The Marxist essayist and author on the real reason Black Lives Matter and other protest movements failed.
Freddie deBoer is no fan of piety, whether secular or religious. As a Marxist atheist, it’s a position that makes sense. But his criticism extends beyond traditional forms of faith, targeting what he sees as a pervasive secular piety among American liberals. According to deBoer, this mindset is partly to blame for the failure of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020. Despite being one of the largest protests in American history, BLM did not produce a single significant legislative achievement.
In his new book, How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement, deBoer criticizes progressive movements for their tendency to veer from the legitimate and urgent to the absurd. He argues that BLM, along with other social justice movements, became consumed by an obsession with language, symbolism, and performative activism, all at the expense of addressing material needs and structural inequalities. According to deBoer, this shift is symptomatic of a broader trend within the left, one that has been distracted by elite-driven identity politics rather than focusing on working-class struggles.
DeBoer believes that this focus on identity has derailed the left, steering it away from its core mission of advocating for systemic change and economic justice. For him, the failure of BLM to achieve tangible change is proof of the left’s misguided priorities. Instead of making headway on policies that could improve the material conditions of Black people and other marginalized groups, the movement became bogged down in debates about language and representation. The leadership, according to deBoer, was more interested in shaping narratives than in achieving the kind of policy victories that could have made a real difference.
In this view, identity politics, particularly when elevated to the status of a moral imperative, is a diversion from the urgent task of addressing class inequality. While deBoer acknowledges the importance of fighting racial injustice, he believes the left must return to its roots in class-based politics. It’s not enough to focus on individual identities and symbolic victories, he argues; the focus must shift to policies that directly improve the lives of working-class people, regardless of race.
DeBoer’s critique is part of a broader push within the left to reassert class-based analysis in the face of what some see as the rise of identity politics. For deBoer, the left’s fixation on the superficial trappings of social justice – from slogans to performative acts of solidarity – is weakening the movement and preventing it from confronting the real structural issues at the heart of inequality. The focus must be on dismantling capitalist systems that perpetuate poverty, exploitation, and division.
Ultimately, deBoer’s message is one of pragmatism and solidarity, urging the left to move beyond divisive identity politics and refocus on building a movement that can tackle the material realities that affect all working people. He argues that only through unity based on shared class interests can the left hope to achieve the kind of transformative change that will benefit everyone, particularly the marginalized groups it claims to represent.
