One of the chief CEOs of Big Racism Inc. is moving on to a new business opportunity now that the easy money from the 2020 race-hustling grift has dried up: the Israel-Hamas war.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, who kickstarted his career complaining about racism by calling for reparations in 2014, is releasing a new book in October, “The Messenger,” the longest section of which focuses on his travels to Palestine and the racism he observed there. Although the new book will touch upon racism in America, the author seems to have found a perfect subject, a little more newsy than George Floyd’s death, that will stimulate the erogenous zones of guilty white readers and reviewers in the posh neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.
But Coates isn’t the first race-obsessed intellectual or activist to do a little career pivoting away from the festive summer of 2020. In fact, he’s just the latest example of Big Racism’s waning cultural power — and its lackluster profitability. (RELATED: Bush, Bowman, Gay, Kendi. All Disintegrated. Their Commonality? Woke Acolytes Are On The Run)
“How to Be an Anti-Racist” author Ibram X. Kendi had raised $55 million in three years for his Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University in 2020, only for it to implode years later, in 2023. An employee of the center said it was “mismanaged on a really fundamental level,” while another said she had no clue where the money was going. Shocker.
TORONTO, ONTARIO – SEPTEMBER 09: Dr. Ibram X. Kendi speaks onstage during Netflix’s “Stamped From The Beginning” world premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival at TIFF Bell Lightbox on September 09, 2023 in Toronto, Ontario. Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Netflix
Self-proclaimed civil rights activist Shaun King, who falsely accused a man of murdering a 7-year-old black girl in 2018, declined to endorse Kamala Harris for president. King has converted to Islam and, like Coates, has shifted his priorities to the plight of Palestine instead of bullying people online who would later commit suicide. Good for him!
Self-hating race lecturer Robin DiAngelo was recently humiliated during the filming of Matt Walsh’s satirical documentary “Am I Racist?” The producers apparently duped her into sitting for an interview, for which she was offered $15,000. During the scene, Walsh convinces DiAngelo to give one of his producers $30 in reparations to repent for past injustices committed by white people. She has since nuked her Twitter account.
And, of course, we can’t forget the grift behemoth itself, arguably the death star of race-hustling. Black Lives Matter, which raked in $90 million in 2020, has seen fundraising slow significantly. According to a 2023 tax filing, the organization raised only $9 million in that last fiscal year, prompting a 55% cut in operating expenses. Between July 2022 and June 2023, however, BLM leaders still had enough cash on hand to pay off themselves and their families. (RELATED: BLM’s Leaders Used Charitable Funds To Enrich Themselves And Their Families, New Documents Show)
All of these signs point to a much-needed market correction. The Big Racism Inc. grift is coming to an end, if a bit slowly. Grifts spring eternal, but at least we’ll get something fresh for the remainder of the year. And congratulations to Mr. Coates, whose new book I will not be reading (I think I would rather read the U.S. tax code). You almost have to respect the seamlessness of his pivot, and the way he can convince elite liberals that he is an elite thinker.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
