By Daniel Dale
An activist group in Texas was demanding, online and in letters delivered to homes in upscale Dallas-area communities, that “wealthy white liberals” pledge not to send their kids to top colleges — so that White people could make amends for past wrongs and “open up spaces for Black and LatinX communities.”
The story about the apparent radicalism of the self-described “social justice” group Dallas Justice Now, which was even threatening to reveal the names of people who refused to sign the “college pledge,” rocketed around conservative media last week.
And then things got really weird.
Numerous observers, including some Dallas journalists and some conservative commentators, immediately suspected that Dallas Justice Now was a hoax, potentially intended to inflame racial tensions or make the Black Lives Matter movement look bad. And when journalist Steven Monacelli looked into Dallas Justice Now for a story in the Dallas Observer — after local residents and others on social media began poking around — he could not find any evidence that the group was authentic.