cartoon borrowed shamelessly from the Toronto Star
What does it mean to be woke? Well, it’s anybody’s guess, really. The term seemed originally to be applied as a celebration of social awareness. If you were concerned about racial equality, if you were concerned about women’s issues, you were woke. Then it grew. If you were tolerant of the LGBTQ community, you were woke. If you were for climate action, you were woke.
Then the term became something less than a celebration. It became a sneer. If you were opposed to gun controls, you were woke with a sneer. The climate action people were all woke, but in a pejorative way. If you supported the me too movement, or the black lives matter movement, you were woke, but not in a good way. And perhaps most of all, if you supported abortion rights, or same sex marriage, or gender identity rights, you could be called woke, and it would be an accusation, not a commendation. Is being called woke now a compliment (socially aware and broad-minded), or an insult (immoral liberal minded apologist)?
If woke is a pretty broad term that can seem to mean whatever the heck the speaker wants it to mean, anti-woke is equally broad, but perhaps a little more clear. Anti-woke movement is all about white supremacist, evangelical Christian, racist, anti-feminist suppression of thought. It’s not a purely American phenomenon, as it is growing in places like Hungary and Brazil and Turkey as well. But let’s face it, the anti-woke roster and the right wing extreme Republican roster are pretty much the same groups of people.
A year ago, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed the Individual Freedoms Act, commonly known as the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (Stop WOKE) Act. That Act fundamentally makes it illegal to teach anything that would make a white kid feel bad about the past. Systemic racism never existed and it certainly doesn’t exist today. It attacks affirmative action programs by preventing teaching that any person “should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion”.
There is a Professor Emeritus at Florida International University named Marvin Dunn. In defiance of the Stop Woke Law, he is conducting a tour of Florida sites that illustrate the ugly history of racial violence in Florida, like the community of Rosewood which was burned to the ground with six black lives lost in 1923. When you think about it, he’s breaking the law, because the law simply requires that you can teach history in Florida only if you teach it the way that Ron DeSantis wants.
Florida has also passed the “Can’t Say Gay” bill which prohibits public school districts from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, or “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students” thereafter. The Can’t Say Gay bill is widely seen as an attack on diversity and inclusion for the LGBTQ community.
These bills have led to a spate of book bannings on a county by county basis in Florida and Texas especially. In Duval County, Florida 175 books had been banned including biographies of Hall of Fame baseball players Roberto Clemente, and Hank Aaron (the books documented racisim that they’d experienced as young players). They even banned The Berenstain Bears. I don’t know why, but I read those books to my kids about a thousand times and never saw a problem.
In Texas, anti-woke legislation includes acts that limit the activities of “green” investment funds. As reported by Axios, “ The state is effectively pulling back from doing business with banks such as J.P.Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup — on the grounds that they are investing in businesses with ESG (environmental, social and governance) policies, upsetting conservative state leaders.” Both the oil and gas industry and the gun industry are protected under similar legislation that prevents financiers from discriminating against them on environmental, social or governance issues.
In short, the term woke now means liberal-Democrat, and anti-woke means repressive-Republican. Being now cast in political terms and being used in the most divisive ways possible, as is now common in the US, the terms “woke” or “anti-woke” are almost meaningless. They are thrown around loosely by anybody who wants to inflame their largely committed and biased listeners. There have to be better, more precise and definitive ways to express ourselves than by using a term that is subject to a million interpretations and is being used in an emotive sense and not a logical or objective sense.
And so, I was disappointed (but not particularly surprised) last week to hear Pierre Polievre assign accountability for a rise in violence in Canada’s cities in general, and on public transit systems in particular, to “woke mayors and premiers”. Polievre has made some specific arguments about the need for reform to bail rules, suggesting that repeat offenders be precluded. He could be relying on a logical and defendable argument, perhaps even, (imagine this), with the use of statistics or real data. But instead, he sinks to this ridiculous attack on un-named “woke mayors” for un-named policies that somehow have led to an increase in violence.
Why has Polievre chosen to take this approach? Well, this is one more bit of evidence that the hyperbole of the US extreme right continues to cross the border into Canada. Some of this is a result of right-wing funding, some of it is just a certain amount of red-necked “me-too-ism”. But this right-wing segment of the Conservative party is part of Polievre’s base, and that snarky comment about “woke mayors” was purely an emotional appeal to his most unsavory supporters. I’m afraid I have less and less use for Mr. Polievre the more I see him operate.
14 responses to “The Anti-Woke Pierre”
Not much more to say on this. PP is groping his way to the bottom of the political barrel. Our only hope is that he will find fewer people down there than he apparently thinks there are. Personally, I am kicking in my brand of “woke” to look at non-Conservative candidates in the next Federal election. PP’s use of slogans, name-calling, and pandering to the mob doesn’t cut it.
I’m sure you’re like me Terry – raised Conservative and finding it hard to turn your back on that party. But I’m finding it hard to stomach Polievre. Like you, I must struggle with choosing the acceptable alternative.
Thanks for explaining the term “woke” which I find is more of a slur than a positive label now. (I might have said “perjorative” but I couldn’t seem to spell it to Word’s satisfaction).
I am sorry that it has taken you and Terry so long to wean yourselves off being raised conservative, and away from the Dark Side. There are several choices of enlightened political parties for you left of centre.
In terms of weaning myself away from the dark side, this blogging process has been good for me. I promised myself that I would attempt to verify things that I write about, and that has caused me to do a lot more research and try to live by facts and data, and not by slogan.
The left/center parties are not without warts, but I’m going to be forced to choose from a set of imperfect candidates, I guess.
Isabelle, I think the problem began when the PC party ditched the « Progressive » part of their identity. I applaud fiscal prudence and I find that left of centre parties put too much emphasis on winning the next election (ie. buying your vote with your own money) and not enough on fiscal prudence. And then there are the interminable scandals and shady dealings…. Not to say that the Conservatives would be squeaky clean in this area.
Not for the first time in our history, meaningful, reasoned dialogue no longer seems to be possible. People talk past one another rather than to one another, and too many of us cannot seem to concede that the other side has a defensible point of view. What was it Voltaire said, “I disagree with what you say but I defend to the death your right to say it”? That’s why I appreciate your blog so much; you still believe that it’s possible to have a reasoned dialogue — even debate — about important issues, and believe that they should be based as much as possible on facts not formulas or ideology. As I sometimes remind my students, “Thinking is hard!”I grow ever more allergic to the word “ideology.” To formulate one required thought; to adopt one too often does not. As for PP, perhaps we should immediately have had reservations about someone who looks and acts so much like he swallowed a sour pickle.
I wasn’t sure which end of the digestive system the pickle entered.
Reasoned dialogue is hard to find. I never watch question period – it’s a waste of time. I think CBC’s “Power and Politics” does a good job of presenting multiple viewpoints in a cooperative, non-antagonistic way. I also like Smerconish on CNN on Saturday mornings. Mostly, I think CNN is a waste of time… Too stridently left-wing, and not balanced at all. But Smerconish has a reasoned and balanced approach.
Agreeing wholeheartedly with you all. I am not voting conservative but we must keep in mind that Reform Party has taken over the Federal right wing and even the guy who invented it would likely disagree with it now.
Just so you know, my remarks about Conservatism are meant to be only half serious. I wonder too, how deeply rooted is the tradition of repeating one’s family historical voting pattern in 2023. Of course, we had relatives on the maternal side, to lend us choice and good example.
I enjoyed the cartoon, even though it reminds us that Pollievre has taken lessons from a hero that is a slippery, dangerous buffoon who lies, schemes and cheats with every breath.
Yes, our maternal relatives were Liberals. The only problem was, I don’t think I ever heard Mom really engage in political discourse. So largely, we heard Dad’s viewpoint. In fact, I was probably well into my teens or early 20s before I realized that Tom and Eugene Cullen were important liberals in the province.
I saw a little discussion of “voter mobility“ on Smerconish this weekend. They were making the point that young people today are much less inclined to vote where their parents voted than our generation was.
Never being liberal, pc,ndp, I find polievre scary. I don’t trust him and I think him getting elected would be a big mistake. They’ve played right in Trudeau’s hand because I doubt if Canadians will put the NDP in. The pc need to give us a better more conservative option. Thanks for the explanation of woke, it’s a word I’d never use as it’s more of a confusing term than useful.
I think the term woke at one time had a cultural meaning. I no longer think it does… I think it’s just a mishmash.
I think with pissed me off of the Polievre using the term was that he was obviously just being nasty and manipulative. Seeking to inflame, seeking to divide. Not the kind of motivation that I look for in a statesman.
Hey come on you guys! Prove that you’re not of the negative anti-woke brand; vote for the turban. I did!
The biggest problem right now is that you can’t kick out one centrist party (because they’ve gotten greedy and corrupt) and elect another centrist party.