Being "Woke"

The right-wing has created the epithet "woke" over the past couple of years, to slap back at society's efforts to combat systemic racism. Over on a Classical music forum I monitor, in a discussion about why more Black composers don't get programmed into concerts, and a quote from a Black conductor who gets chastised for not peogramming more Black composers, one respondent posted the following:

Quote :

I don't like politics really and this is all I'll say about it. But no, no, no. "Woke" is the belief that "systemic racism" or "the patriarchy" permeates every aspect of life. It is starting with that view of reality and then coloring everything with the "systemic racism" or "patriarchal" brush.

How do you gently explain to somebody like this, somebody wearing the blinders of White Privilege, that indeed "systemic racism" permeates everything? How can you make them see a Black viewpoint on their "unwoke" patriarchal worldview?

It strikes me, after pondering this as I swam my laps, that this is PRECISELY why the country is so divided.

One side sees opportunity everywhere, and assumes the world is a meritocracy.

The other side sees the barriers, often invisible but always endemic, that prevent all people from achieving their potential with equal effort. However, the "awakened," the "woke" are not forceful enough to awaken the "sleeping." It is considered rude to discuss "politics" and the right has defined any discussion of inequality or systemic racism as "political." The white-privileged do not want to be challenged on their white privilege. They do not want to hear that their successes, whatever they are, are due to anything other than meritocracy.

It's like Clarence Thomas. He denies that he benefited in any way from Affirmative Action, yet his early clerking jobs, his admission to lawschool, and his appointment to the Supreme Court were all, to a great measure, due to his race. He has blinders on.

"Woke" is a concept that everybody knows what it is, but it's hard to define.

Because, if the morons using the term really stopped and thought about it, being woke would be a good thing.