Woke means to be aware of racism, and to work against it. That has been the original meaning in Black culture since the 1930s. That’s it. Until both radical left and radical right have worked, almost happily, to destroy it by taking a Black concept and appropriating it. The same thing that happened to Jazz, Hip Hop, Rap etc. has transpired conceptually now.
Whatever has become of “wokeness” goes against the original intention, and the perversion of what wokeness stands for, and its extremification, has not just discredited this pseudo-wokeness but, sadly, also worked against the original mission of racism awareness.
When you hear people using the word nowadays, it is becoming clear that it has been emptied of meaning.
I do not even know anymore what people mean when they say they are against “wokeness”. It seems to nowadays stand for — amongst many things —:
- Anti-whiteness (a distortion of the meaning of antiracism)
- Feminism
- LGBTQ, but especially trans
- Transitioning of children with medical drugs (an indeed controversial subject)
- Environmentalism
- Anti-Climate Change measures
- Socialism / Democratic Socialism / Communism
- Any anti-discrimination measures
- DEI (which is frequently misunderstood), especially Equity (almost always misunderstood)
- Affirmative Action (almost always misunderstood)
- Anti-religion
- Anything other than “traditional” values (aka men work, women become mothers and stay at home, no LGBTQ)
- Antisemitism
- Pro-Palestine / Pro Hamas
- Any sense of decency
The Extremist Left has again overplayed its hand and emptied the term of any meaning by piling onto it whatever their agenda is, and the Extremist Right has gladly appreciated this dilution by now using it as a wedge to destroy any sense of liberalism. The actual victims of actual discrimination have been hurt by this process.
This is most unfortunate. But maybe there is a chance here to redefine concepts and work issue by issue. Complexifying instead of simplifying.
Maybe there is also a small victory here. The indignation by many non-Black people against the accusation of racism may hint at some sense of progress. We are no longer living in a time where to be proudly racist was a badge of honor. We are living in a time where people will be outraged to be seen as racist. At least that.
Maybe we are all now OG woke, just not left-wing woke. Maybe not wanting to be racist is based now. I’ll take that as a working assumption, however flawed it may be. Now let’s rethink how to make a more inclusive society beyond relying on overly simplified code words and academic gobbledygook.
Just be nice to each other. Just respect each other as fellow beings. Do that both on your individual level, and within society, as much as possible. That’s all that “being woke” was set to achieve originally. Back to basics then. Allons-y!
Erratic Attempts 