I’m proud to be ‘woke’ — and you should be, too
Labels convey a lot in our society: “prolife,” “anti-choice,” “pro-choice,” “antiabortion,” “liberal,” “conservative,” “right-wing,” “extremist,” for instance.
In the case of the label “woke,” Gov. Ron DeSantis and others have used the label as a caustic epithet. He has supported legislation prohibiting public schools from teaching about racial injustice or the notion of “systemic racism” and from adopting gender-affirming policies, which he labels “indoctrination.” He rejects the established scientific fact of gender fluidity and various sexual orientations.
It is important to fight back against such demonization by reclaiming the words that haters choose to denigrate those they hate. For example, the LGBTQ+ community has reclaimed and embraced the word “queer.” “We’re here, we’re queer; Get used to it.”
I call upon all of us who strive to make ours a liberal, progressive and socially evolving society — one in which all people, regardless of color, gender, orientation, race, religion or political beliefs are welcome and accepted — to identity ourselves proudly as woke.
If it is woke to believe that all people are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, such as freedom from tyranny, the pursuit of life, liberty, happiness, equality and self-fulfillment, then I am proudly woke.
If it is woke”to believe that every public school student should receive a high-quality education, which includes exposure to scientifically validated concepts (the Big Bang theory, evolution, climate change, etc.), and factually accurate history (European colonialists conquered and subjugated indigenous peoples in the Americas and later brought Africans here forcibly, by ship, as human chattel, oppressing and degrading them for more than 200 years), then count me in.
If it is woke to believe that young members of our society should have ready access to accurate information about the gender diversity and fluidity of many species on Earth, and accepted for who they are, and not ostracized and degraded to the point of hating and possibly killing themselves, then woke I am.
And, if it is woke to believe that none of the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, whether under the First or the Second Amendment, are absolute, but instead are subject to reasonable governmental regulation — you can’t falsely shout “fire” in a crowded theater, and you can’t own a nuclear bomb, a surface-to-air missile or a military assault weapon — then, again, call me woke.
Last, if it is woke to believe that free and fair elections — so certified by state and federal elections officials from both political parties and confirmed by the U.S. Justice Department — should be the sole basis for determining who gets to serve in office, then one more time: I’m proud to be woke.
As a member of the woke majority, I do not believe that the sun orbits the Earth, that people “learn” to be gay or that they can be “de-programmed” from being their true selves, that whites are superior to people of color, that men are superior to women or that we can continue destroying our ecosystem without suffering the consequences.
Labels have always been used as shorthand to deride and delegitimize those with whom we disagree (e.g., “radical,” “extremist,” “gun nut,” “socialist”). Let’s reclaim the label “woke,” as in “I’ve been awakened to the knowledge of modern academic, intellectual, scientific, and progressive social thought.” Shout it from your rooftops, and display it on your chest and car bumper: “I’m Woke and Proud.”