editing by Chris Talbot

Once upon a time, in early 2024, the online hate group Libs of TikTok, did what they do best and posted a screenshot of a statement piece on my website, with a misleading and downright false interpretation of what it said. They claimed that I charged white people more for contracted services, when the screenshot clearly stated that I provided a discount to organizations that had diversity on their C-Suite. Anyone with an ounce of reading comprehension would see that the screenshot itself negated the commentary the hate group shared with it, but reading comprehension is a skill.

For a couple of weeks, I had rabid alt-right white cis het men in my emails and commenting on my socials, angry at what they deemed reverse racism. Libs of TikTok’s post had numerous chuds claiming they were going to dox me and pay me a visit to let me know how they felt about it.

The experience made me think deeply about whether it should remain a statement piece or if I should operationalize it.

And so I decided to operationalize it in the way that they accused me of doing it! Behold: Now I really am giving a discount to individuals depending on their identity! 

To be clear, I’m offering a 50% discount for editing and sensitivity reading to folks who are marginalized, because we tend to have lower incomes, less generational wealth, and because I can offer a discount to whomever I like.

Wealth Inequity

A lot of wealth has to do with access, privilege, and power. Most generational wealth was accumulated through either extractive or exploitive practices, which have disproportionately impacted marginalized people. It’s historically only been accessible to white folks through purposeful policies, like Jim Crow laws, internment, the reservation system, redlining, restricted covenants, mob violence that destroyed the businesses and towns of Black entrepreneurs, racial pay disparity, etc. All of these practices served to prevent BIPOC families from accumulating wealth and increasing the opportunity for white folks to excel at the expense of others.

The end result of all of this (and, I’m focusing on mostly Black vs. white since the discrepancy for these two demographics has been highly studied; most of the time, Indigenous peoples are not studied at all — or are lumped in with “other,” which is how we got labeled “Something Else” at CNN during the 2020 election) was the creation of these conditions:

• The average Black family would need 228 years to build the wealth of the average white family today;
• Black wealth is still not growing at the same rate as white wealth (although the gap is starting to shrink), so that disparity continues to grow (and even if the growth rate was the same, white wealth has such a huge head start, it would never close on its own);
• Black workers earn less than their white counterparts for the same work when they have the same qualifications;
• Black women are the most educated demographic currently in the U.S. but their wages haven’t reflected this.

What about transgender and nonbinary folks? I’m glad you asked! While a study showed that weekly median earnings for all workers in the U.S. in Q3 2021 was $1,001, it showed that trans men, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and Two Spirit folks made 70% of that, and trans women made 60% of that.

What about disabled folks? In the U.S., 20.4% of disabled folks lived under the poverty line in 2022. On average, they make $0.66 for every $1 earned by workers without disabilities.

Now, is charging different rates for BIPOC, gender variant, or disabled folks going to make a difference in this intentional wealth disparity? Not at all. Only wealth redistribution can do that. But, I can give a discount to marginalized individuals to do my part.