I’ve been deliberating the white wealth mindset present here over the last few days. In the US or UK, it would be considered racist to charge a white person more than a black or a black person more than a white. But I don’t think that’s the heart behind it. Here it’s not racially motivated. They simply charge us extra because they think we are rich, not just because we are white, although they use our skin colour, to determine our wealth (which is wrong, and highly inaccurate). So in one sense, its no different than our tax system (those who earn more, pay more in), or our benefit services (those who have less, get extra support so effectively pay less than those who have enough).
The issue comes about because of the strength of the pound in comparison to the Ugandan Shilling. If you took a low income person in the UK, moved them to Uganda, and continued to pay them the same minimum wage they would receive in the UK, they would be rich here. But if they moved here and took on the same role at the local rate of pay, they wouldn’t be able to survive (and that’s before you add the “rich white man tax on”).
So although everyone living in the UK or US, or any of the developed world would be considered “rich” from this standing point (being in Uganda, and earning what they do in Uganda), wealth is all dependant on where you are. If you moved some of the riches Ugandans to the UK, and they kept the same salary as they had in Uganda, they would no longer be rich.
An excellent reminder of where our wealth should be. Are we storing it up at home, a place where we will get the most value out if when we return, or are we storing it in our holiday destination, where when we return home, it will be worthless?
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-21 ESV
