The Gentrification of Class, Culture, Community, and Perspective: How the Far Right Weaponizes Bias to Exploit Fear of Differences

Photo by Cristi Ursea on Unsplash

By Effenus Henderson, President, HenderWorks

Gentrification is often associated with physical spaces — wealthy newcomers displacing long-standing communities, driving up rents, and erasing the character of neighborhoods. But gentrification is not confined to geography. It seeps into every aspect of society, affecting class, culture, community, and perspective. It’s a quiet erasure, displacing diversity, authenticity, and equity with the sanitized and homogeneous, serving those in power while marginalizing those without it.

This process is not accidental. It’s deliberate, calculated, and amplified by far-right movements that weaponize bias to incite fear and grievance. By distorting narratives and exploiting our collective anxieties, they uphold systems of privilege and division, allowing the wealthy, white elite to maintain their grip on power.

The Weaponization of Fear

At the heart of the far right’s strategy lies fear — specifically, fear of the “other.” This fear is fed by “catch-all phrases”that reduce complex issues to simple, emotionally charged terms, designed to stoke grievance and mobilize resentment. Terms like “critical race…