JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<ul>
<li data-cat="one">test
<li data-cat="one">test
<li data-cat="two">test
<li data-cat="three">test
<li data-cat="three">test
<li data-cat="three">test
</ul>
CSS
.active {
color: red;
}
JavaScript
var list = $( '[data-cat]' ).get();
listSorted = jQuery.unique( list );
$( listSorted ).addClass('active');