ABSTRACT
The racial justice movement has surged back into popular view, but now in a hyperconnected, media-saturated world. The discourses of anti-racism that construct allyship as the problematization of whiteness can be found all over blogs, op-eds, and social media, as well as in some of the best-selling go-to books that well-meaning whites are most likely to consult. Critiques of social justice and “wokeness”—which, it must be remembered, come from all over the political spectrum, including the far left—forget this difficult fact, and they proceed as if the question of allyship is a matter for pure intellectual debate. The shifts in white anti-racism in recent years, therefore, are not nearly as shocking as unsympathetic commentators seem to think. It is also possible that the cultural world of radical anti-racism will eventually diversify, providing white allies with a greater range of ways to be anti-racist—or at least a greater set of discursive justifications with which to frame their choices as acceptable.
