Should we be ‘woke’ at work, and what does it mean?

In a free market society, politics and business remain separate, only interacting when advocacy or legislation is needed to protect workers, communities and the environment. But when a government acts to restrict and ban meaningful conversation and activity around social justice issues (i.e. color, gender identity, orientation, etc.) that directly impact the value-added by a company or organization, all bets are off.

This is exactly what one state is attempting to do. In Florida, the Stop the Woke Act, signed into law last April, intends to “curb teaching about or conducting trainings on certain topics related to race, sex and gender in Florida public schools and workplaces. The law was passed with the clear intention to curb ‘critical race theory’ in the state — and to do so through outright censorship,” according to Reason.com, an American Libertarian magazine.

Critical race theory and woke

We could have a weeklong conversation to fully understand these terms. Here are descriptions, albeit distilled significantly, that will get us through today’s lesson.

Critical race theory (CRT), according to Brookings, “states that U.S. social institutions (e.g., the criminal justice system, education system, labor market, housing market, and healthcare system) are laced with racism embedded in laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that lead to differential outcomes by race.” So, when Black Americans are incarcerated at higher rates compared to White Americans, and they are by five times (The Sentencing Project), this is what CRT wants you to understand.

There are two important distinctions essential to understanding CRT. First, you don’t have to have racists to have racism and an inequitable democracy. Second, CRT and its advocates do not blame White Americans who are living now, they do believe White Americans have a “moral responsibility” to stop the negative impact racism continues to have today.

So, what does woke mean in terms of these social justice issues? In 2017, both Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries added the term described chiefly as U.S. slang, originating in the African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) defines the word as: “Aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” It is being aware of what CRT reminds

us of that happened in our American history — not a rewrite, not a distortion, but a full telling of our history.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says, being woke means they “want to tear at the fabric of our society and our culture… attempt to erase history and delegitimize the founding of the country and the institution and they basically want to replace it with a very militant form of leftism that would absolutely destroy the country.”

What has nearly destroyed our country time and again, is our racist, and often religiously righteous, acts. The Puritans killings of the Pequot, and the collective marginalizing of the Narragansetts and the Wampanoags in the 17th century laid the groundwork for the Indian Removal Act of 1830 led by Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. And, who can forget that business practice of enslaving and inhumanely treating Blacks for profit in the U.S. that went way beyond the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863? Oh, how about America’s first “perfectly” produced suburb known as Levittown in the 1950s where the seller prohibited sales of homes to Blacks, a practice that was institutionalized by the FHA (Federal Housing Authority) and can still be found in deeds today?

I could unfortunately go on and on. But, yes, Gov. DeSantis, all of this was very much a part of the “fabric of our society” — and it has no place in a free market society, let alone a free democratic republic.

Should we be woke at work?

DeSantis’ answer — go back to sleep, act like it never happened, and for God’s sake, don’t talk about this in school or at work. That is the essence of his Stop the Woke Act or as I like to call it the Same As It Ever Was (a la Talking Heads).

But, in that approach, we don’t acknowledge and work through the subtle but pervasive impacts of a business world that has excluded, marginalized or discounted women and people of color? How can we build and grow our business to its full potential in such an approach? We can’t!

Here’s my approach:

DO YOUR HOMEWORK >>

Read and study the full telling of history, ignore the CRT moniker if that bothers you.

Be open to this: In the founding of the United States of America, good vision and tenets were often advanced with terrible and inhumane decisions and strategies; in many instances, our self-righteous indignation had us operating from the bowels of humanity to get what we want by excluding, intimidating, discriminating, bullying and murdering other people who did not have power or status to stop us.

BE WOKE >> Acceptance of the above doesn’t constitute your blame or guilt. True advocates of being woke are not interested in demeaning or blaming for what happened. They are interested in changing the negative impact of what has happened in education, healthcare, justice system, housing, employment, etc.

ACT >> Use your awareness as a guide for how you treat others at work — coworkers, supervisors, subordinates, customers, clients — EVERYONE.

Next week: Challenge the Prof: Are you “woke” at work?

Dr. Santo D. Marabella, The Practical Prof, is a professor emeritus of management at Moravian University and hosts the podcast “Office Hours with The Practical Prof … and Friends.” His latest book, “The Lessons of Caring” is written to inspire and support caregivers (available in paperback and eBook). Website: ThePracticalProf. com; Twitter: @PracticalProf; Facebook: ThePracticalProf.