An eye-opening exploration of American policy reform, or lack
thereof, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black
Lives Matter movement and how the country can do better in the
future.
In 2020, while the
Covid-19 pandemic raged, the United States was hit by a ripple of
political discontent the likes of which had not been seen since the
1960s. The spark was the viral video of the horrific police murder of
an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis. The killing of George Floyd
galvanized a nation already reeling from Covid and a toxic political
cycle. Tens of thousands poured into the streets to protest. Major
corporations and large nonprofit groups--institutions that are
usually resolutely apolitical--raced to join in. The fervor for
racial justice intersected with the already simmering demands for
change from the #MeToo movement and for economic justice from Gen Z.
The entire country suddenly seemed to be roaring for change in one
voice.
Then nothing much
happened.
In How Elites Ate
the Social Justice Movement, Fredrik deBoer explores why these
passionate movements failed and how they could succeed in the future.
In the digital age, social movements flare up but then lose steam
through a lack of tangible goals, the inherent moderating effects of
our established institutions and political parties, and the lack of
any real grassroots movement in contemporary America. Hidden beneath
the rhetoric of the oppressed and the symbolism of the downtrodden
lies the inconvenient fact that those doing the organizing,
messaging, protesting, and campaigning are predominantly drawn from
this country's more upwardly mobile educated classes. Poses are more
important than policies.
DeBoer lays out an
alternative vision for how society's winners can contribute to social
justice movements without taking them over, and how activists and
their organizations can become more resistant to the influence of
elites, nonprofits, corporations, and political parties. Only by
organizing around class rather than empty gestures can we begin the
hard work of changing minds and driving policy.
