COVID-19 is not an equalizer. It’s an amplifier of inequality
When this is all over and the heroes have been sufficiently rewarded for getting us through (scientists, health-care workers, grocery clerks, delivery people, etc.), I propose that a special honour be given to a different sort of unsung hero: the un-singing celebrity.
That is, rich and famous people who managed to survive the pandemic without offering a single tune or bit of wisdom to us non-famous folk. Stars who streamed no sage advice from their spacious backyards, demonstrated no exercise routines from their private gyms and led not even one guided meditation session.
Call it the COVID-19 Medal of Silence.
I know: It’s hard to think of celebrities or even a celeb eligible for the distinction. It’s easy, on the other hand, to identify those who aren’t.
COVID-19 is “the great equalizer,” Madonna said last month, wading in the milky water of her rose-petal flecked bath. “What’s terrible about it is what’s great about it. What’s terrible about it is it’s made us all equal in many ways.”
Wonder Woman actress and model Gal Gadot shared similar thoughts on Instagram. “These past few days got me feeling a bit philosophical,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, we’re all in this together.” Thus began the now infamous, starstudded rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” featuring a slew of celebs singing a cappella from their respective gazillion-acre properties.
Even Canadian artist and author Douglas Coupland appeared to echo the “Imagine” crowd last week when he told Tom Power, host of CBC radio’s “q,” that the following slogan (one of many penned by Coupland himself ) defines the present moment: “Everybody on Earth Is Feeling the Same Way as You.”
“We’re all in this together,” Coupland said. “There’s no one who escapes this. Movie stars don’t escape it. The one per cent of the one per cent, everybody is in it together. And there’s something wonderful that comes from that.” It isn’t self-awareness. I get it: Celebrities of every kind — actors, artists, models, cultural critics — have every right to express themselves any time they please, pandemic or no pandemic. They’re also, for the most part, well-intentioned and generous (the big names above have done a lot of good in the world, charity-wise and otherwise).
There’s nothing wrong with trying to find joy in an awful time and offering hope to others.
But please, for the love of God, stop insisting that we are in this together.
We may be “in this” at the same time, but we are not in this together — the reason being that some people actually have to be together: in hospitals, in shelters, on buses, in the grocery store, at home with roommates who refuse to keep away from others.
Wealthy, famous people do not typically live, shop and work in cramped spaces where physical distancing is impossible. They are not typically being fined for sitting on park benches or shooting hoops alone at public basketball courts (they have their own).
Neither are they seeking alternative income because they’re ineligible for emergency payments from their government.
I’m far from the first person to say this, but COVID-19 is not an equalizer. It’s a spotlight on and an amplifier of inequality.
And when public figures wax poetic about the few positive outcomes of an international health crisis (teamwork, kindness, etc.) while barely acknowledging the overwhelming negatives (death, despair, poverty), their words aren’t just hollow. They’re insulting.
A word of wisdom then to celebrities who like to bestow it: It would come off as more genuine and less annoying if rather than offer us hope from the trappings of luxury, you offered “Cribs”-style virtual tours of your quarantine digs. Show us the Jacuzzi, the private theatre in which you binge Netflix, the Peloton bike that’s keeping you toned in this trying time.
But please, spare us the pop philosophy. You’re in no position to offer profound teachings about what the pandemic means for the world when you live in a completely different one — and appear not even to know it.