I do agree with the author that there is a significant minority of white liberals, especially the further left one goes, who are elitists and in their “support” of “black people” (as if this defined a homogeneous group) they evince the racism of low expectations. I don’t think we need more quasi academic language like neo-racist, but I, too, find these white liberals condescending to blacks.
Meh - they're condescenging to everyone. But their presumption that they are qualified to speak FOR blacks (and Amerindians) and morally positioned to demand Latinos de-gender their own language ("Latinx") I guess makes then even MORE condescending toward non-whites.
DAMN STRAIGHT! Bravo! With clear thinking like that, I'll bet beers after work, cocktail parties and dinner conversations are a laugh a minute. That kind of talk reminds me of a couple of Freds: Frederick Douglass or Frédéric Bastiat - both clear thinking men I very much admire. There are others on my list of clear thinkers but I may just have to add you to that list. I loved the way you turned much of their language around or on its head. Not only is neo-white supremacy just white saviorism, it's merely another attempt at control by progressives who have steadfastly believed in racial preferences since the origins of scientific progressivism. The progressive elite wants to tell all of us what to think and how to behave. And if we don't go along, they'll try to find a way to punish us for independent thinking and action. I believed Dr. King when he said that we should be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. It was so obviously right when I heard it. I am glad to to see one more person believes that as well.
Great work. An incisive critique of the current DEI paradigm. Needed and for the most part, helpful.
The one thing that challenges me is the reflexive "they". Who are "they"? And if positioning such an other, who are "we"?
The push for ineffective, highly affective, post-Floyd, Kendian-inspired push toward anti-racism was used by those racialized as black (or brown) as much as it was for the so-called "white" people you seem to make the "Them" in the article.
The problem with any perpetuation of this sort of rhetoric is pretty much a tactic along the same lines as those on the anti-racism caboose that people have hopped on and are holding onto for dear life, even though the "train done gone."
👏👏👏👏👏👏 A standing ovation for Dr. Nafees Alam from a white American! This article was on-point and truth crushed to Earth from start to finish! White supremacy and white saviorism are two sides of the same coin. I remember seeing a white woman once tweet in lamenting death of affirmative action, that “Black individuals can’t make it in a merit based system!” Oh really?! I can think of a number of famous black Americans who made it in this country on their own merit. Allow me to name a few for you: Barack Obama, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Ken Griffey, Jr., Thomas Sowell, Thurgood Marshall, Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, Larry Elder, Herman Cain, Allen West, Dr. Ben Carson, Robert Johnson, Phil Ivey, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Carol Swain, Reginald Lewis, Carol Joynt, Earl Graves, Tim Scott, Byron Donalds, Kim Klacik, Bob Woodson, Sr., Chris Gardner, Daymond John, Rev. Alveda King, Rob Smith, Mignon Francois, and Stuart Scott. That’s just to name a few! Neo-White Supremacy is a plague on our country and the western world more broadly. It’s basically white folks using those poor, stupid black and brown people to feel better about themselves. I remember reading in my college’s newspaper about two white women who were leading some sort of education program said when they interviewed candidates they wanted to make sure they weren’t coming in with a “white savior mentality.”
The irony there being that they were engaging in that mindset themselves by assuming black and brown people are too dumb to recognize the white savior mentality and they were just protecting them from those big bad evil white folks because black and brown people’s feelings are so fragile. So I think that was also projection on their part. Accusing the rest of us of being white saviors while playing the part themselves. Woke liberals and leftists love to pretend to care about black and brown people while talking over and shutting down any who they disagree with. If you’re a black or brown person who dares step out of line and disagree with them, they’ll call you a race traitor or Uncle Tom or claim your too stupid to understand racism. That’s why black intellectuals like Ibram X. Kendi or Michael Eric Dyson are deemed acceptable black voices but John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kmele Foster, Ian Rowe, and Chloe Valdary are deemed not acceptable black voices. I remember seeing a debate on Roland Martin’s garbage show where white savior extraordinaire Jane Elliott lectured C.J. Pearson that by supporting Trump he was “talking like a white man” and he needed to “think for himself.” The irony there being she was telling him how he should think as a black man. As if a black Trump supporter or conservative is an idiot who’s just been taken in but she’s intelligent and knows better.
Or how about the fact that Robin DiAngelo won’t debate or even talk with any black or brown person who disagrees with her? Malcolm X was right when he called out these neo-white supremacists like DiAngelo, Elliott, Peggy MacIntosh, Tim Wise, Peter Hamby, Michelle Goldberg, and Lena Dunham. They don’t care about the black community they want to have their butt kissed and their ego stroked. They see black and brown people as a means of getting there but they really could care less about them. Black and brown people should be treated as individuals and with a wide range of opinions and worldviews just like any other group. Treat them as individuals not as a skin color like MLK and the heroes in the Civil Rights Movement fought for. That is what you can do if you want to help black and brown people. All these neo-white supremacists are garbage and need to go away! You’ll find a lot of them among the students and faculty on college campuses. Folks like Kevin Kruse, Matthew Desmond and up until recently Katharine Franke for example. Franke has thankfully since been fired by Columbia. I’ve met many white millennials and Gen Zers who have this mentality and don’t even realize it.
I blame not only the devious Lyndon Johnson for creating a new "plantation," but also the black leaders like Jesse Jackson and later Al Sharpton for the debacle of dependency and failure. By encouraging the black community to blame whites and reject white culture they set their community on a downward spiral. Why reject the ways that lead to success for all people, no matter their color? These black leaders did it selfishly for power and money.
No group that has happily succeeded in America has had it easy. Almost all have escaped from depraved conditions. They have all faced discrimination in America. They have all faced more challenges than others. They have done it by assimilating the behaviors that it takes while still maintaining important aspects of their cultures.
I originally thought helping minorities catch up through affirmative action was a good idea, that in the longer term it would sorta train minorities for success. But, political leaders constantly screaming about racism, that others others are responsible for your outcome, that others owe you something, and that you don't have to learn other behaviors made that dream fail.
I agree with your analysis of the white savior adding to the serious problems that the black community faces. I agree that it communicates that blacks are not able to be equals without their help. I am in favor of having expectations for all being able to succeed based on their abilities. Another thought: there are lots of people, of all colors, that don't succeed by our cultural understanding of success.
I reluctantly began reading this article with the thought, "Oh, no! Here we go with another lecture about how bad we are for being white and how we need to save those less fortunate, assuming they are the correct color to deserve salvation!"
Then, Boom! It turned into an article that hit the nail on the head multiple times. Those of us who know what time it is understand exactly what you meant when you mentioned "2164 under the guise of a nationwide party switch." Dr. King was not the only one who had a dream! Another dream was hatched by Lyndon Johnson and his friend Robert Byrd and that dream was to last until, yep, you guessed it, 2164! Although it was a dream for a certain group of politicians, it was a night mare for those, no matter what color, but primarily black and brown people, who were on the bottom and needing help -- a white savior, as you call it, rode in on a stallion and the nightmare was birthed.
Brilliant. Thank you for this essay, Dr. Alam. Unfortunately, what you describe is the result of today’s “well-meaning “ virtue signaling, DEI promoting, self-congratulating, money-grabbing, corrupt manipulative Globalist elites. In other words, the modern Progressive Democrat.
Excellent article. I think the racism described here is not intentional or even conscious, which makes it all the more important to expose it for what it is.
I'd also add that I believe the motive isn't racism, even if that's the result. I think it's the inherently human religious motivation to be "right" and to be superior to others. Hence all the ever-changing progressive rules and the punishment, ostracism, and "cancelling" of dissenters (I experienced this at a workplace in 2020).
These people want to feel moral, righteous, and superior to others. Unfortunately, like all human-created religiousness, it has terrible results and is a misguided attempt doomed to fail.
I more clearly see the uniqueness of Christianity, which insists we are all sinners and can't redeem ourselves by our own righteous efforts, only by accepting a free gift of grace we don't deserve. No room for superiority, condemning some, or "rescuing" others. We're all equal at the foot of the cross, as the saying goes.
To be black/brown in the West is to be forced to choose between two dominant forms of racism: the overtly hateful bigotry of the conservative-right (which seems to have waning cultural power) and the condescension and paternalism of the liberal-left.
Time and time again non-white heterodoxy is challenged with accusations of "coonery" or "self-hatred" both within the non-white community as a means of conditioning uniformity, and by white outsiders for their ideological/political benefit.
For the neo-white supremacist (in this context) it's either ignorant but well intentioned white-saviorism, or manipulative political strategy. Awful still in both cases.
Really well done expression of the grim bind racial minorities find themselves in now.
What current evidence do you see to support your charge of "overtly hateful bigotry of the conservative-right"? I don't believe racial bigotry or animus against racial minorities exists on the conservative-right (your term) in any but isolated instances by people who are no part of the conservative-right. Race realists and their views, while unpopular and reviled by both white liberals and many minority groups, are a different (and difficult) story.
The recent surge in Right Wing bigotry, especially anti-Black and anti-Semitism, has one cause: Nancy Pelosi's Identity Politics.
The SURGE in Alt Right in recent years was caused by Nancy Pelosi. Unlike Trump who is loud, Pelosi is quiet and work behind the scenes.
Please do not think that I said Right Wing bigotry, aka White Supremacy being its worst form, was CAUSED by Pelosi. I am saying that its change from a criminal law enforcement matter to its becoming a revived social movement was caused by Nancy Pelosi. I've written over 100 aarticles in citywatch detailing how Pelosi's Identity Politics has polarized America and stimulated the surge in the Alt Right making it had significant force in American life.
Law enforcement told Nancy Pelosi to stop her harassment of the Right Wing with her threats to replace Whites with Blacks and other minorities when the minorities became the majority of voters. Law enforcement explicitly told Pelosi many times to stop because they were only a criminal matter but if she continued with her Identity Politics, the Alt Right were small but very violent, e.g., Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma courthouse. Law enforcement also told Pelosi not to encourage counter demonstrations against Nazi and other extremists on the Right because the resulting publicity always attacks new crazies to the Alt Right philosophies.
One reason I know what law enforcement told Pelosi is that it is the same thing they told the Jewish Community. Among other things, I was assistant area Director for the AJC in Los Angeles. We agreed that publicity for Nazi demonstrations was like oxygen to a fire. Instead, we gathered facts about the Right Wing extremists and gave it to the proper law enforcement. Many violent incidents did not happen in the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, etc. because they could stopped before they began. Nazi and KKK rallies were ignored.
Pelosi, however, wanted Right Wing violence and she wanted to give them publicity so that their violence would compel minorities to join the Dem Party for safety.
When the Jewish Community was beset by the Jewish Defense League, the Jewish community followed the same protocol. There were a lot of Jews who thought that openly fighting back was manly, but in the Jewish community being stupid is not part of manliness. It took a few years, but finally the vile Meir Kahane left the country and other JDL hate-mongers went to prison. But that was back in the 1970's.
Prior to the 2011 French publication of the Grand Replacement, Pelosi has stimulated a resurgence in the Alt Right haters, but that book fit perfectly into Pelosi's threats to replace Whites with minorities. It's hard to deny that the Pelosi Identity Politics Movement was an existential threat to Whites when there was book warning Whites that it was happening. The American twist was that the Jews were directing the replacement because Blacks were too dumb.
Meanwhile, The Identity Politics was forcing colleges, universities, business and government to adopt Woke DEI. while it was about social justice, it was a planned effort to replace Whites with minorities -- everywhere. Wokeism had the doctrine of proportional representation; thus schools and businesses had to meet their quotas of minorities.
See https://tinyurl.com/3wtvs3zm which describes a first hand account how Identity Politics, Woke DEI impacted the CIA.
The first time the vast majority of Americans glimpsed the Grand Replacement Theory was at the Alt Right Tikki Torch march in Charlottesville in August 2017, where they chanted "The Jews shall not replace us." Such a chant was an absurd mystery to most Americans. Pelosi got what she wanted from Charlottesville's, mass demonstrations and the death of Heather Heyer. Although it was called Unite The Right, the real organizer was the Democrat vice mayor of Charlottesville, Wes Bellamy. He worked two years to get the Right to come to Charlottesville and his big draws were (1) the Robert E Lee statue and (2) Bellamy's promise that there would be a huge counter-demonstration. See http://bit.ly/2fN3m8S
There is more the story, but I'm tired. Thus, I shall stop now.
Is a short version that everyone should be judged on merit?
I do agree with the author that there is a significant minority of white liberals, especially the further left one goes, who are elitists and in their “support” of “black people” (as if this defined a homogeneous group) they evince the racism of low expectations. I don’t think we need more quasi academic language like neo-racist, but I, too, find these white liberals condescending to blacks.
Meh - they're condescenging to everyone. But their presumption that they are qualified to speak FOR blacks (and Amerindians) and morally positioned to demand Latinos de-gender their own language ("Latinx") I guess makes then even MORE condescending toward non-whites.
DAMN STRAIGHT! Bravo! With clear thinking like that, I'll bet beers after work, cocktail parties and dinner conversations are a laugh a minute. That kind of talk reminds me of a couple of Freds: Frederick Douglass or Frédéric Bastiat - both clear thinking men I very much admire. There are others on my list of clear thinkers but I may just have to add you to that list. I loved the way you turned much of their language around or on its head. Not only is neo-white supremacy just white saviorism, it's merely another attempt at control by progressives who have steadfastly believed in racial preferences since the origins of scientific progressivism. The progressive elite wants to tell all of us what to think and how to behave. And if we don't go along, they'll try to find a way to punish us for independent thinking and action. I believed Dr. King when he said that we should be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. It was so obviously right when I heard it. I am glad to to see one more person believes that as well.
Great work. An incisive critique of the current DEI paradigm. Needed and for the most part, helpful.
The one thing that challenges me is the reflexive "they". Who are "they"? And if positioning such an other, who are "we"?
The push for ineffective, highly affective, post-Floyd, Kendian-inspired push toward anti-racism was used by those racialized as black (or brown) as much as it was for the so-called "white" people you seem to make the "Them" in the article.
The problem with any perpetuation of this sort of rhetoric is pretty much a tactic along the same lines as those on the anti-racism caboose that people have hopped on and are holding onto for dear life, even though the "train done gone."
"Nightmare Begins Responsibility" (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42829/nightmare-begins-responsibility).
" Don't stop talking long enough for us to hold the mic." In an easy filled with solid gold phrases and ideas, this may be the best. Great essay!
👏👏👏👏👏👏 A standing ovation for Dr. Nafees Alam from a white American! This article was on-point and truth crushed to Earth from start to finish! White supremacy and white saviorism are two sides of the same coin. I remember seeing a white woman once tweet in lamenting death of affirmative action, that “Black individuals can’t make it in a merit based system!” Oh really?! I can think of a number of famous black Americans who made it in this country on their own merit. Allow me to name a few for you: Barack Obama, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Ken Griffey, Jr., Thomas Sowell, Thurgood Marshall, Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, Larry Elder, Herman Cain, Allen West, Dr. Ben Carson, Robert Johnson, Phil Ivey, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Carol Swain, Reginald Lewis, Carol Joynt, Earl Graves, Tim Scott, Byron Donalds, Kim Klacik, Bob Woodson, Sr., Chris Gardner, Daymond John, Rev. Alveda King, Rob Smith, Mignon Francois, and Stuart Scott. That’s just to name a few! Neo-White Supremacy is a plague on our country and the western world more broadly. It’s basically white folks using those poor, stupid black and brown people to feel better about themselves. I remember reading in my college’s newspaper about two white women who were leading some sort of education program said when they interviewed candidates they wanted to make sure they weren’t coming in with a “white savior mentality.”
The irony there being that they were engaging in that mindset themselves by assuming black and brown people are too dumb to recognize the white savior mentality and they were just protecting them from those big bad evil white folks because black and brown people’s feelings are so fragile. So I think that was also projection on their part. Accusing the rest of us of being white saviors while playing the part themselves. Woke liberals and leftists love to pretend to care about black and brown people while talking over and shutting down any who they disagree with. If you’re a black or brown person who dares step out of line and disagree with them, they’ll call you a race traitor or Uncle Tom or claim your too stupid to understand racism. That’s why black intellectuals like Ibram X. Kendi or Michael Eric Dyson are deemed acceptable black voices but John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kmele Foster, Ian Rowe, and Chloe Valdary are deemed not acceptable black voices. I remember seeing a debate on Roland Martin’s garbage show where white savior extraordinaire Jane Elliott lectured C.J. Pearson that by supporting Trump he was “talking like a white man” and he needed to “think for himself.” The irony there being she was telling him how he should think as a black man. As if a black Trump supporter or conservative is an idiot who’s just been taken in but she’s intelligent and knows better.
Or how about the fact that Robin DiAngelo won’t debate or even talk with any black or brown person who disagrees with her? Malcolm X was right when he called out these neo-white supremacists like DiAngelo, Elliott, Peggy MacIntosh, Tim Wise, Peter Hamby, Michelle Goldberg, and Lena Dunham. They don’t care about the black community they want to have their butt kissed and their ego stroked. They see black and brown people as a means of getting there but they really could care less about them. Black and brown people should be treated as individuals and with a wide range of opinions and worldviews just like any other group. Treat them as individuals not as a skin color like MLK and the heroes in the Civil Rights Movement fought for. That is what you can do if you want to help black and brown people. All these neo-white supremacists are garbage and need to go away! You’ll find a lot of them among the students and faculty on college campuses. Folks like Kevin Kruse, Matthew Desmond and up until recently Katharine Franke for example. Franke has thankfully since been fired by Columbia. I’ve met many white millennials and Gen Zers who have this mentality and don’t even realize it.
Thurgood Marshall was a black racist. Morgan Freeman is not.
When black Americans become politically heterodox they will gain electoral leverage… which is currently minimal.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/40-acres-and-a-mule
Thanks for writing this down!
Thank you for this, Dr. Alam. Nobody is your master and nobody is your savior; you are supreme in and of yourself.
I blame not only the devious Lyndon Johnson for creating a new "plantation," but also the black leaders like Jesse Jackson and later Al Sharpton for the debacle of dependency and failure. By encouraging the black community to blame whites and reject white culture they set their community on a downward spiral. Why reject the ways that lead to success for all people, no matter their color? These black leaders did it selfishly for power and money.
No group that has happily succeeded in America has had it easy. Almost all have escaped from depraved conditions. They have all faced discrimination in America. They have all faced more challenges than others. They have done it by assimilating the behaviors that it takes while still maintaining important aspects of their cultures.
I originally thought helping minorities catch up through affirmative action was a good idea, that in the longer term it would sorta train minorities for success. But, political leaders constantly screaming about racism, that others others are responsible for your outcome, that others owe you something, and that you don't have to learn other behaviors made that dream fail.
I agree with your analysis of the white savior adding to the serious problems that the black community faces. I agree that it communicates that blacks are not able to be equals without their help. I am in favor of having expectations for all being able to succeed based on their abilities. Another thought: there are lots of people, of all colors, that don't succeed by our cultural understanding of success.
I reluctantly began reading this article with the thought, "Oh, no! Here we go with another lecture about how bad we are for being white and how we need to save those less fortunate, assuming they are the correct color to deserve salvation!"
Then, Boom! It turned into an article that hit the nail on the head multiple times. Those of us who know what time it is understand exactly what you meant when you mentioned "2164 under the guise of a nationwide party switch." Dr. King was not the only one who had a dream! Another dream was hatched by Lyndon Johnson and his friend Robert Byrd and that dream was to last until, yep, you guessed it, 2164! Although it was a dream for a certain group of politicians, it was a night mare for those, no matter what color, but primarily black and brown people, who were on the bottom and needing help -- a white savior, as you call it, rode in on a stallion and the nightmare was birthed.
Good article!
Brilliant. Thank you for this essay, Dr. Alam. Unfortunately, what you describe is the result of today’s “well-meaning “ virtue signaling, DEI promoting, self-congratulating, money-grabbing, corrupt manipulative Globalist elites. In other words, the modern Progressive Democrat.
Excellent article. I think the racism described here is not intentional or even conscious, which makes it all the more important to expose it for what it is.
I'd also add that I believe the motive isn't racism, even if that's the result. I think it's the inherently human religious motivation to be "right" and to be superior to others. Hence all the ever-changing progressive rules and the punishment, ostracism, and "cancelling" of dissenters (I experienced this at a workplace in 2020).
These people want to feel moral, righteous, and superior to others. Unfortunately, like all human-created religiousness, it has terrible results and is a misguided attempt doomed to fail.
I more clearly see the uniqueness of Christianity, which insists we are all sinners and can't redeem ourselves by our own righteous efforts, only by accepting a free gift of grace we don't deserve. No room for superiority, condemning some, or "rescuing" others. We're all equal at the foot of the cross, as the saying goes.
To be black/brown in the West is to be forced to choose between two dominant forms of racism: the overtly hateful bigotry of the conservative-right (which seems to have waning cultural power) and the condescension and paternalism of the liberal-left.
Time and time again non-white heterodoxy is challenged with accusations of "coonery" or "self-hatred" both within the non-white community as a means of conditioning uniformity, and by white outsiders for their ideological/political benefit.
For the neo-white supremacist (in this context) it's either ignorant but well intentioned white-saviorism, or manipulative political strategy. Awful still in both cases.
Really well done expression of the grim bind racial minorities find themselves in now.
What current evidence do you see to support your charge of "overtly hateful bigotry of the conservative-right"? I don't believe racial bigotry or animus against racial minorities exists on the conservative-right (your term) in any but isolated instances by people who are no part of the conservative-right. Race realists and their views, while unpopular and reviled by both white liberals and many minority groups, are a different (and difficult) story.
And this is why I love the Journal of Free Black Thought. More please.
If by brown you mean Kamala Harris!! Oh my.
The recent surge in Right Wing bigotry, especially anti-Black and anti-Semitism, has one cause: Nancy Pelosi's Identity Politics.
The SURGE in Alt Right in recent years was caused by Nancy Pelosi. Unlike Trump who is loud, Pelosi is quiet and work behind the scenes.
Please do not think that I said Right Wing bigotry, aka White Supremacy being its worst form, was CAUSED by Pelosi. I am saying that its change from a criminal law enforcement matter to its becoming a revived social movement was caused by Nancy Pelosi. I've written over 100 aarticles in citywatch detailing how Pelosi's Identity Politics has polarized America and stimulated the surge in the Alt Right making it had significant force in American life.
Law enforcement told Nancy Pelosi to stop her harassment of the Right Wing with her threats to replace Whites with Blacks and other minorities when the minorities became the majority of voters. Law enforcement explicitly told Pelosi many times to stop because they were only a criminal matter but if she continued with her Identity Politics, the Alt Right were small but very violent, e.g., Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma courthouse. Law enforcement also told Pelosi not to encourage counter demonstrations against Nazi and other extremists on the Right because the resulting publicity always attacks new crazies to the Alt Right philosophies.
One reason I know what law enforcement told Pelosi is that it is the same thing they told the Jewish Community. Among other things, I was assistant area Director for the AJC in Los Angeles. We agreed that publicity for Nazi demonstrations was like oxygen to a fire. Instead, we gathered facts about the Right Wing extremists and gave it to the proper law enforcement. Many violent incidents did not happen in the 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, etc. because they could stopped before they began. Nazi and KKK rallies were ignored.
Pelosi, however, wanted Right Wing violence and she wanted to give them publicity so that their violence would compel minorities to join the Dem Party for safety.
When the Jewish Community was beset by the Jewish Defense League, the Jewish community followed the same protocol. There were a lot of Jews who thought that openly fighting back was manly, but in the Jewish community being stupid is not part of manliness. It took a few years, but finally the vile Meir Kahane left the country and other JDL hate-mongers went to prison. But that was back in the 1970's.
Prior to the 2011 French publication of the Grand Replacement, Pelosi has stimulated a resurgence in the Alt Right haters, but that book fit perfectly into Pelosi's threats to replace Whites with minorities. It's hard to deny that the Pelosi Identity Politics Movement was an existential threat to Whites when there was book warning Whites that it was happening. The American twist was that the Jews were directing the replacement because Blacks were too dumb.
Meanwhile, The Identity Politics was forcing colleges, universities, business and government to adopt Woke DEI. while it was about social justice, it was a planned effort to replace Whites with minorities -- everywhere. Wokeism had the doctrine of proportional representation; thus schools and businesses had to meet their quotas of minorities.
See https://tinyurl.com/3wtvs3zm which describes a first hand account how Identity Politics, Woke DEI impacted the CIA.
The first time the vast majority of Americans glimpsed the Grand Replacement Theory was at the Alt Right Tikki Torch march in Charlottesville in August 2017, where they chanted "The Jews shall not replace us." Such a chant was an absurd mystery to most Americans. Pelosi got what she wanted from Charlottesville's, mass demonstrations and the death of Heather Heyer. Although it was called Unite The Right, the real organizer was the Democrat vice mayor of Charlottesville, Wes Bellamy. He worked two years to get the Right to come to Charlottesville and his big draws were (1) the Robert E Lee statue and (2) Bellamy's promise that there would be a huge counter-demonstration. See http://bit.ly/2fN3m8S
There is more the story, but I'm tired. Thus, I shall stop now.