Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, recently resigned from the company’s board. Not because of the predictable monotony that arises from long service with the same corporation, though.
Rather, Ohanian, who is white, claims that he quit in order to “make a better world” for his daughter. He wants to crush racism and white privilege. Accordingly, he requested that his replacement be African American.
Leading by example is de rigueur for corporate executives. Our woke, “privileged” political leaders in the U.S. should follow the lead of Ohanian - and resign their offices too.
Unlike, say, Joe Biden, not every American official has a relative like Hunter Biden, with the time to travel to Ukraine and China and make millions from long seconds expended serving on corporate boards.
But they don’t. Instead, leaders merely show up at protest rallies and, when not booed off the stage, mouth platitudes about their own guilt over being so privileged that their Ivy League acceptance letter practically came in the mail with their birth certificate. Together with a deed to a home in Scarsdale and keys to a new Jaguar.
Admittedly, many of the guilty elite have been doing more than just showing up at rallies before the looters arrive. I refer to the currently chic practice of kneeling before protestors and collectively confessing culpability for racism. Word. For. Word. With. A. Prompter.
Yet, ritual confession, while more committed than merely attending protests, is not sufficient. It’s been tried in North Korea and China, (I urge you to click these links) but has not obviated all social tension. Judging from recent disturbances, many people in China still think that their government is less than ideal. Folks in North Korea probably would concur, if Kim Jong Un ever legalizes thinking.
Maybe the refusal of so-called 'privileged American politicians to give up their jobs is due to a lack of funds. Reddit’s Ohanian and his celebrity wife Serena Williams have a reputed net worth of over $200 million. They don’t need employment income to buy their sushi.
In contrast, it can take a U.S. pol many years in power to amass a fortune in office. That’s not easy, what with some jobs having term limits.
Additionally, unlike, say, Joe Biden, not every American official has a relative like Hunter Biden, with the time to travel to Ukraine and China and make millions from long seconds expended serving on corporate boards. Boards whose finances the official can fatten.
Speaking of Honest Joe, wouldn’t he set a fine example if he resigned as the Democrats standard-bearer, in favor of an African American. Now that would show a commitment to real change.
If Biden refuses to cap his career by bowing out, his rhetoric about “systemic racism,” and “growing economic inequality” will be exposed as, well, just rhetoric. Wasn’t it the former VP who recently vowed “to make this, at last, an era of action to reverse systemic racism with long overdue and concrete changes.”
Nothing that Joe Biden could do to remedy “systemic racism” would be more “concrete” than stepping aside.
As with Reddit’s Ohanian, a Biden recusal would also send a fine message to our youth. Surely, all the nation’s children, especially the underprivileged, would grasp the significance of the move immediately.
After all, as Biden says, “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white [ones].”
Marc Berman is an attorney and former state prosecutor with degrees from Columbia College and the U. of Pennsylvania Law School, who writes on politics, law and culture. His work has appeared in numerous venues, including the New York Daily News, the Baltimore Sun, the Newark Star-Ledger, The American Spectator, Washingtonexaminer.com, the Times of Trenton and the South Jersey Courier-Post. He can be reached at [email protected].