or those unskilled laborers can no longer find entry-level positions. The bitter irony in the Black Lives Matter movement is that their minimum wage policy will end up hurting those who need help the most while favoring those who lead the movement.
It’s a sad truth that racism still exists, and those who try to alleviate racial problems are often given a cloak of morality. But it’s often unearned and unwarranted because racial activists in politics and academia actually benefit from their grievances. For example, Rachel Doleza was born to white parents but claims to be black. As OpsLens analysts have reported, being white can get a person barred from Black Lives Matter gatherings. But as a black person, Rachel had a fairly nice career as a civil rights activist, college professor, and even after being unmasked, she received a book contract to write about race. Elizabeth Warren was a middling part-time professor until she found some Native American heritage. The “fake chief” Warren got a tenured position at Harvard, which launched her political career in the Senate.
The leaders of the Black Lives Matter group make enough money to put them in the one percent, and their organization rakes in hundreds of millions from liberal donors. But they are advocating for a higher minimum wage that will make it more difficult for blacks to get entry-level jobs and that encourages automation. Here in Las Vegas, I drove down Martin Luther King Boulevard during a Black Lives Matter protest. I couldn’t help but notice the irony of their protesting in favor of improving lives when a block away from them was an elementary school and the Andre Agassi Center for Boys and Girls, both of which are in desperate need of help. These institutions are helping the largely minority kids from surrounding neighborhoods develop the skills to have high-paying jobs and successful lives, and they are on a street named after an individual who truly helped black lives matter. But professional agitation for pet political causes is much more lucrative than volunteering at local charities. Professional activism makes for a good career choice, as those leaders earn their one percent salaries and advance their political and academic careers. They are doing so on the backs of the poor people they supposedly represent.
Morgan Deane is an OpsLens Contributor and a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry rifleman. Deane also served in the National Guard as an Intelligence Analyst.
