The Fundamentals of Being “Woke”, Good or Bad, Why? (1 Viewer)

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    Huntn

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    To be "woke" politically in the Black community means that someone is informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and racial inequality, Merriam-Webster Dictionary states



    By definition “Woke” means awareness, awareness of social injustice and racial inequality. More importantly in my mind as a fiscally moderate Caucasian who leans liberal on social issues, it is vital that we live up to the standards as put into place by our Founding Fathers, equality before the law, equal rights, and equal opportunity, in essence a level playing field for all, the right not to be discriminated against in the public market place or in public education. Btw, by standing by these principles, does this make me a conservative or a liberal? :)

    So why are Conservatives at war against being woke And why ban it in the classroom? How can being educated about our past and social injustice be bad? Is it because:
    • This stuff is all made up?
    • Well it happened but don’t feel comfortable acknowledging it?
    • It is still happening?
    • I don’t want to be blamed for it?
    • It will be used to take away personal advantages?
    • Or it is going to cost me money?
    Imo, the real issue here racial inequality and injustice is that not only is it not made up, it’s not in our past either. It is ongoing and we need face this responsibly.
     
    I had always held being "woke" was being "educated" as to how the world REALLY operates.

    Obviously, it makes sense for Republicans to attempt to spin it in another direction, to divert your eyes, while the con continues.

    And thats not to say Rs are the ONLY ones doing it ( the grifting ) but they are HELL BENT on maintaining it.

    So they can put out any narrative they want as to what "woke" means....at the end of the day, those fighting vehemently ( Trumps ) to equate woke to some sort of racial justice is just more of the same from that family of con artists and scallywags. They just roped in a whole bunch of others who realized the con and are attempting to play it...they just arent as adept. It takes decades to perfect.
     

    .........What does being woke mean?​

    Among conservative lawmakers, there is no consensus on what it means to be woke.

    Some have used it to attack trans and gay rights, critical race theory – legal theory that examines systemic racism as a part of American institutions – and the teachings of the New York Times' 1619 project in public schools.

    "If you ask people what woke is, I think what they mean is they want to stand against people who are engaging in some type of advocacy for marginalized people," said Andra Gillespie, political scientist at Emory University.

    "It's kind of this lumping together of anybody whose views could be construed as being progressive on issues related to identity and civil rights."

    At CPAC last week, for example, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles called for the eradication of "transgenderism."

    But Black Americans have used woke since at least the early-to-mid 20th century to mean being alert to racial and social injustice. As the Black Lives Matter movement began after the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, and grew, "woke" expanded outside of Black communities into the public lexicon.

    What about 'stay woke'?​

    "Woke" is now being appropriated in ways far from its original definition.

    "To me, it's not just woke. It's 'stay woke,'" said Terri Givens, a political science professor at McGill University. "The reason we have to 'stay woke' is because of exactly what these people are doing right now, which is finding very insidious ways to undercut our rights."

    Givens called the attacks on wokeism "a full-on dog whistle" and pointed to attempts to limit the right to vote, curtail reproductive and abortion rights and ban inclusive education in schools as examples of the backlash against Black and brown civil rights.

    "Learning history is not about wokeism," Given said.

    The backlash to wokeness​

    Political experts said the backlash to wokeism greatly increased after the 2020 worldwide protests against the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor's killing.

    Conservatives now use the term as an attack against cancel culture, political correctness and racial justice initiatives.

    "What they're trying to do is make the term a pejorative," said Kendra Cotton, chief operating officer of New Georgia Project, a progressive-leaning voting rights group.

    As more marginalized groups are elected into office and exercising their voting power during elections, it can make some Americans afraid, said Cotton.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible GOP presidential candidate, has built a persona crusading against wokeness. In addition to championing the Stop WOKE Act, he has stated that the Sunshine state is "where woke goes to die."

    Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, a political scientist at George Mason University and co-author of the book "Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter," said the legislation is "perhaps the most explicit way we see the co-optation of the term 'woke' today."

    “Right now, we're seeing racially conservative pundits and politicians positioning themselves as adversaries of the multiracial Black Lives Matter movement," said Lopez Bunyasi. "One of the rhetorical tools they are using is the maligning of a term that has been in use by Black people and in Black politics for well over a hundred years."............


     

    .........What does being woke mean?​

    Among conservative lawmakers, there is no consensus on what it means to be woke.

    Some have used it to attack trans and gay rights, critical race theory – legal theory that examines systemic racism as a part of American institutions – and the teachings of the New York Times' 1619 project in public schools.

    "If you ask people what woke is, I think what they mean is they want to stand against people who are engaging in some type of advocacy for marginalized people," said Andra Gillespie, political scientist at Emory University.

    "It's kind of this lumping together of anybody whose views could be construed as being progressive on issues related to identity and civil rights."

    At CPAC last week, for example, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles called for the eradication of "transgenderism."

    But Black Americans have used woke since at least the early-to-mid 20th century to mean being alert to racial and social injustice. As the Black Lives Matter movement began after the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, and grew, "woke" expanded outside of Black communities into the public lexicon.

    What about 'stay woke'?​

    "Woke" is now being appropriated in ways far from its original definition.

    "To me, it's not just woke. It's 'stay woke,'" said Terri Givens, a political science professor at McGill University. "The reason we have to 'stay woke' is because of exactly what these people are doing right now, which is finding very insidious ways to undercut our rights."

    Givens called the attacks on wokeism "a full-on dog whistle" and pointed to attempts to limit the right to vote, curtail reproductive and abortion rights and ban inclusive education in schools as examples of the backlash against Black and brown civil rights.

    "Learning history is not about wokeism," Given said.

    The backlash to wokeness​

    Political experts said the backlash to wokeism greatly increased after the 2020 worldwide protests against the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor's killing.

    Conservatives now use the term as an attack against cancel culture, political correctness and racial justice initiatives.

    "What they're trying to do is make the term a pejorative," said Kendra Cotton, chief operating officer of New Georgia Project, a progressive-leaning voting rights group.

    As more marginalized groups are elected into office and exercising their voting power during elections, it can make some Americans afraid, said Cotton.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible GOP presidential candidate, has built a persona crusading against wokeness. In addition to championing the Stop WOKE Act, he has stated that the Sunshine state is "where woke goes to die."

    Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, a political scientist at George Mason University and co-author of the book "Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter," said the legislation is "perhaps the most explicit way we see the co-optation of the term 'woke' today."

    “Right now, we're seeing racially conservative pundits and politicians positioning themselves as adversaries of the multiracial Black Lives Matter movement," said Lopez Bunyasi. "One of the rhetorical tools they are using is the maligning of a term that has been in use by Black people and in Black politics for well over a hundred years."............


    Stop Woke Act equates to Stop Educated Act is really alarming when this steps all over Black History, and goes hand in hand with the made up and imagined idea of Critical RaceTheory, ie don’t be critical of Whites for what our ancestors did, because it makes us feel uncomfortable, regardless that some of the race based injustices against African Americans continue today, especially when it comes to voter rights and treatment under the law. :unsure:
     
    I've said this before but the right are masters at taking a term and completely perverting and intentionally misconstruing and abusing the meaning of it, to the point where what once was a positive is now a negative and people no longer use the term in it's intended way

    It happened with Political Correctness

    It happened with Social Justice Warrior

    It happened with Critical Race Theory

    It happened to Woke

    I'm sure there are other terms it happened to in the past and have no doubt it will happen again in the future

    and not surprisingly, what do they all have in common?

    They are all about awareness, compassion, understanding, realization of marginalized people
     
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    I've said this before but the right are masters at taking a term and completely perverting and intentionally misconstruing and abusing the meaning of it, to the point where what once was a positive is now a negative and people no longer use the term in it's intended way

    It happened with Political Correctness

    It happened with Social Justice Warrior

    It happened with Critical Race Theory

    It happened to Woke

    I'm sure there are other terms it happened to in the past and have no doubt it will happen again in the future

    and not surprisingly, what they all have in common?

    They are all about awareness, compassion, understanding, realization of marginalized people

    That is because we let it happen. I don't care if people call me woke or a social justice warrior, My reply is the same each time - "yes I am - why aren't you ? "

    It often creates some very interesting discussions - and most of all get people to think. Throwing out "buzz" words are easy but understanding what they actually means often leads to - not necessary agreement but at least a mutual understanding.
     
    I've heard plenty of conservatives talk about how Americans are waking up.

    I think we need to stop acting like the concept of "woke" is political.

    Let's talk about specifics. Everyone thinks they are woke, they just don't agree about what they are waking up to.
     
    Fox News pundits found themselves in a difficult spot when they had to brush off the results of a recent poll that found most Americans do not view the word "woke" as an insult…….






    Frank Luntz is still focus grouping what new outrage will really stick with middle America. It's a work in progress.
     
    Is this "woke" or a misinterpretation of the statue?

    Black Lives Matter: Abraham Lincoln statue taken down in Boston​

    23 Dec 08:31 PM
    A statue of Abraham Lincoln with a freed slave appearing to kneel at his feet - a monument which drew objections amid a national reckoning with racial injustice - has been removed from its perch in downtown Boston.

    Workers removed the Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Emancipation Group and the Freedman's Memorial, early Tuesday (US time) from a Boston park where it had stood since 1879.

    City officials had agreed in late June to take down the memorial after complaints and a bitter debate over the design. Mayor Marty Walsh acknowledged at the time that the statue made residents and visitors alike "uncomfortable".

    The bronze statue is a copy of a monument that was erected in Washington DC three years earlier. The copy was installed in Boston because the city was home to the statue's creator, Thomas Ball.

    It was created to celebrate the freeing of slaves in America and was based on Archer Alexander, a black man who escaped slavery, helped the Union Army and was the last man recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act.

    But while some saw the shirtless man rising to his feet while shaking off the broken shackles on his wrists, others perceived him as kneeling before Lincoln, his white emancipator.


    Freed black donors paid for the original in Washington; white politician and circus showman Moses Kimball financed the copy in Boston. The inscription on both reads: "A race set free and the country at peace. Lincoln rests from his labours."

    More than 12,000 people had signed a petition demanding the statue's removal, and Boston's public arts commission voted unanimously to take it down. The statue was to be placed in storage until the city decides whether to display it in a museum.

    The memorial had been on Boston's radar at least since 2018, when it launched a comprehensive review of whether public sculptures, monuments and other artworks reflected the city's diversity and didn't offend communities of colour.

    The arts commission said it was paying extra attention to works with "problematic histories".

    Last summer, protesters vowed to tear down the original statue in Washington, prompting the National Guard to deploy a detachment to guard it.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/bl...en-down-in-boston/W7RWO2CGVYXYSKMWOHGXIHYGDY/
     
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    The recent implosion of Silicon Valley Bank escalated culture war arguments, as some conservative politicians who were already targeting certain investing approaches blamed the bank’s downfall on “woke” practices.


    House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) called SVB “one of the most woke banks” because of its “ESG-type” policies — a reference to environmental, social and corporate governance-driven investing that has been embraced by billion-dollar asset managers and scorned by conservatives of late.


    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely believed to be gearing up for a 2024 presidential bid, said Sunday that Silicon Valley Bank’s diversity, equity and inclusion requirements “diverted from them focusing on their core mission.”

    And Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said diversity and inclusion standards are why “big banks are now increasingly incompetent.”……

     

    My guess is that it was probably controversial because of the nature of the statue: it's a half-naked black man kneeling at the feet of Lincoln. I can see where it wouldn't be great optics.

    Lincoln deserves a lot (not all) the credit for freeing the slaves; lots of those slaves freed themselves. It certainly underscores the problematic nature of historical statues in public places.

    Yes, I personally am not offended or have a problem with it, but Boston was the epicenter of the Abolitionist Movement. Maybe a statue of William Lloyd Garrison or Frederick Douglass might be more appropriate.

    But I'll remind everyone. again. Statues in public places are NOT HISTORY, BUT MEMORIALS.
     
    The recent implosion of Silicon Valley Bank escalated culture war arguments, as some conservative politicians who were already targeting certain investing approaches blamed the bank’s downfall on “woke” practices.


    House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) called SVB “one of the most woke banks” because of its “ESG-type” policies — a reference to environmental, social and corporate governance-driven investing that has been embraced by billion-dollar asset managers and scorned by conservatives of late.


    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely believed to be gearing up for a 2024 presidential bid, said Sunday that Silicon Valley Bank’s diversity, equity and inclusion requirements “diverted from them focusing on their core mission.”

    And Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said diversity and inclusion standards are why “big banks are now increasingly incompetent.”……

    I read today that McCarthy and someone else who understands the situation told the GOP caucus to knock off the stupid “woke” talk about the SVB failure. One of them said if you don’t know what you are talking about you should just shut up. Lol.
     
    My guess is that it was probably controversial because of the nature of the statue: it's a half-naked black man kneeling at the feet of Lincoln. I can see where it wouldn't be great optics.

    Lincoln deserves a lot (not all) the credit for freeing the slaves; lots of those slaves freed themselves. It certainly underscores the problematic nature of historical statues in public places.

    Yes, I personally am not offended or have a problem with it, but Boston was the epicenter of the Abolitionist Movement. Maybe a statue of William Lloyd Garrison or Frederick Douglass might be more appropriate.

    But I'll remind everyone. again. Statues in public places are NOT HISTORY, BUT MEMORIALS.
    I agree with your take. The reason I posted the article is that you can debate the implied projection of the statue.

    "Sculptor Thomas Ball depicted a life-size figure of Abraham Lincoln, extending one hand over a kneeling African American man while holding a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in the other hand. The former slave is depicted as rising, with broken shackles on his wrists."

    Is the former slave subservient or as the above view says is he rising with broken shackles? However, if it's open for debate then it probably didn't cleanly get its message across. Or, it did get it across and it is shackled itself in time and place. I just hate to see a statue of Lincoln removed even though I understand the unease it produced.
     
    I agree with your take. The reason I posted the article is that you can debate the implied projection of the statue.

    "Sculptor Thomas Ball depicted a life-size figure of Abraham Lincoln, extending one hand over a kneeling African American man while holding a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in the other hand. The former slave is depicted as rising, with broken shackles on his wrists."

    Is the former slave subservient or as the above view says is he rising with broken shackles? However, if it's open for debate then it probably didn't cleanly get its message across. Or, it did get it across and it is shackled itself in time and place. I just hate to see a statue of Lincoln removed even though I understand the unease it produced.

    Exactly. I think there's no issue if it's just Lincoln by himself. Misunderstandings about historical monuments would be a lot easier to address if more people actually knew something about history.

    The ignorance surrounding CRT and "Woke" in general is just another one of the Alt-Right's culture wars that feeds off 40 years of following the southern strategy, or making the southern strategy a national model to win elections for Republicans.
     
    The recent implosion of Silicon Valley Bank escalated culture war arguments, as some conservative politicians who were already targeting certain investing approaches blamed the bank’s downfall on “woke” practices.


    House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) called SVB “one of the most woke banks” because of its “ESG-type” policies — a reference to environmental, social and corporate governance-driven investing that has been embraced by billion-dollar asset managers and scorned by conservatives of late.


    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely believed to be gearing up for a 2024 presidential bid, said Sunday that Silicon Valley Bank’s diversity, equity and inclusion requirements “diverted from them focusing on their core mission.”

    And Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said diversity and inclusion standards are why “big banks are now increasingly incompetent.”……


    T-bills are woke?
     
    Fox News pundits found themselves in a difficult spot when they had to brush off the results of a recent poll that found most Americans do not view the word "woke" as an insult…….





    I’m contemplating how a majority of Americans could think the term “woke” would be an insult in any manner? Hey, aren’t you insulted by being called “aware”, but proud to be regarded as “ignorant”? ;)
     

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