One genre of news stories for which I possess a near-bottomless appetite is examples of the left-wing revolution eating its own. This goes beyond mere schadenfreude. My hope -- which may be fanciful -- is that at some point the pendulum will swing, hard, because enough people on the Left reach a breaking point and decide to join the coalition against woke excess. There must be some limit to the insanity even many committed leftists are willing to indulge. This story from last year was one of my favorites in the category, chronicling how 'progressive' organizations were consuming themselves from within, addicted to score-settling, scalp-collecting, and identity-driven venom. We also shared this account about a leftist professor becoming ensnared in 'anti-racist hell,' as the inmate took over the asylum in a program for gifted high school students.
In a similar vein, here's the story of a woke duo who went viral in an unplanned moment, gained prominence and currency, developed a business model around it -- and then crashed and burned, as identity and grievance destroyed their relationship. The Los Angeles Times explored the deterioration of this DEI partnership, starting with the catalyzing event that first brought them together:
Few know the names Michelle Saahene or Melissa DePino. But millions have heard the beginning of their story. They were witnesses at a Philadelphia Starbucks five years ago when two Black businessmen asked to use the restroom and a white barista called police, who led the men away in handcuffs. "They didn’t do anything!” Saahene shouted as another customer recorded the confrontation. Saahene and DePino didn’t know each other. But in their shock and anger, the two women started talking, and after DePino got a copy of the video, she conferred with Saahene before tweeting it out. The tweet triggered a public relations disaster for Starbucks and a national uproar, raising questions about racism, policing and public safety. It also launched lucrative new careers for both women, who teamed up to promote awareness about racism and started a nonprofit that provided sensitivity talks to corporations just as the diversity, equity and inclusion industry was about to take off.
But things eventually went south:
What they could not anticipate was how their joint venture would go awry — or how they themselves would become a potent illustration of the racial animosity and misunderstanding they had set out to combat. "This is what happens when white women insert themselves into what should be Black-led organizations," Saahene, who is Black and 36, said recently. "White supremacy and emotional abuse get masked under kindness." "This is what it looks like to be canceled,” said DePino, who is white and 55. "I'm not really sure what I did wrong."
The article details how their 'anti-racism' business grew slowly, landing the two women "occasional" speaking gigs on college campuses or with corporations. But their big breakthrough came in the spring and summer of 2020, amid the racial tensions following the murder of George Floyd. The resulting boom in diversity initiatives, backed by billions in corporate pledges, was a lucrative turning point for the pair and their activism:
From Privilege to Progress — the project the women called P2P — took off. The number of followers on their Instagram account shot up from around 20,000 to roughly half a million. By late 2020, the women had monthly, sometimes weekly, paid engagements at Google, Spectrum, Ikea, Yale, MIT, Tufts and the United Nations...The two had become close...They met each other’s families. It was a friendship and a business commingled with a sense of purpose and profit. They launched an Instagram Live series and snagged interviews with Hollywood actors including Ilana Glazer, Jameela Jamil and Sophia Bush. They hosted "Unscripted," a weekly video program in which they answered questions on the do's and don'ts of being anti-racist. The duo nearly doubled their joint speakers rate to $10,000 total per appearance. In 2021, each netted more than $100,000...The two women dreamed of a national tour and documentary series — and it felt within reach.
The trouble in paradise, the piece explained, started when demand for their woke road show started to slacken. Research emerged that such programs, lectures and workshops weren't actually effective, and the the progressive hair-trigger, high-alert era of the Trump administration gave way to the less urgent (from the perspective of their core audience) days of Joe Biden. The business model faltered. Their bread-and-butter -- social media engagement -- fell off. Ms. Saahene, the black partner, started to think differently about their arrangement:
Saahene grew introspective. She began to think back to disagreements she'd had with DePino — differences that had seemed minor at the time but in a new light felt more troubling...Then there was the question of how to divide the profits from their business. The two women had always split them evenly, but in 2019 Saahene had suggested that she deserved a greater share. It seemed clear that the venture would have gotten little traction without a Black woman on board, and in her view, speaking about racism required more "emotional labor" on her part. She said DePino disagreed, contending that she did more background work: nonprofit filings, managing money and posting to social media accounts. Saahene had quickly backed down. But now she wished she had not let it pass so easily. "I was reading and learning about equity models in businesses,” she said...Often unable to sleep, DePino was rethinking her priorities, and Saahene no longer felt like somebody she could lean on. Casual emails and texts became curt, professional exchanges. It felt to DePino like they were becoming strangers again.
They continued to talk, to try to sort out differences. Saahene texted, saying she felt unheard and pointing out past moments she now considered "microaggressions." One involved a suggestion by DePino that they visit a lynching memorial in Alabama together. "As if we haven't had numerous conversations about how traumatizing it is for me to witness violence against Black bodies," Saahene wrote. She called DePino "manipulative" and cited "the challenges of working with white women in racial justice," arguing that "Black people shouldn’t always have to be in therapist or coach mode." DePino replied: “I thought our personal relationship was so much deeper... this text sounds like we are strangers.”
The relationship eroded even further, with the two feuding over control of their now-defunct organization's large social media following. Saahene brought out the heavy artillery:
Saahene emailed to say she was done sharing stages. Since returning from Ghana, Saahene wrote, she was on a “transformation of healing and decolonizing.” She accused DePino of “defensiveness and other manifestations of whiteness.” ... Saahene replied that she wanted the project "dissolved." She objected that DePino kept posting on P2P's Instagram because it was "misleading the public” into believing the partnership was alive. On April 22, 2022, Saahene took over the platform. In a written statement to nearly 500,000 followers, she said DePino was "not honest" and had no "commitment to ending colonialism." She plugged her personal Instagram. "A staple of anti-racism is 'listen to Black women.' In this org that is not happening," Saahene wrote. DePino deleted the posts and dashed off an email: “You cannot legally slander me... I will send a cease-and-desist ASAP.” Saahene shot back: “My life experiences and statements are truth.” For weeks, the two tussled over the Instagram account. One posted. The other deleted. By the end of September, the website and social media accounts were permanently wiped offline. Saahene and DePino stopped communicating, except through lawyers.
Saahene now says she wants to serve a primarily black audience, having been "drained" by talking to so many white people about the "white problem" of racism. DePino, having been effectively called a racist by her former business partner and friend, still receives torrents of online abuse, "nearly all from white former followers. They called her a racist, a 'Karen,' a manipulator, a fake." And thus the revolution claimed another one of its own. No one can truly keep up with the ever-changing rules, pieties, and grievances. Speaking of which, Uber has suspended its corporate DEI chief -- a woman of color -- because other people of color decided that some of her Zoom sessions are insufficiently woke:
Uber's diversity chief tries to do their job, tells employees not to demonize each other based on their race or gender. Employees get mad. Uber says, well, goodbye diversity chief. https://t.co/ooDJXBlchT
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 22, 2023
Uber has suspended its head of diversity, equity and inclusion after Black and Hispanic employees complained about the workplace events she moderated exploring the experience of white American women under the title “Don’t Call Me Karen”. The ride-hailing app has confirmed that it has asked Bo Young Lee, who has led its DEI department for five years, to take a leave of absence while the company works out “next steps”...Lee’s suspension, which was first reported by the New York Times, follows mounting internal discontent over two “Don’t Call Me Karen” sessions that she convened on Zoom for up to 500 employees. The events, one in April and the second last week, were billed as “diving into the spectrum of the American white woman’s experience from some of our female colleagues, particularly how they navigate around the ‘Karen’ persona”.
The focus on the discomfort of white women specifically over the term “Karen” was denounced by several employees as being insensitive towards people of color. In internal Slack channels for Black and Hispanic Uber employees seen by the Times, workers said they had felt lectured at. “It was more of a lecture – I felt like I was being scolded for the entirety of that meeting,” one Black woman wrote. Another said that she didn’t understand the premise of the session: “I think when people are called Karens it’s implied that this is someone that has little empathy to others or is bothered by minorities others that don’t look like them. Like, why can’t bad behavior not be called out?”...According to the New York Times, after the first “Don’t Call Me Karen” event, a Black staffer argued that diversity sessions should not include “tone-deaf, offensive and triggering conversations”. Lee is reported to have replied: “Sometimes being pushed out of your own strategic ignorance is the right thing to do.”
A black employee felt like the DEI "training" was a scolding lecture? Imagine that. Nevertheless, Ms. Lee is now out -- a DEI corporate bureaucrat felled by the very racket she was tasked with leading. That's how it works. What absolutely miserable, exhausting people. I'll leave you with more instances of the creeping return of racial segregation, imposed in the name of 'justice' and 'progress,' of course:
🗣A theatre has urged white people not to attend a play, arguing that its audience should be “free from the white gaze” https://t.co/tpkkdsfWq0
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 20, 2023
That's bad. This is worse, in an Illinois public school:
AP Calculus at Evanston Township H.S.
— Dan Proft (@DanProft) April 30, 2023
"...the course is restricted to students who identify as Black, all genders."
"...the course is restricted to students who identify as Latinx, all genders."
Neo-segregation is the absurdity of identitarianism taken to its logical end. pic.twitter.com/Jo8I9yzZCa
They got caught and tweaked the language, perhaps to avoid slam-dunk losses in court.
