Even antiracist leaders suppressed colorism critiques to protect their privilege

Evidence

Du Bois was probably not oblivious. More likely, he and his light-skinned peers felt their color privilege was threatened by discussions of colorism and color equality, not unlike Whites who felt their racial privilege threatened by discussions of racism and racial equality. And so, Du Bois copied his enemies: he used racist ideas and his punishing power to silence the antiracist challenge to color discrimination. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 831

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends the reader’s stated goal: Kendi’s causal inversion (self-interest creates the ideas) applied inside antiracist ranks — power defends its own position, echoing the dominance of assimilationists within the movement. — connects to: Privileged anti-racism activists weaponize their own privilege against the system — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1868; Class-privileged blacks could themselves face exclusion from the respectability project.; Movement leaders suppress internal critiques to protect unity — Silke Roth, Intersectionality and coalitions in…, 151
• DEEPTHINKING: Kendi turns the antiracist lens back on antiracism itself — the privileged members of the resistance replicate the silencing dynamics they fight. Paradigm-shifting in that it dissolves the clean good/bad binary the reader may want to hold.