The Big Truth

In a time of rapid societal upheaval ushered in by social movements like Black Lives Matter and Me Too, institutions from local police departments to the Democratic Party are moving slowly toward change. While the right wing dominates the war of ideas by promising to transform our society into an apartheid white minority ethno-state, mainstream liberal organizations and leaders are too invested in the status quo to offer anything but tepid reform. But given the scale of the challenges we face in this era, climate chaos not least among them, we need powerful institutions to do more than reform. We need them to transform into vehicles to end white supremacy or get out of the way. The Big Truth is aimed at workers ranging from the nonprofit industrial complex to the tech industry, and in it Hopkins writes that the emerging diversity, equity and inclusion sector is an example of a reformist reform that fails to identify and attack white supremacy, anti-Indigeneity and anti-Blackness directly. He examines how this reformist approach serves to uphold white supremacy by obscuring the violence of a fundamentally unjust society. Using examples ranging from Pride parades to federal climate legislation, Hopkins shows how reformism allows corporations and politicians to perform allyship with social movements while effectively gaslighting their constituencies into viewing reformism as progress. This liberal failure of ambition is contrasted with the agitational and vibrant Big Lie from Trumpists, making the case that our democracy is under threat until we can offer our own competing Big Truth about the white supremacy that underpins every part of American society. Based on real case studies from over three decades of movement work, the book offers practical and actionable advice for everyone from social justice organizers to corporate managers to frontline workers. Offering a searing analysis of a democracy controlled by corporate oligarchy and a progressive movement manipulated by ruling class philanthropy, Hopkins answers the question of how individual progressives can act effectively - and collectively - to achieve our political aims.