Woke is a hot topic these days. USA Republicans use ‘woke’ as a derogatory short-hand for the liberal views of progressives in the U.S culture war, and the woke wars are spreading internationally and fast. Woke, once an object of desire for leftists, has been transformed into a term of derision by the populist right.
Robert DeSantis, re-elected with an increased majority as Republican Florida Governor and hot tipped to run for President utilises ‘woke ideology’ as a centre piece for his campaigning. He positioning woke as the evil enemy to fight against. Recently he attacked Democratic governors and leaders as being infected with a “woke mind virus”. As with all populist political attacks, they begin with a grain of truth that enables them to gain credibility within their partisan groups. Political correctness, identity, gender and sexual politics have indeed gone viral, particularly on university campuses and within certain demographic groups. This movement from class politics to identity politics has been liberating for some, and oppressive for others. It has made some more visible and given them a greater voice e.g. the LGBT+ community, and to others it has made them feel even more disempowered e.g. economically impoverished white, rustbelt communities. However, DeSantis plays the woke card to make anybody who believes in social injustice, become a person who has been intoxicated with an evil mind disease called woke.
In his Governor’s victory speech DeSantis said:
“We have embraced freedom….. We have maintained law and order. We have protected the rights of parents. We have respected our taxpayers and we reject ‘woke’ ideology.”
He continued to a cheering crowd, mirroring the famous Winston Churchill we ‘will fight them on the beaches’ speech:
“We fight the woke in the legislature, We fight the woke in the schools, we fight the woke in the corporations. We will never ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”
DeSantis and Trump are the best known advocates of using woke to attack opponents, and woke has become the essence of the culture wars across many parts of the world. UK conservatives and other Europeans use anti-woke sentiments to win right-wing votes. Rishi Sunak vowed to stop 'woke nonsense and left-wing agitators' when campaigning to be PM. In university campuses, and in many political fights, woke has become a battle ground, and Russian and other authoritarian-patriarchal leaning states utilise the politics of woke to dismiss their liberal-westernised opponents.
But what is Woke?
Woke means to be awake to issues of social justice and particularly to racism. It was a term to be proud of as Simon Hatterstone of the Guardian proudly claimed ‘I am woke’ when critiquing antisemitism.
Rhona Shennon summarises: the term woke came from the USA Black community, its meaning was to be awake to issues of social injustice and particularly to racism. Barbara Lee sums it up neatly:
“But we will only succeed if we reject the growing pressure to retreat into cynicism and hopelessness. … We have a moral obligation to "stay woke," take a stand and be active; challenging injustices and racism in our communities and fighting hatred and discrimination wherever it rises.” Barbara Lee
Origins In 1962 the New York Times published an article of “phrases and words you might hear today in Harlem”, a neighbourhood in the northern section of the New York City where many African-Americans live. The African-American novelist William Melvin Kelley wrote the earliest known use of the word under its new definition in an article titled, “If you’re woke, you dig it”.
Ten years later in 1972, a character in the Barry Beckham play Garvey Lives! says he’ll “stay woke” via the work of pan-Africanist, Marcus Garvey, with the line: “I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon’ help him wake up other black folk”.
The term’s break into mainstream language came from the Black Lives Matter movement, which used the hashtag #staywoke in the wake of racial injustices spreading across the US.
Woke ideology, literally means an ideology that demands we wake up to injustice. So when DeSantis says he will fight woke ideology, what he is really saying is this:
We fight woke in the legislature, (we fight people waking up to injustice in the legislature)
We fight the woke in the schools, (we fight people waking up to injustice in schools)
We fight the woke in the corporations. (we fight people waking up to injustice in corporations)
We will never ever surrender to the woke mob (we will never surrender to people who are awake to social injustice and racism).
Florida is where woke goes to die (we will crush those who are awake to social injustice and racism in Florida).
When you look at it this way, to be against woke is a damning project which inevitably will fail, because not wishing be awake to social justice issues is clearly very flawed, and very also dangerous as history has shown us. When a large proportion of a population support ‘not being awake’ to social injustice and discriminate against marginalised groups, blaming them for their economic and social problems, terrible things become possible. Reactionary politics are simply that, a fearful reaction, an unconscious displacement of anxiety and fear onto projected onto a ‘bad other’. Reactionary, nationalist and populist politics rely on people turning-a-blind eye to what they know, choosing to be asleep rather than take a more thoughtful, but perhaps difficult position, of being ‘awake’ and facing the deeper underlying issues that need addressing.
To be awake-woke, means to acknowledge, and to own our own biases and prejudices, and not project our fears onto the easy targets chosen by ‘anti-woke’ political forces e.g. the immigrants, the Jews, the Muslims, travelling community, Roma, LGBT+ communities amongst others.
What politicians and media on the populist right have understood very well however, is that in the short-term turning thoughtful politics into bi-partisan culture wars pays off…. yet stirring the passionate hatred of the other only works in the short term. The cause of the anxiety, resentment and fears do not go away when we choose to repress it and to be asleep, rather than being awake. Choosing the politics of blame, rather than the politics of working through social tensions has never led to a ‘better society’. Being anti-woke provides a short-term sugar rush solution, but leaves the hunger unfulfilled, and fear, anxiety, resentment soon returns.
Awake-Woke and Fake-Woke
This short-term pleasure hit gained from fighting culture wars, is also a left-progressive problem too. There are some ‘woke progressives’ who gain (unconscious) pleasure, from being self-righteous and demonising the bad ‘populist other’. They gain their pleasure not from fighting for social justice, but from partaking in the ‘culture wars’. Their pleasure comes from creating a good self-identity and creating a bad-other; mirroring the reactionary splitting, which is not at all awake-woke.
When activists/progressives ‘enjoy too much’ ( ‘surplus enjoyment’ in Lacanian psychoanalysis) this is a sign that a true awake position has been lost. Enjoying the culture war too much, rather than trying to understand the anxieties and social issues that underpin the fears that cause it, is not being woke. I use the term awake-woke, to differentiate those who strive for social justice, from culture war liberals who identify as woke warriors, yet get caught up in unconscious dynamics which lead to fake-woke places. Let me explain.
Fake Woke
We are not awake-woke if we attach ourselves to tribal politics of the cultural war. The line between awake-woke and fake-woke can be blurred. Consciously woke warriors really believe in social justice, but unconsciously they are ‘getting off’ by alienating and attacking their ‘bad other’ enemies. In Lacanian psychoanalysis this unconscious enjoyment, this ‘getting off’, relates to how we attain pleasure/jouissance. The woke comedy show hosts on US TV thrive on being fake-woke. They show their fishbowl liberal audiences how clever they are, and their audience feel clever too, laughing at how stupid the ‘bad other’ is. The elite audience and their fake-woke tribe of liberals, delight in making fun of the ‘lower caste deplorable other’.
A good way to spot fake-woke is to notice when excess enjoyment takes place. Sharing jokes and irony and feeling warmth and solidarity with others is important, but when ‘surplus enjoyment’ is present, this is a warning. Excess pleasure is like a manic reaction that is a signal that we are no-longer being awake-woke. When this occurs we have drifted into enjoying tribal politics too much and this just feeds the beast. The populist right then have some justification is crying out ‘virtue signalling’.
The hunger for culture wars on both sides undoes the real battle for social justice. There is a real need to be awake-woke, which means to develop understandings that can lead to radical change.
Fake-woke emerges when liberal progressive become puritans, believing they are the chosen ones and only they have the truth. The paradox is that when Evangelical Christians, religious fundamentalists, market fundamentalists and populist-nationalists preach their puritan truths, the fake-woke liberal tribe are incensed.
Using language as power
We are not awake-woke if we claim to be social justice warriors and at the same time use the power of language, knowledge and elitism to undermine and silence others with less power, and less language skills. I once heard a psychoanalyst say we have become a nation of stutterers, referring to the anxiety caused by misspeaking about politically correct identity issues.
We are not woke if we shout for social justice, whilst posturing and virtue signalling to feed our egos, to get attention and ‘likes’, instead of acting to progress social justice.
Fake-woke is also a common practice by corporates and other public organisations and individuals who see woke as being a positive branding exercise. They spend large sums on rainbow-washing, create P.C language cultures to promote themselves as cool companies, whilst doing little to address (and often doing harm) to social justice issues.
What is to be done?
1. If you are striving towards being an awake-woke activist, then let go of the culture war adrenalin buzz, and realise that enjoying bi-partisan politics too much just feeds the culture war- which isn’t helping social change take place.
2. Be alert to ‘surplus-enjoyment politics’ on both sides. The excess enjoyment at Trump rallies offered a clear signal of danger. Not only the right-populists enjoyed too much so did the liberal press such as the NY Times and Guardian who feasted on Trumps transgressions, ‘enjoying too much’ the spectacle that sold their papers and fed the culture war beast.
The truly radical position is to engage with the other, calling out injustice and speaking truth to power, but also being awake to our own biases and tribal behaviours that create pleasurable bonds between us. Enjoy the bonds of solidarity for they provide the strength and courage to make change- but don’t enjoy so much as to forget the struggle.
Silencing free speech, utilising cancel culture, closing down the other, also feeds the narrative spread by DeSantis and others that woke means ‘woke police’ who shut down freedoms.
Holding open a space for people to dialogue, to challenge each other and wake each other up, is the real work to be done. Let’s fight for social justice and strive to reach out to the marginalised who need our solidarity. Let’s also reach out to the discontented other, who are being seduced by anti-woke rhetoric, and who need to find a home in a broad based progressive politics.