Balancing Survival and Ethics: The Struggle Against Systemic Injustice

By: Rob Ellington

How do you escape paying for white supremacy?
This sounds like a dumb question when I say it out loud. Like an “Um… are you OK?” sort of question. But please hear me out.

I like my job, and, for the most part, I’m proud of my employer. They are a big international corporation, and because of that, profit does come before people in some ways. But I’m pleased that they’ve always been ahead of the curve in providing extra benefits and access to services and support that I had never seen at other companies. And in the current wave of political anti-DEI and inclusivity rhetoric, our People and Culture department, both domestically in the US and internationally from the other countries’ headquarters, has been stepping ours up.

In short, I don’t feel like I work for a racist or abusive company. I literally could not work for them if I did. My executive function would not operate; I’d be useless.

But in 2024, the US sent nearly $18 billion in military aid to Israel in the wake of the attack carried out in the name of Hamas on Oct 7, 2023. In that time, the military expansion of Israel into Gaza and the genocide of the Palestinian people has murdered more than 13,000 children and left hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians wounded, starving, shelterless, and without access to clean water or medical aid. Those are my tax dollars, and yours. I’m a professional data analyst, and I am very good at what I do. I could dig deeper and mine the data necessary to determine how many of my own personal dollars were spent on sending those weapons to Israel. I could calculate how many seconds I worked to pay for each child’s murder. I’m not willing to do that right now, because honestly, it’s just too much to take in at the moment. But it’s only a matter of time until my ADHD drags me down that hyperfocus rabbit hole.

So how do I stop?

How do I stop paying for genocide? I have to work. I need my health insurance; my child will not survive without it. I need my income; groceries and a place to live are expensive. I want to pay my taxes for programs that help people, programs that build our communities and provide opportunities for those who don’t have the family and community support that I had growing up. But I don’t want to work for bomb money. I don’t want to vicariously murder children with every moment of my labor.
How does this end—without me having to?