There is, of course, nothing new to virtue signaling. In 1970, Tom Wolfe wrote a classic essay about white America’s use of the Black Panther movement as a form of virtue signaling, or, what he called the “Radical Chic.”[1] The composer, Leonard Bernstein, and his wife Felicia invited the leaders of the Panthers to a swanky party at their Upper West Side Manhattan home. They served little Roquefort cheese morsels rolled in crushed nuts. They loved the edgy radicalism of the Panthers with their Yoruba-style headdresses and black turtlenecks. The Panthers were so much cooler than the droopy, clerical, middle class, 1950s and ’60s “negroes wearing gray suits three sizes too big.”[2] For the Black Panther leaders like Donald Cox, it was a necessary visit. In return for letting the white, virtue signaling, radical chic of New York use the Panthers to make them look cooler, virtuous in all the right ways, the Panthers raised money that would take Black kids on tours of the Scarsdale suburbs so that they could see how their oppressors lived and be radicalized to tear those systems of oppression down.

On the surface, it might seem like BLM needs white social media virtue signalers, if only to keep the media buzz alive. In the end, however, it probably does more harm than good. It is a profound gesture of disrespect to those who are taking to the streets because of real suffering. More importantly, it reflects the extent to which these folks have failed to internalize what “Black Lives Matter” really means. In the end, I fear it bodes poorly for the possibility of real societal change once the marches stop this summer.

Notes

[1] Tom Wolfe, “Tom Wolfe on Radical Chic and Leonard Bernstein’s Party for the Black Panthers — New York Magazine – Nymag,” New York Magazine, April 15, 2008, https://nymag.com/news/features/46170/.

[2] Wolfe.