When you think about corporate wokeness, what comes to mind? DEI and ESG policies might be the most prominent examples, for good reason. But as someone in the industry of corporate engagement, helping investors use their financial influence to root out bias from America’s biggest brands, we often find ourselves asking this question: who determines parameters? Wokeness is parasitical, and its most subtle and pernicious effects emerge by latching on to legitimate corporate policies and twisting them to serve political ends.
Among the most parasitical of these organizations is the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). An activist group formed in 1971 to combat the influence of Jim Crow, the SPLC has gradually morphed into a group peddling the false equivalence between conservatives and hate groups. Case in point: the SPLC’s infamous “hate map.” The SPLC would like you to believe that the map represents American hate in an image, with many of the groups on the map, such as the Klan, white supremacists, and the Westboro Baptist Church, being genuine hate groups. And yet, when you look at the list, you’ll see some groups that decidedly aren’t hateful: Alliance Defending Freedom, American Family Association, Focus on the Family, Moms for Liberty — and an Arizona-based nonprofit called Turning Point USA. The SPLC specifically lambasted TPUSA as ‘hard-right’ in June of 2025, and even smeared them as part of the political Right’s alleged efforts to “enforce a social order rooted in white supremacy.” Let’s be clear: the SPLC isn’t giving you a hate list. This is a list of groups, ranging from true extremists to normal conservative groups, that the Southern Poverty Law Center would simply like you to believe are all hateful.
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