I believe Eduardo and I were erased and replaced because our individuality as black men threatens the victim narrative; in arguing for a black identity rooted in self-esteem rather than victimhood, in seeing ourselves as having already achieved such an identity, we challenge the very foundation of Critical Social Justice.

And because our challenge to wokeness is rooted in character, the erase and replace tactic builds into its strawman of our arguments an ad hominem fallacy against our character. Because it is a question of character that inadvertently deals too heavy a blow to the victim narrative, the woke simply cannot afford to acknowledge us for who we are, so they instead attack who we aren’t.

Instead of engaging with our arguments on the merits, the purpose of erasing and replacing is to forego engagement and damage group standing. Psychologist Wayne Schwartz writes that the purpose of such a tactic is to show “that the perpetrator is not and perhaps never was a member in good standing in the community.” Psychologists William Torres’ and Raymond Bergner suggest that people willing to degrade those with opposing views feel degraded themselves; “erase and replace” is an attempt to stave off further degradation. Perhaps white supremacy is the target of this character assassination, but intra-group wellness and solidarity take the hit.