Nikole Hannah-Jones, the founder of The 1619 Project, fancies herself as a brave prophet who takes risks to speak truth to power:

Uh-huh. There is nothing safer to say among American power elites today than the racialist narrative hawked by Hannah-Jones, Ibram X. Kendi, and the others. Shell Oil sponsored an NHJ talk in Houston, as part of a series of lectures on the black experience. I don’t blame her one bit for taking Shell’s money for the lecture. But please, spare us the self-serving and ridiculous, “I am making the powerful uncomfortable.” She is doing exactly the opposite: she is assuaging their liberal guilt.

Today I got an e-mail from a reader who confirmed that wokeness well and truly has conquered corporate America. The reader works for Halliburton, the largest US provider of oilfield services. This is the corporate giant that Dick Cheney used to run, and which has been vilified by liberals since the Iraq War began. Their customers are all oil companies; they sell nothing directly to the general public, according to this employee. I tell you this so you’ll know that there is no possible public relations benefit to what Halliburton’s senior management has just done. Said the reader, “At this point, the only thing that really makes sense is that this is essentially an extortion payment.”

He forwarded to me an image of a company-wide message from CEO Jeff Miller, raving about a recent company “CEO Town Hall on Diversity, Respect and Equality.” The speaker was Michelle Silverthorn, “equality advocate and founder of Inclusion Nation.” Miller, who sits in the same chair that Dick Cheney once did, asked everyone in the company to review the “Ten Rules for Allyship and Justice” that Silverthorn shared.

Look:

Remember, that was the handout that a successor to Dick Cheney at Halliburton passed along to every employee, with the request that they read over it. How about that: radical left ideas of social justice are embraced and encouraged at the most senior management levels at Halliburton, the company that Dick Cheney used to run! Woke Capitalism is triumphant. This Halliburton employee wrote:

I am honestly not sure at this point what would happen to me if I speak up. I plan to, but I need to be very careful. For now, I would be perfectly fine with you sharing this on your blog, but would prefer you not to use my name. Maybe that will change later – I need to pray about it some first.

Sure, Nikole Hannah-Jones is the brave oppressed voice in all this. Right. Meanwhile, this poor white guy at Halliburton is terrified to object to any of this radicalism because he’s afraid of losing his job.

We know exactly who has the power in woke corporate America, and who doesn’t.