An uneducated anecdotal observation -
If you observe the pattern of politics in any authoritarian state in the Middle East or Asia, specifically those where the discrepancy between the life circumstances of the population when compared to the developed world at large is substantial, you will notice the common thread that the government has identified and promoted among the people and outside enemy who is primarily to be blamed for the daily economic and social hardships being experienced. This blame is not only historical (past actions that have contributed) but ongoing (they are still doing it). In some (many?) cases, there is legitimate grievance to point to, but never in proportion to the plight of the people and rarely is the blame properly directed. Rather, the outside enemy has become a scapegoat to serve as cover for the ruling class of that nation and to properly direct the growing unhappiness of the populace with their disparate circumstances. An authoritarian government’s grasp on power is always tenuous due to the need to control a vastly larger number of people, and especially when representatives of those people are included in the armed forces that supply the muscle for maintaining control. In such cases, maintaining the scapegoat narrative is of the utmost importance for maintaining a secure grasp on power. A similar thing seems to be at play in the United States among the (predominantly white, though decreasingly so as the education system produces fruit) upper class elites in government and academia, who are the chief proponents of “woke-ism” (colloquial summary name for the various forms of critical race and gender theory actively applied to politicial, social, and business life). The very real history of racism in this country (and now increasingly gender and sexual identity discrimination), which is undeniably still present in some form, has been marshalled by this group to serve as the scapegoat for the plight of minority classes in this nation, both real and perceived. The observable reality is that the largest discrepancy in outcomes is seen among urban minority populations who have suffered under years (decades) of economic and social disadvantage. This is real, and is tragic. What the scapegoat narratives (which focus on enemies such as White Supremacy, Christian Colonialism, Donald Trump, Rich Conservatives, et al.) tend to cover up is the fact that the vast majority of urban minority populations have been governed by representatives of the same upper class elites who are the most vocal advocates of “woke-ism.” This tenure extends to greater than 50 years or more, in some cases. Leaving aside national politics which has a tendency to fluctuate (but maybe less than the R vs. D would imply), and focusing just on the local and regional control, the control of policy has been almost universal in these areas. Without denying the reality of outside harm and the existence of real racial animosity (although the predominant form is more likely to be socio-economic prejudice rather than the frequently thrown about “white supremacy”), it is worth giving a critical eye to the extremely vocal promulgators of thought and speech policy and assess whether “the lady doth protest too much” in this case.