Love or loathe the phenomenon known as wokeness, you’d have to be living in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s basement to avoid one of the most energized (if ubiquitous) sociopolitical ruckuses since Occupy Wall Street. Galvanizing for the left wing of the left wing, reinvigorating for conservatives (and some moderates) eager to weaponize progressives’ own words, some five years after resurfacing in our political discourse Woke Culture is still in our lexicon.
It’s also a hard term to define. At least by way of linear explanation. The earliest use of woke as a call to awareness is most often credited to Marcus Garvey, a Black Jamaican-born activist from the 1920s and primary mover for creating independent Black nations around the world (Pan-Africanism). In one of his writings on the topic, Garvey called on nations and whole continents to rally around the pan-African vision: “Wake up, Ethiopia! Wake up, Africa!”
The phrase resonated. Within a decade Garvey’s metaphor of wokeness had taken root in Black academia, literature and music: A few years after the shameful miscarriage of justice against nine Scottsboro, Alabama youths accused of raping two White women, blues great Lead Belly made a musical reference to wokeness that went beyond rallying the people to warning them in the face of White violence: “So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there – best stay woke, keep their eyes open.”
Garvey’s metaphor had now been expanded to fit the times: To be woke is to be vigilant. To be aware. To be ready. These themes continued to surface in the lived experiences of Black Americans, from hip-hop cultures to parental coaching on how not to get shot while driving Black. Wokeness was now a state of readiness.
The narrative of 21st century wokeness became even more elastic upon entering the broader (read Whiter, more affluent) American mainstream. Woke Culture could also convey self-reflection on how one participates in systemic evil, and commitment to personal and collective change. Wokeness could be an umbrella term, able to once again fit the times.But was this elasticity or White appropriation of Garvey’s patently organic Black witness and call to action? Is something lost when wokeness is bound up with defenses for, and attacks against cancel culture, me too, critical race theory or Black Lives Matter? And if the answer to both of these questions is yes, what’s to be done when so much hinges on progressive solidarity?
Writing for a recent hercampus.com treatment on the complexities of wokeness, contributor and third-year college student Pramila Baisya offers up ways to navigate each of these complexities — none pain-free for many a progressive.
Baisya begins with acknowledging cultural appropriation as real, and is most often excused because the particular words, traditions, etc. have become so enmeshed in the dominant culture. The antidote is curiosity and respect for word origins, sometimes retiring a term from one’s vocabulary: “I don’t see #staywoke disappearing from our vocabulary or t-shirts anytime soon but perhaps instead of woke points we can tell ourselves to #stayeducated, because taking down systems of White Supremacy, systemic racism and advocacy is lifelong work.”
Second, if staying woke is not going away anytime soon, then progressives can at least give the phrase it’s best due. Wokeness should be demanding work, grounded in the spirit of liberation rather than points on a “with it” scale: “Wokeness has now turned into something that pats people on the back for basic things. Catching up on your Marxist theory? Pretty woke! You claim you don’t “see race”? Wow, fantastic. You believe women have rights? Somebody get this man his Nobel Peace Prize.”
Last, progressives who continue to use wokeness as a primary metaphor should hearken Garvey’s call to action. Anything less is mere complaining: “Those things [per above] are not #woke because they don’t consider solutions to the problem or even consider the true extent of the problems. Using woke correctly means active practice to come up with solutions to the systems in place.”
Embrace wokeness or reject it outright, the ongoing dialogue should remind progressives there is value in knowing the origins and consequences for the words we use. What may seem trivial, even wasteful in such times is just one of the things that separate progressivism from whatever it is the GOP has become.
Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister living in Hendersonville, N.C. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2022
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