Monday Musings: Beware the Unwoke Mind

The following is from my Substack twice-weekly email, Mark McNease on Topic. Subscribe here for musings, commentary, and The Weekly Readlines news roundup every Friday.

“What would you say about someone who is not WOKE? They are “asleep,” “unconscious,” “indifferent.” They are “Mind Closed, Mouth Open.”” – Diane Ravitch

“Beware the unwoke mind.” – Amanda Marcotte

I recently told a friend I was nominating the word ‘woke’ for the one most in need of retiring in 2023. It has become both ubiquitous and meaningless, useful only as a slur employed by right-wing types to hurl at everything they don’t like or agree with. They take great pleasure in accusing those interested in social justice, equality, and accurate history of being whatever they think ‘woke’ means. At this point it only serves as a weapon and a form of mockery. I don’t believe I can have a serious conversation with anyone using the word, since the only people still saying it are wielding it as a verbal cudgel they feel no obligation to define.

However … to me it means enlightened, conscious, aware of others who occupy the same spaces I do, whether it’s my immediate space or the space of the greater society. To be woke is to be mindful that many other people do not look like me or hold the same beliefs. I even try to keep room in this for people who would spit the word at me as if it were the last socially acceptable epithet. Because I care about the suffering of transgender adults and kids, I’m woke. Because I empathize with migrants risking their lives and the lives of their children for anything remotely resembling a better life, I’m woke. Because I disdain the grotesque inequalities in everything from income to healthcare to incarceration rates, I’m woke. Because I’m a married gay man who considers my marriage a civil right, and voter disenfranchisement a deliberate evil, and the imposition of anyone’s religious beliefs on their fellow citizens a blot on a fair and just society, I’m woke.

The unwoke masses are difficult enough to bear, but I have a deep contempt for politicians and cable pundits who have convinced millions that what they mean when they say ‘woke’ is something to loathe. In fact, the loathing is the point: get all the Moms for Liberty types enraged that a school curriculum is the stealth project of a woke agenda. Never mind that there is no greater indoctrination than religion—we’ll save that for another day. The right-wing punditocracy has only to exercise the unwoke masses to keep the money flowing. Florida Governor DeSantis need only stage another fight against a ‘woke corporation,’ or pass another law silencing gay students and teachers, or erase the experiences of Black people and their enslaved ancestors, or torture transgender children and their families, and the satisfaction of having ‘owned the libs’ is enough to raise his popularity among the millions who would put us all under the unwoke boot.

So while I would love to see the word fall quickly and permanently out of use, my desire stems from its perversion. To be woke once meant to be enlightened. It meant to be aware of systemic inequities and baked-in discrimination. It meant to see the flaws in this world and want to achieve a better one. It meant to know the world is filled with people who are not like me, and it falls on me to be accepting, not frightened. In that respect, yes, I’m woke. I wouldn’t choose to be any other way.