Reclaiming Capital: A Call to Recognize Our True Value

By: Rob Ellington

I feel like there are a lot of people in my life who are very close to accepting white supremacy culture as the root problem in so many issues; they just can’t get past the “I would have to hate myself” misconception. I believe if I could just get them to sit down and talk about it, they would understand—maybe not run out of the room with their hair on fire. Or at least, they might come back for another conversation once it cools off.

That’s one of the reasons this tour is so important to me. I truly believe this is what’s needed, on a small local scale, directly with local audiences. People are so close to the truth they can taste it, but they’re terrified because they know that before they can enjoy the honey, they’ll have to endure some stings; and there is no such thing as a “bee suit” for your emotions.

Here, phrases like “deconstruct white supremacy,” “decolonize,” and “anti-capitalism” are interpreted as “Destroy society and return to the Stone Age.” We can’t imagine an existence where we have smartphones without wage and healthcare servitude, where we call homes “ours” without a bank that stole them from Indigenous people in the first place telling us they’ll allow it, where we enjoy a PlayStation 5 without billionaires deciding whose rights to trample on today, where we have both air conditioning to survive summer heat waves and clean air to breathe on a cozy spring afternoon.

We’ve been sold the lie that the only measure of civilization is technology and that technology cannot exist without civilization “as we know it.” We’ve paid for those lies with our hands, with our backs, with our hips, with our shoulders, knees, and feet. We’ve paid for them with everything that has left a void in our very being that we now cannot fill.

Somehow, someway, we have to reclaim the value of OUR “capital,” the only real capital that exists: us. Nothing matters without us. Nothing that has ever been bought or sold has ever had any value or meaning without you and me wanting or requiring it.

We are what’s important. It’s time to act accordingly. It’s time to eat cake.