Celebrities like Oprah and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have been using their platforms to spread awareness about the wildfires in Maui and ask fans to do whatever they can to aid those affected by the fires. Unfortunately, many fans are less than impressed with the celebs’ activism techniques, criticizing them for handling the whole situation.
Oprah and The Rock recently posted a TikTok introducing their new foundation, The People’s Fund of Maui. They explained that it was a way to donate to the people of Maui, knowing that the money was going directly to fund people’s needs and wants. The foundation was started with ten million dollars of their own money, a number which many people thought was not enough.
Commenters were quick to point out that both Johnson and Opera probably have a lot more disposable money they could have added to the cause instead of asking followers to do it for them. The general consensus labeled it a nice idea, but people felt that the pair could do a lot more with their own money than with the money hundreds of other people would donate.
One thing in particular that rubbed people the wrong way was the fact that Oprah stated they were inspired by country music legend Dolly Parton, saying that she gives money back to her community. Then Oprah proceeded to ask for other people’s money to give back to the community. “Didn’t Dolly send her own money,” one viewer even pointed out.
After the comment section tore into the millionaire duo, other creators took to their own pages to film TikToks explaining exactly what the issues are with the original video and foundation as a whole.
Jr. Mortimer pointed out that the amount of money that the duo has accumulated would allow them to provide housing for every person affected while barely making a dent in their personal fortune. He went on to say that anyone of their socio-economic status has the power to make significant changes to issues like climate change and homelessness, but instead, they expect the general public to make significant donations.
“Oprah makes $770,000 EVERYDAY,” one commenter pointed out. Others added that she also owns thousands of acres of land in Maui.
Other creators have gone on to highlight the problem with wealthy individuals like Oprah and The Rock asking middle-class people for more money.
Commenters are furious on every video, asking why celebrities are the ones asking people to donate instead of doing the donating. “Because you send the money to their ‘fundraiser’ and they use it to give to the people of Maui and they get the tax breaks for giving money,” a commenter pointed out.
Unfortunately, for The Rock and Oprah, commenters and fans seem less than impressed by their activism efforts as despite it being only a few hours since the news of their foundation was released, reactions to its launch have been overwhelmingly negative.