Five Remarkable People Far More Deserving To Be Named Time Magazine's 'Person Of The Year' 2021

Time magazine has named billionaire Elon Musk as its 2021 person of the year. Not surprising since our society tends to hold rich people in high esteem just for the fact of them having acquired/being born into vast amounts of wealth.

Time's editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal justifies the selection of Musk by stating "…few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too."

The jury is still out on whether Musk's companies and plans for the future will have a net positive influence on society.

His automotive company Tesla is mired in numerous investigations due to engine fires and accidents attributed to faults in the manufacture of its buzzy, pricey EV cars.

There have also been allegations of racial discrimination at Tesla manufacturing plants.

While Musk's Space X firm has successfully carried humans into space, he is arguably more famous for his Twitter presence, where he spars with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos and his tweets about cryptocurrency can cause the market to surge or crash.

Oh yeah, he also hosted Saturday Night Live.

Being a super-rich and kooky capitalist whose companies may make an eventual positive societal impact doesn't meet the criteria for being named a "person of the year" in my book.

This is specially true in 2021, a year where we continued to deal with the upheaval in our daily lives due to COVID-19, the fight for social and economic justice, and where the world witnessed an attempted coup at our nation's capitol.

To qualify for Person of the Year, my feeling is the selected individual should have exhibited an immediate, positive influence on their community and on the world by the strength of their character, the nobility of their vision, and by the audacity of their actions.

Without a doubt, these following five individuals - not surprisingly all women - have exhibited steely resolve, strength of conviction, and audacious courage in their respective quests for seeing a far more just and secure world.

Nikole Hannah-Jones

As a curious and erudite young student, Nikole Hannah-Jones could not reconcile the history of the United States she was taught in school with its erasure of the pivotal role chattel slavery played in the founding and economic development of this nation.

Her lifelong dissatisfaction with the whitewashed distortions of the origins of the United States being taught in classrooms culminated with her creating and spearheading the monumental initiative The 1619 Project published in the New York Times.

The 1619 Project dares to reframe the narrative of this country's founding by centering enslaved Africans and the significant role chattel slavery had in establishing the United States as one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

Hannah-Jones was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her work on The 1619 Project. She also attracted vitriolic opposition from segments of society with vested interests in maintaining white supremacy and the myth of American exceptionalism.

Hannah-Jones responded to her detractors by expanding The 1619 Project into a New York Times bestselling book published this year, which includes additional poems and essays authored by esteemed historians and scholars. There is also an accompanying children's book, The 1619 Project: Born On The Water, and a planned Hulu documentary.

Hannah-Jones' steadfast commitment and fiery determination in forcing America to reckon with the truth of its racist and brutal history is the very definition of patriotism. For only by acknowledging and taking accountability for its original sins can there be any hope for this nation to finally begin living up to the ideals it has hypocritically espoused to the world.

Frances Haugen

Facebook is evil.

Most of us are at least aware that the social media behemoth is now the world's largest hub for disseminating misinformation, conspiracy theories, and propaganda.

Due to its billions of users across the world, Facebook has become one of the most influential corporate entities in the history of humanity.

Frances Haugen left the company as a product manager in 2021 after becoming disillusioned with its operating practices, and worse still, discovering the company's full awareness of its toxic operational mandates.

Instead of resigning and quietly fading into the background, Haugen went public about Facebook's extensive litany of misdeeds.

She revealed her identity to the public during a 60 Minutes interview, then later testified before a Senate subcommittee, ringing the alarm about the existential threat Facebook and its companies pose to society.

Haugen didn't leave Facebook empty handed. The reams of internal documents she took with her verify her claims and were the basis for an in-depth investigative report conducted by the Wall Street Journal.

Blowing the whistle on one of the most powerful companies in the world takes uncommon courage and strength of conviction. Despite the risks to her reputation and future career prospects, Haugen choose the public good by warning us of the dangers inherent in using a platform aware of its role as an agent of polarization and radicalization.

Mackenzie Scott

When MacKenzie Scott divorced her ex-husband Jeff Bezos in 2019, she become one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in the world.

Scott could have been content to live a jet setting life of leisure and luxury - and like most of her peers, make insincere promises to use a portion of her fortune to benefit society.

However, soon after her divorce, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away half of her vast wealth within her lifetime.

Unlike the majority of her peers, Scott is already making good on her pledge with donations and endowments in breathtaking amounts. In 2020, she gave away over 5.8 billion (yes, with a B) to 500 nonprofits. In June of 2021, it is reported she gave away another 2.74 billion to 286 groups.

In addition to these astonishing amounts, Scott attaches no strings as to how each group should use her endowments. She takes no active hand in how the groups are operated. There are no demands for buildings to be named after her, or any other self-aggrandizing memorials.

There are no press conferences or other slick public relations maneuverings conducted in order to announce her endowments. Scott operates completely under the radar - unlike her billionaire ex-husband, who recently made headlines by gleefully taking a much publicized joyride into space in his rocket while his warehouse and fulfillment employees cope with toxic working environments.

Scott seems to be a very rare individual: a tremendously wealthy person who uses their charitable endowments not for accolades, tax write-offs, and intense ego stroking, but because she is aware she is in a highly privileged position and sincerely wants to help make the world a better place.

Wanda Cooper-Jones

The three murderers of Ahmaud Arbery almost got away with their heinous crime due to the way the "justice" system in the United States is designed to favor white people over everyone else.

But what the good ol' boy network operating in Glynn County, Georgia didn't count on was Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones.

After Arbery's funeral, Ms. Cooper-Jones promised her son at his grave site she would get justice for him. When Arbery was murdered, the account floated by the local authorities was that he caused his own death because he was burglarizing a home and the home owner shot and killed him in self defense.

Ms. Cooper-Jones knew in her heart that was a lie.

She knew her son.

With steely tenacity, she uncovered a web of lies and a conflict of interest involving the second prosecutor, George Barnhill, assigned to the case and her son's murderers. Barnhill had also asserted Arbery was killed in an act of self-defense. After Cooper-Jones discovered Barnhill had worked with one of her son's killers - like the first prosecutor assigned to the case - she complained, leading Barnhill to recuse himself.

Soon after, video footage taken by one of Arbery's murderers became public and sparked a national outcry. This outrage led to more scrutiny of the case and the Georgia Bureau Of Investigation taking over.

Because of Ms. Cooper-Jones' relentless quest for justice for her son, and the video evidence becoming public, the three men responsible for his murder were brought to trial and found guilty.

In true David-vs-Goliath fashion, Ms. Cooper-Jones fought against an inherently racist judicial system that intended for her son's murderers to walk free. She fought her battle and won.

She is a living testament to the fact one person truly can make an enormous difference in a world where people - especially those oppressed and marginalized - can be made to feel small, powerless, and insignificant.

Viola Fletcher

Viola Fletcher is one of the few living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre.

At 107 years old, Ms. Fletcher insisted on testifying before Congress in order to recount the sheer madness, hatred, violence, horror, and death she survived during the massacre that has haunted her throughout her life.

She also made a case for reparations because of the grievous loss of Black lives, the utter destruction of Black-owned businesses, homes, and property caused by the mob of white people enraged by the audacity of Black Americans to live and prosper in a country where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is meant for everyone but them.

Ms. Fletcher is the epitome of resilience, determination, and strength. She is also living proof of America's very real legacy of racial hatred and violence. But her survival and demands for justice are also testaments to the indomitable spirit of America's Black sons and daughters, too.

The integrity, strength of conviction, and audacious courage of each of these remarkable women have left an indelible mark on society. Each has used their unique voice and platform to champion the most crucial and pressing issues facing society today. Their impacts are immediate and palpable, making them much more worthy to be named Person of the Year.

Disclosure: a modified version of this essay was orginally published on Medium.