Tension / problem / practical
The topic of black tax has particular disturbing importance for me. My story starts in my motherland, Zimbabwe, in Matare. In my childhood, I realized that proper education and well-paid jobs should be available for all people, regardless of their status, blood ties, and opportunities. I saw how my father lost the job after being involved in a tricky tender process, and it became the highest point of my tension. Furthermore, he was the firstborn of the family, and he had the obligatory right to provide his family with money. My parents had to review their opportunities and choose the cheaper school for me and my siblings.
Tragically, I lost my twin sister in the car incident, which became the most extensive trauma for my family and me. Sometimes I even felt resentment towards my father because he put himself in a difficult situation. Indeed, I felt that education became my aim, and I started to pass examinations and apply to University in South Africa. The conditions in Zimbabwe were poor, the lack of clean water and hygiene became a struggle. Then, I graduated with a B Com Accounting degree from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa and used my skills to prove my academic merit.
Moreover, I was happy to meet my future husband fourteen years ago and receive love and support from him. Now we have three children, and they are why I am keen on financial independence, decent jobs, and education. Although I had tragic losses in my life, I am sure that creating a better life is possible. It is necessary to have the ability to make choices and improve the future.
Literature Review
The impact of the black tax on the lives of Black people is significant due to complicated economic and social backgrounds. Moreover, the political situation plays a great role here; for example, Davies (2014), Lachmann (2015), Dumay et al. (2016), and Crouch et al. (2016) offer critical viewpoints on neoliberalism and its consequences. Similarly, Ostry et al. (2016) suggest that the neoliberal movement is utopian. Chorev and Babb (2009) assume neoliberalism falls to crisis and delivers problematic policies. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) described in studies of Center for Ethical Business Cultures (2010), Garriga and Mele (2004), Carroll (1998), Bres and Gond (2014), Banerjee (2008), and Banerjee (2014) is overviewed and seen from the perspective of business contribution to the society. Kaler (2006) sees CSR in terms of creating inequities in society. Rockstrom et al. (2013) and Kumar and Banerjee (2020) explore the problem of business responses to solve social issues effectively. Overall, with the help of the abovementioned studies, it is possible to examine the topic of the black tax within the economic and social frameworks.
Introduction
The main concern of this research is a black tax. It is a phenomenon that makes the Black society feel uncomfortable in living. The essence of this notion is to provide the family members with money constantly. Moreover, if the person is the first-born human in the family, he is obliged to do it. These people’s money is not their money; however, except for financial obligations, the black tax creates a vast wealth gap between races and nationalities, “production of inequality,” and disparities in education (Davies, 2014, p. 310). Moreover, Corporate Social Responsibility and its concept of “doing good” concern this work (Bres and Gond, 2014, p. 4). Examining the black tax from an economic and social perspective is essential to understand what complicates it.
Discussion
For some people paying a certain amount of money is not a big problem. For instance, it is rational to help older family members, parents, and siblings with their living by giving them some money. However, the black tax suggests the person paying to his bigger family – people he can even not know. Some people cannot deal with this situation because of their financial struggles, which significantly affect them. Black people are burdened with this tax because of the legacy of colonialism.
Black tax makes people feel constrained with the obligatory rule to contribute to their bigger families and simultaneously look after themselves. Moreover, with the wave of neoliberalism, the economic policy made the lives of the Black folks even more complicated because of the “widening divergence between core and peripheral regions” (Lachmann, 2015, p. 4). Neoliberalism promised economic prosperity and freedom from oppressing paradigms, but in fact, it expanded the “inequality in society” (Crouch et al., 2016, p. 500). Followers of this movement were focused on individual opportunities, education, and “neoliberal globalization” (Chorev and Babb, 2009, p. 462). The phenomenon was called “economic miracle” because of too liberal perspective on life (Ostry et al., 2016, p. 38). Neoliberal policies strived to “create wealth,” but they excluded “creating value or justice for people” (Dumay et al., 2016, p. 1). The Black society’s situation worsened when the Black employee began to earn half as much as a white employee. The crisis was expected, and the gap between races increased; Black people had to pay the tax when struggling with feeding themselves.
Black society constantly faces economic, financial, cultural, and other vitally essential sectors struggles. It starts with misunderstanding and often leads to discrimination at the structural level. For instance, the lack of prestigious jobs, the inability to receive a decent education, and taxation obligations make it difficult to move higher on the social ladder. For example, it is known that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focuses on “the core economic contribution of business to society” (Centre for Ethical Business Cultures, 2010, p. 2). According to Garriga and Mele, CSR is responsible for “the social power equation,” which means that the organization considers people’s interests and assumes equality within the group (Garriga and Mele, 2004, p. 56). It is essential to understand that Africa is one of the developing countries with no opportunities as large cities; “low – and middle- income countries cannot grow further” until the gap between races and abilities exist (Rockstrom et al., 2013, p. 5). However, the reality is much worse than expected; many Black folks still struggle with receiving resources, academic knowledge, and other needs.
Indeed, the problem is that there is no “official requirement to serve the public interest” and subsequently no regulation of human requirements (Banerjee, 2008, p. 54). Interestingly, the CSR aimed to serve people’s interests turns out to create “tensions between social and economic” concepts (Banerjee, 2014, p. 84). Moreover, the “problem of inequity” still exists and will not be solved by CSR (Kaler, 2006, p. 252). There is a big difference between “knowing ethics and doing ethics,” and some corporations struggle with realizing the positive moral idea (Carroll, 1998, p. 4). Therefore, CSR is a problem in fulfilling people’s needs at the structural and economic levels. According to the study of Kumar and Banerjee (2020), “developing partnerships” is a way to overcome corporate struggles and search for an effective solution (Kumar and Banerjee, 2020, p. 21). Indeed, there is a problem with corporate communication to solve, which affects significantly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, several notions complicate the communication within the community and contribute to worsening the situation for Black people out of the homeland. The neoliberalism movement and utopian vision of an ideal country failed to provide citizens with critical needs, creating a massive gap between people of different nationalities. Corporate Social Responsibility slightly addresses problematic issues but does not solve them because of the absence of formal requirements. Therefore, the black tax complicates the lives of Black folks, creating an obligatory rule to pay money even if the situation does not allow it.
References
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