Look, we all know how the game goes. Every year, CNN rolls out their Top 10 Heroes list, and Anderson Cooper pops up on the screen looking real serious, telling everybody how easy it is to donate to these folks. Now, no cap, the people they highlight are usually doing some real, heavy-duty work on the block. They’re out here feeding the hungry, looking out for the youth, and keeping the community from falling apart when the system completely turns its back on us. But let's keep it 100: why are we relying on some TV network’s donation button to keep these essential programs alive while the government is spending trillions on everything else?

It’s wild because these "heroes" are basically doing the job that our tax dollars are supposed to be doing in the first place. We pay into a system that’s supposed to keep the streets clean, the schools funded, and the people fed, but when shit hits the fan, the feds are nowhere to be found. Instead, we got some auntie on the block cooking meals out of her own kitchen or some brother running an after-school program out of his garage on a shoestring budget. Then a big-time network like CNN comes in, films a sad package with some dramatic music, and asks the working class—who are already struggling to pay rent in 2021—to dig into their pockets and fix it.

The math just ain't mathing. While Anderson Cooper is sitting on a massive salary telling you to donate your hard-earned ten or twenty dollars, the corporate sponsors backing these shows are getting massive tax breaks. They use our struggles for content, get the ratings, and then pass the buck to ordinary folks to fund the actual solutions. It’s like they want the clout of helping the hood without actually spending their own real money to fix the systemic issues that keep us down.

But let’s talk about the actual heroes for a minute. These folks are legit, and they deserve every single dollar they can get. When you’re trying to run a youth center or a food bank in the hood, you’re usually scraping by, praying the electricity doesn't get cut off. For these grassroots spots, getting featured on national TV is a major blessing because it finally brings some real resources to the table. But the community shouldn't have to win a media lottery or put on a show for a bunch of executives just to get basic funding.

If you got it like that and want to donate, go ahead and support these folks because they are doing the real groundwork with zero ego. But we also got to start asking the real questions about where our resources are actually going. We see billions of dollars flowing into policing and corporate bailouts, while the people actually saving lives on the ground have to rely on a GoFundMe link broadcasted once a year. That’s not a system that works; that’s a hustle.