A Defense of Wokeness in the Face of Fascism
Healing From Trumpism Series
First of all, I would like to point out that being woke isn’t really a thing amongst those who are often described as such, any longer. According to the Independent, the origins of the word can be traced back to the early 2000s. After the Ferguson uprising in 2014, it became politicized, at which point it was hijacked by the same people who were more than often justifiably the types of bad faith, racist, sexist, narrow-minded, conservative political actors subject to critiques in the vain of wokeness. Like much of the English language, the word woke is a testament to the influence of African American Vernacular or Black English on our society and culture. The word woke has been thoroughly exhausted, devoid of its intended meaning, in a way that isn’t particularly helpful. (As tends to be the case when older people or white people learn words they probably shouldn’t. Lest we forget the day Donald Trump Jr. tweeted and killed the word lit.) The word woke has become a cudgel in the bad-faith moral panic about cancel culture.
Woke used to be a euphemism for being enlightened, and it was wonderful. Slang terms are often from marginalized people and/or young people. It is a slap in the face to the power structure’s stranglehold on language that throughout history has been instrumental to abuses of power. It’s what makes a word like woke so powerful. It is a slang word derived from young people to connect other young people to the importance of social responsibility, and that terrified older, whiter, more conservative people who have a disproportionate influence on how language is to be used in our society. From slavery to the misguided Ebonics controversy of the late 90s, the capitalist power structure does this over and over again. Black English developed as a response to this and despite the power structure’s best effort. We wouldn’t even have the word cool without Black English.
The anti-woke sentiment that pervades mainstream and right-wing media circles seems to be rooted in the powerful’s historical fear of the subversive. What is so interesting about the aversion to wokeness is that it’s just the way people of color and young people have put to language the concept of being enlightened — and that really just means understanding the concept of social responsibility. Our democracy is failing not simply because people lack social responsibility, but the successful push towards fascism has encouraged people to do the opposite. Like many of the fascists actively engaging in voter suppression, discouraging people to get involved with the political, is a savvy way of smoothing over the uncomfortable to the benefit of the evil. By convincing the mainstream that the socially conscious cohort of the American electorate (that largely makes up the progressive movement in this country) and their ideas are hyperbolic, dramatic, expensive, unrealistic, a socialist takeover, recipe for crime, an invitation for open borders, a trojan horse coming from your guns, or fake news they have created the illusion that not being politically engaged is to some extent virtuous. To be called woke is more of an insult than a compliment or even just a statement of a fact.
Throughout the Trump years, we often heard that his political constituency was a cult of personality. But they don’t really have a shared personality other than being a bully. Bullies who don’t want to hear about racial justice because it challenges their perception of themselves. Bullies who don’t like women and hate themselves for not f*cking enough of us. Bullies who mistake cruelty for strength. Bullies who are sometimes just easier to go along with than stand with those who are fighting for what is difficult, but right. Bullies who would rather not wear a mask than save a life. These people who have been screaming into a bullhorn the last 5 years, throw a temper tantrum whenever someone expresses views that make them uneasy or they don’t get their way. They need to be stopped before they take our democracy or the fate of the planet out of reach of being fixed.
And to do that, a good first step would be to stop telling the people who are woke to shut up.
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