They killed ‘wokeness,’ but long live the truly woke

In the beginning there was a word. It stood for sensitivity and alertness to injustice in society, particularly racism — to be awake. Righteous people strived to embody this word, and the progress it represented.

But then enemies of progress got ahold of the word and realized they could mold it to their dark fantasies. They extracted the word from its original context and repeated it over and over again, as they are wont to do. They started attaching the word to other, scary words, like “radical” and “mob.” Experts in linguistic distortion, they drained the word of its blood and turned it into a sort of verbal zombie to do their bidding.

It worked, for this word and for others.

This is how “woke” and its derivative not-a-real-word noun, “wokeness,” met its end. It had a good run. Its ideals remain a noble ambition. But at this point, its enemies have coopted it with such cynical tenacity that it no longer means anything. They use it to conjure some frothing liberal mob that dares to ask for such outrages as equal voting rights and responsible policing. Or anything that might challenge the hold of white hegemony.

Simply put, the enemies of “woke” are scared. “Wokeness is trying to destroy America,” Sen. Ted Cruz recently said on Fox News (global headquarters of the wokeness cooption crowd). “Wokeness is racism,” tweeted pundit Dave Rubin. “Pass it on.”

Social conservatives, especially men, become adept practitioners of verbal jujitsu when demographic trends, historical awareness and basic decency turn against them. Unable to say what’s really on their minds — it should be difficult for Black people to vote; police should be able to kill at will; day care is for the weak — they take a word from the other side and turn it into a bogeyman. It’s a dark art, and they’re good at it.

As Tracy Westerman recently tweeted, “‘Cancel culture,’ ‘wokeness’ — words used by conservatives to silence national conversations about racism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry.”

Ah, yes. Cancel culture. Another linguistic boogeyman, this one designed to argue that you should be able to say anything about anyone at any time, no matter how cruel, insensitive or dangerous, and expect a book deal with a major publisher in return. As if respecting the marketplace (“We decided not to publish your book”), and basic guidelines of civility, equate to cancellation. This one is a contemporary take on the old saw “political correctness,” otherwise known as treating those who don’t look and sound like you with decency.

Sometimes the right goes uptown with its verbal boogeymen. Take “critical race theory,” which is basically an academic theory that seeks to unpack institutional racism in the present and throughout the country’s history. It argues that racism exists on a historical continuum (it does), that we are still living with the consequences of slavery, Reconstruction and Jim Crow (we are) and that race is an idea created by society as a way to wield power (it is). Unlike in the old days, you won’t get far anymore proclaiming your racism for all to hear. But you can always babble on about the threat of critical race theory. If you’re in politics you can even try to ban it, as the state of Idaho is currently doing and a bill making its way through the Texas Legislature would. Critical race theory has been around for decades, but only recently has the time been so ripe to use it as a political cudgel.

Those who reference George Orwell — some actually read him — tend to go the lazy route and wax “1984.” But in this case you needn’t enter the realm of fantasy. In his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” Orwell takes on political language that “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” Those on the right aren’t the only ones who do this, but again, they’re really good at it.

It’s up to the rest of us to decode the noise, to interrogate the original spirit and meaning of a word or phrase, and to remember that this country, great as it is, has blood-stained roots.

Wokeness is dead. Long live the woke.