The pandemic and the BLM movement have shown how many white Americans still center their identity on consumer culture + racism.

And it’s easy to make fun of them.

But the real project is shifting the way these people, or their children, conceive of their identities.

What they need is a replacement. Consumerism and racism need to be replaced. It’s a long term endeavor, with a ton of obstacles, but we already see a big shift in the young white generation identifying multi-culturalism, justice etc as core values rather than racism.

We need to keep pushing in that direction, finding new ways to reach a group that has largely retreated to a soundproof echo chamber. We also need to take the power of racists, of course, but we need to work more creatively on the culture, values, priorities front too.