Except that poor people in the U.S. have far more material comforts than many in the "global middle class". The real untold story is the destruction of social capital in the U.S. and the tight-knit community structures and institutions that used to maintain and foster it - which is also the more relevant factor behind the very real, enduring marginalization of the lower classes.
You're also absolutely correct that anybody with an understanding of political philosophy is appalled at the replacement of the more dire and obvious economic challenges that come with class stratification with endless ink being spilled about DEI that doesn't include any acknowledgement of economics or class. It's obvious that most of the DEI work, especially in the academy, is a distraction from truer economic divides which exist within Western society, and that the ideology acting as a replacement for personal religion does not have any measuring boundaries to allow for a balanced perspective.
Plenty of academics criticize neoliberal capitalism. They're just also materially fueling it and lie to themselves about it.
Notably, 'academic wokeness' doesn't extend to criticizing another trend in the USA, the destruction of the middle class and the economic division of the country into aristocrats and serfs. This is mirrored in 'corporate inclusivity' - i.e. the apparent goal is to make the ethnic-racial-religious-gender makeup of the wealthiest 1% identical to that of the poorest 15%, while maintaining the economic divide.
The whole thing reeks of psychological manipulation and state/corporate propaganda.