Summary of How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by Fredrik deBoer E-Book

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• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

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Summary of How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by Fredrik deBoer

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In 2020, the US experienced a surge of political discontent following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Major corporations and nonprofit groups joined in protests, but the movement failed due to lack of tangible goals, established institutions, and grassroots movements. Fredrik deBoer's book, How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement, suggests that society's winners can contribute to social justice movements without taking them over, and that activists and organizations can become more resistant to the influence of elites, nonprofits, corporations, and political parties. By organizing around class rather than empty gestures, we can begin to change minds and drive policy.

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Summary of How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by Fredrik deBoer

In 2020, the US faced political discontent following George Floyd's murder and the Black Lives Matter movement. DeBoer's book suggests that winners can contribute to social justice without elites' influence, and organizing around class can change minds and drive policy.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

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Summary of How

Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement

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Summary of

Fredrik deBoer’s book

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Summary of How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by Fredrik DeBoer

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This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Fredrik deBoer’s “How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement” designed to enrich your reading experience.

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INTRODUCTION

The author, a part-time organizer, has been involved in activism since becoming politically conscious as a teenager. Over the years, they have witnessed the same dynamics play out again and again, with dedicated organizers falling into the same sad patterns that obstruct progress. One example is the University of Rhode Island (URI) student activists who committed to a political action in 2010 when there was no real LGBTQ+ center for students on campus. They occupied a section of URI's library for eight days, refusing to surrender the space until their demands were heard. After several rounds of negotiation with the school's brass, the activists declared victory, including the creation of a new LGBTQ+ center.

The author has also been a young activist once, helping organize around gay rights issues in high school. When he got to Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) in 2002, he organized against the Iraq invasion and joined the organization Connecticut United for Peace (CutUP). By 2004, he was punching the clock every week, organizing against the war. One particular march through Hartford seemed to take an almost impossible amount of time and effort to pull off. The city government in Hartford made it harder for the activists, as they had to pay Hartford cops at overtime rates to provide "security." Eventually, a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) made inquiries into the constitutionality of the city's requirements, which led to the city dropping their absurd requirements and giving the activists permits. The author was delighted to have their name appear on the permit, and the march ended with several hundred people demanding an end to a senseless war.

The author reflects on the failures of the anti-Iraq war movement, which focused on a domestic conflict instead of the brutal one on the other side of the world. They experienced factionalization, accusations of racism and bigotry, attempts by fringe groups to control events, and bitter disputes about goals and tactics. The author believes that protest is necessary and righteous even when it achieves nothing tangible, but they saw failure everywhere.

The author moved to Chicago after three years of antiwar activism, feeling emotionally spent and despondent. They found themselves in the recession after the 2008 financial meltdown and went to grad school, where they found themselves on campus during the URI student occupation of the library. The author admired the actions of young activists, but was disappointed when they asked about their next goal, the Four Loko ban.

In 2020, the American progressive movement drifted from the essential to the inconsequential, material to the illusory. The Covid-19 pandemic exploded out from China and across the globe, rocking the world economy and sending people into a micro-depression. The presidential election year further fueled this sentiment, with Donald Trump facing an emboldened progressive movement and dissent within his party and political ideology.

On May 25, the simmering tensions were brought to a boil when George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin and his fellow officers. Protests demanded justice and a total remaking of society's relationship to race, leading to riots and widespread support for Black Lives Matter.

In response to the demand for change, America's institutions, including universities, foundations, and nonprots, implemented programs to support racial justice and diversify their workforces and student bodies. An army of young activists were hired into academia, public service, and the nonprot sector, and grandiose plans for total reconstruction of society were devised. However, very little happened. No major federal legislation resulted from the upheaval of 2020, and some cities and states enacted modest criminal-justice reforms, but many were later quietly rolled back. The change demanded was largely from the upwardly mobile professional and managerial classes, and cultural institutions relentlessly looked to reward people from marginalized groups. The calls from establishment politicians for justice were simply folded into business as usual.

Political change is hard, and progressive political change is even harder. The inertia of established systems is remarkable, and activists should never be overly critical of activists for failing to achieve change. The default state of progressive social movements is failure, and the default state of such movements is the latest in a long string of failures for progressive social movements. The default state of such movements is due to elite capture, where the people who talk about politics professionally are in large majorities the people who face the least material depravation.