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What is “Woke”?   

 

Woke is a term given both to a worldview and to the people who are initiated, and adhere, to that worldview. (See Deeper Dive below (See also Counter Wokecraft, C. Pincourt & J. Lindsay 2022 ).   The Woke worldview is known under many different pseudonyms, depending upon what group identity is being emphasized, including Critical Theory, Critical Social Justice, Critical Race Theory (CRT). (See What is CRT)  LINK  Critical Gender Theory (CGT) (See What is CGT)  LINK   Intersectionality, Postmodern-Cultural Marxism, Critical Queer Theory, Post-Colonial Theory, Fat Studies, and likely others. The term “Woke” is the simple past of the verb to wake, and it is intended to mean someone has become “awakened” to the worldview. Within Woke theory to be “awakened” is to achieve a “Critical Consciousness”, which is a concept derived from earlier Hegelian-Marxist Postmodernist theory. (See Deeper Dive below) The Woke worldview has 3 main claims, or principles about the world that bind all versions of Woke together: the knowledge principal; the political principal; and the subject principle.

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The knowledge principle does not deny reality but denies that we can ever know the true nature of reality. This is because all knowledge and meaning is “socially constructed” or “co-constructed” by human beings with power and defined (thru language) by the culture in which we live. Essential to this principle is the fact that different cultures have different understandings about the nature of the world.  Thus, for example, according to Critical Gender Theory, one’s knowledge of their own sex (not to be confused with gender) is socially constructed, not biologically determined by nature. (See What is Critical Gender Theory)   LINK  This is the central tenet of the Gender Studies class discovered by parents within LH’s curriculum using the since removed Atlas weekly syllabus browser. This “social constructive theory” is also reflected in question #6 of LH’s AIM DEI Survey (See LH Subtle but Significant Changes )  LINK  and is specifically mentioned in slide #7 of President Harms’ January 4, 2021 information dump promoting the “co-construction of knowledge and meaning”.  (See LH’s Subtle Significant Changes).  LINK

The political principle is that not only is knowledge socially constructed, but knowledge is constructed by oppressor groups in society at the expense of oppressed groups. The construction of knowledge is done through language whose rules are also determined by groups with power to do so, i.e., oppressor groups. Moreover, knowledge is constructed in such a way that it helps maintain the oppressive role for the oppressor group and prevents oppressed groups from being “liberated” from their oppression.

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Thus, not only is knowledge socially constructed, but it is by definition biased and can never be an accurate representation of reality. This, together with the fact that different cultures have different understandings of the nature of the world, means no worldview is more authoritative than any other. Truth is entirely subjective, relative, and simply an expression of power. (See What Woke Categorically Rejects below) Thus, every body of knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is nothing but a “story” which is an expression of political power by the oppressor group to keep the oppressed groups oppressed.   Accordingly, even the scientific worldview, developed-it is claimed-solely by white, European males, is just a story designed to perpetuate systems of oppression that benefit oppressor white, European males. Thus, according to Woke, even the tools of science, such as logic, rational argument, evidence, hypotheses, controlled experiments, etc. serve to perpetuate oppression.  This is why the Woke are now making demands on the STEM fields. 

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The subject principle is that individuals are primarily defined by their group identity (white, female, black, European, cis-gendered, etc.). Thus, individual people are either oppressors or oppressed according to what group/groups they are identified with by Woke categorizations, regardless of how the individual defines themselves.  Similarly, how individual people behave is a function of group identity. And (taken together with the knowledge and political principles) their behavior supports and helps the oppressive systems around them, unconsciously. For example, white people simply can’t avoid behaving in ways that perpetuate their oppression of non-white people in society. Likewise, non-whites cannot avoid behaving in ways that support their own oppression.   Thus, the Woke categorically reject Martin Luther King and classical liberal enlightenment moral aspirations of a color-blind society. (See What Woke Categorically Rejects below)

A corollary of this principle is that since individual behavior is defined by one’s identity, individuals are responsible or accountable for any and all actions associated with any group identity to which the Woke worldview categorize them. Thus, the oppressive acts of one member of an identity group are the oppressive acts of all members of that identity group.  Moral agency extends infinitely across time according to group membership not individual culpability. Those individuals categorized by Woke as members of an oppressor group today are morally responsible for the oppressive acts of all members of their oppressor group at any point in the past. (p. 6) Thus, as Coleman Hughs observes, according to Woke ideology, literally on the day they are both born, non-white babies have moral grievances and claims against white babies and white babies have moral agency for those grievances and claims. (See Deeper Dive below-Coleman Hughes @ Lafayette-Anti-Racism and Humanism: Two Competing Visions).

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The Woke Activist Ethos

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Given that oppression and oppressive structures permeate our entire existence, there are infinite opportunities to actively oppose oppression. The Woke moral imperative is that everyone, everywhere, all the time must take action to oppose this oppression because oppression is practiced everywhere, all the time, consciously and unconsciously. And if you do not take action to oppose this oppression, enthusiastically and without dissent, then you are not “Woke”, but are complicit in that oppression. (Refer to Counter Wokecraft p. 7)   Moreover, only by becoming Woke can one have knowledge of and see these systems and structures of oppression. This flawed, quasi-cult-like epistemological error is called Standpoint Epistemology. (See Standpoint Epistemology in Translations from the Wokish Encyclopedia)  LINK  Fact is, in both theory and practice, Woke meets every criteria of a new religious cult. (See Deep Dive below-Postmodern Religion and the Faith of Social Justice, J. Lindsay)

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One cannot overestimate the zeal and fanatism of the ideology of Woke. Because the “sites” of oppression are limitless, the work of the Woke is never done. In education, this means each person, each program, each class, each syllabus, each administrative process must be reviewed, challenged, problematized, opposed and cleansed of any vestige of the oppressor identity group (i.e., white, European, male, heterosexual, etc.). This is the function of the DEI director position and why Woke organizations, like the NAIS or NDPI, insist on the importance of creating a DEI position within the administrative structure of every private school. (See What is NAIS)  LINK  This is the transformative purpose of having “a designated practitioner whose job it is to oversee the school’s efforts with sufficient resources and is a part of senior administration” (See slide #7 of Pres. Harms’ January 4, 2021 information dump in LH’s Subtle but Significant Changes)   LINK   Creating more Woke activists is the purpose of Woke pedagogy. (See NAIS PoCC Course Content "The Building of an Activist: Activism, Artivism, and Academics")  LINK

 

Woke Hierarchy of Oppression and Privilege

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Although oppression is everywhere, not all oppression is equal because power is unequal. Acts of oppression fall on a continuum, from microaggressions to acts of genocide. However, these acts of oppression go one way: always against marginalized oppressed groups and always committed by privileged oppressor groups. Never the other way. (See Ibram X. Kendi’s definition of acceptable Woke discrimination below) More importantly, acts of oppression aggregate depending on how many oppressed group identities a person can claim (i.e., non-white, female, indigenous, homosexual, etc.) or how many oppressor group identities to which a person is ascribed by Woke categorization. (i.e., white, male, European, heterosexual, etc.) Obviously, these group identities overlap. Thus, in order to understand and evaluate oppression, one needs to consider the “intersection” of group identities (and oppression) for any individual. Hence the doctrine of Intersectionality. However, the exact ranking of a particular group identity within the Woke hierarchies of oppression and power remain undefined and hotly debated amongst the Woke, with just one exception: white, heterosexual, males. These people are never oppressed because they enjoy all the power and “undeserved” privileges of a systemically white racist society. (See Whiteness and White Privilege in Translations from the Wokish Encyclopedia)  LINK  In this way Woke engages in moral scapegoating of one particular identity group (white heterosexual males).

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The Woke Political/Social Project

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The Woke worldview and ethos has gelled around the following political and social project: the retributive redistribution of resources according to group identity. This is the meaning of “equity” in the Woke triad of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  This redistribution is reparations for the collective acts of group oppression in the past. Thus, the familiar term “discrimination” has a radically different meaning and use to Woke. So long as discrimination is used to achieve “racial equity” it isn’t discrimination. Leading Woke celebrity, Ibram X. Kendi, stated this explicitly:

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“The only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

(See Antiracism in Translations from the Wokish Encyclopedia)  LINK

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However, the “equity” project is not typically presented in these stark and candid terms. It is more often presented as “just” the redistribution of resources according to group identity to “redress” alleged historical imbalances. It is thereby justified by suggesting that the goal will be achieved once the imbalances are redressed. (Counter Wokecraft p. 9-10) But according to Woke, an imbalance exists everywhere there are numerically less members of any oppressed identity group than members of any oppressor identity group. Further, every imbalance is irrefutably presumed to be caused by systemic bigotry towards that oppressed identity group by the oppressor identity group and, therefore, undisputed evidence of white supremacy in the structure of that organization or institution. These imbalances are invisible to the non-woke, but obvious and everywhere when one is Woke (See Critical Consciousness Translations from the Wokish Encyclopedia) LINK

 

Not surprisingly, Woke critical consciousness seems almost universally focused upon imbalances with respect to positions of power, prestige or limited access which were, heretofore, determined by individual merit. (i.e., within education positions in administration, faculty or student admissions). Hence President Harms’ statement to a LH parent on January 4, 2021 that he intends to hire faculty of color, even though a white applicant maybe clearly more qualified for the position. (See LH’s Subtle but Significant Changes)  LINK   However, obvious numerical imbalances in menial, powerless positions, without prestige are rarely the focus of Woke retributive redistribution, and any imbalance favoring oppressed identity groups over oppressor identity groups is simply not unjust or inequitable. (See Equity in Translations from the Wokish Encyclopedia) LINK

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The Woke share our Vocabulary, but not our Dictionary 

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It cannot be emphasized enough when considering these issues or the subtle but significant changes at LH in the past 2 years. (See LH’s Subtle but Significant Changes)  LINK  The Woke use words, phrases, and concepts familiar to all classically liberal, enlightened, and tolerant Americans. However, the Woke meaning and use of this familiar language is radically different from the enlightened meaning and use for the past 500 years. The Woke share our vocabulary but not our dictionary. (See Deeper Dive below-Diversity, Inclusion & Equity-J. Lindsay).

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This manipulation of otherwise familiar words and phrases is by design. (See “About Translations from the Wokish” in Translations from the Wokish Encyclopedia)   LINK   As discussed above, the Woke understand the power of language.  So, they purposefully use “cross over words.” (Counter Wokecraft p. 23) Cross over words are purposefully common and non-technical, well-understood to the non-Woke, and usually “nice” sounding. The list is constantly expanding. (i.e., diversity, inclusion, equity, bias, racism, anti-racism, social justice, critical, intersectional, identity, voices, lived experiences, culture, cultural competencies, etc.) In this way, the words are easily insinuated into formal organizational policy, mission statements and classroom curriculum. When LH’s website went back up in 2020 it was now populated with a number of potential cross over words: student “identity”, “people of color”; creation of “safe discussions”; racial “affinity groups”, a DEI reviewed curriculum  “free from bias”; “authentic connections…of marginalized groups”; “cultural competency”, and of course the now ubiquitous mantra of “diversity, equity and inclusion”. These are all Woke cross over words and phrases, with a radically different meaning for the Woke. (See Translations from the Wokish Encyclopedia)  LINK

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After successfully instantiating the familiar, seemingly innocuous word or phrase into formal organizational policy, the Woke in positions of power can then execute and enforce policy consistent with the Woke definition of the word, not the classical liberal, enlightened understanding of it.   Any late objections to this Woke shift in meaning and use is turned against the dissenter(s) by effectively painting them as being opposed to the more familiar, accepted principals of enlightened, classical liberalism. (See The Motte & Bailey Rhetorical Technique in Counter Wokecraft p. 35) It certainly would not surprise us if some try this tactic against us. But our allegiances are clearly stated and unimpeachable: to diversity of individual thought and freedom of speech without censorship; to inclusion of all perspectives, including the Woke, in respectful constructive disagreement without Woke mob cancelation; and an unwavering commitment to an integrated, color-blind society based on merit and individual character where the pigment of one’s skin is as irrelevant and trivial a feature as an individual’s eye or hair color. (See About Us)   LINK

 

It is in this way that the Woke political/social project becomes part and parcel of the administrative and operational structure of the organization without the non-woke ever noticing, or at least not until it is too late to object or reverse it.   The tactic is brilliant and thoroughly Marxian. (See Deeper Dive below - Race Marxism, J. Lindsay 2022) Like Marx, the founders of Woke understood that if you can control the language, you can control thought and speech. And if you can control thought and speech, then you can control everything, including the means of economic, cultural, and even knowledge production, like education. (See Deeper Dive below-Critical Education Theory J. Lindsay)

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