Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to be used as slang for a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights.
– Woke in Wikipedia
The woke discussion is a good example of a familiar dynamic: The far right want to taint and dismiss healthy progressive views, and some progressives adopt the dismissive view without understanding they are being played.
WHY I LOVE WOKE
Why do I love woke?
As I have mentioned in another article, it’s for several reasons. I’ll summarize some here.
It helps create a more inclusive society, which I directly benefit from in a couple of ways:
(a) I am inevitably a minority in several ways, and may find myself as an even more obvious minority in the future. So it’s good for me too to know these sides of me will be accepted and acknowledged. It helps these parts of me relax. (For transparency, I am white and male, and in spite of that, I know I am much better off in a culture that’s inclusive.)
(b) An inclusive society helps me relate to myself with more inclusivity. I can embrace more of myself and find more of my richness and wholeness. That benefits and enriches my life. Trying to exclude parts of me creates stress and weirdness, so this helps me relax.
Society benefits from the visibility of minority groups. We all benefit from more groups having a voice. It gives humanity as a whole more of a voice. It helps us understand ourselves – collectively and individually – better. It helps us make better and more informed decisions. It helps us develop empathy and understanding of others. It helps us put ourselves in the positions others are in, and make decisions that take them and their needs into account.
Who knows what we collectively miss out on by marginalizing certain groups. Millions if not billions of people has been unable to develop and express their talents and abilities because they were marginalized. Who knows how many with the ability of Einstein, Shakespeare, Bach, or Gandhi we never heard about because they lived in poverty, never received education, or were not allowed to be visible.
It’s an expression of empathy. It’s reflects a mature way of being in the world. It comes from an ability to put ourselves in the position of someone else, and treat them as we would want to be treated if it was us. As mentioned above, it may well be us in the future. I can find myself disable, or discover I am gay, or something else. It’s not something I can decide or choose. Also, it is already me since I know what I see in others from myself. It’s already part of my richness.
It’s an expression of kindness. I want to live in a kind society. I want to bring out kindness more in myself. This too helps me directly in several different ways, including that it helps me meet sides of myself – and a fuller range of experiences – with kindness.
It’s an expression of a win-win view on the world. A more kind and inclusive society benefits all of us. In contrast, those who dismiss woke often come from a zero-sum view on the world where they assume that if someone is lifted up, they have to go down. That’s not how the world works, especially when it comes to kindness and inclusivity.
Woke is rare globally and historically. It only exists in a few countries and a few subcultures today. It has only existed very occasionally and in very few cultures historically, and never has it does today. Not everything globally or historically unusual is worth protecting, but woke is an expression of the best in humanity. It’s a rare bird. It’s worth supporting and protecting.
A stable diverse system is more rich, resilient, and vibrant. That goes for both ecological and social systems. Yes, introducing more diversity can make it more wobbly for a while, as we see in the world today. And after a while, there is a new – temporary, as everything is – equilibrium that’s far more rich, resilient, and vibrant.
As an European male, I may lose some perceived privilege by sharing the stage with historically less privileged groups, whether they are women, non-Europeans, non-Christians, disabled, LGBT+, or whatever else. What I gain is far more valuable: I gain a community. I gain a more kind and inclusive society. I gain the possibility of embracing and expressing more sides of myself.
Woke-bashing comes from insecurity, self-judgment, fear of not being accepted and included, and fear of losing privilege. Embracing woke and demonstrating a more healthy way to deal with all of this is worth it in itself.
WHERE DOES WOKE-BASHING COME FROM?
It’s not too difficult to guess where woke-bashing comes from.
It comes from mainly white men scared of losing their privilege.
It comes from an authoritarian mindset of hierarchy and wanting certain people to stay marginalized and lower in the hierarchy.
It comes from fear of not being accepted and included. By excluding others, we think we’ll be more accepted in your own group. We do to others what we are afraid will happen to ourselves.
It comes from insecurity and self-judgment and not knowing how to deal with it in a healthy way. It comes from reactivity to own fear, instead of meeting the fear with understanding, kindness, and curiosity.
It comes from a zero-sum mindset and assuming that the world is set up so if someone else does better, you will do worse.
It comes from the power-over orientation inherent in our Western culture. It seems it was neccessary for a while. Over time, its profoundly harmful to society, individuals, and nature. And more and more people realize it has outplayed its role, which is why we are seeing a backlash.
As I see it, this is mainly a trauma response. It’s people traumatized by our power-over culture, and they deal with it by trying to perpetuate it.
WHEN WOKE GOES WRONG
Of course, woke can go wrong. It’s sometimes expressed in a misguided way.
I assume that’s why some progressives joins the far right in dismissing woke.
And yet, that’s how it is with everything. Any tool or any view or even the best of intentions can be expressed in a misguided way. It’s inevitable. It’s how the world works.
It doesn’t mean the essence of woke is not valuable. It doesn’t even mean we need to get rid of the label. It just means that we can be more discerning.
There is no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.