What does it mean to be “woke”? It’s a term that originated in the African American community meaning to be aware about racism and social injustice. As with other black vernacular it started as a short slang term for waking up to the reality of the world around us. Having the advantage of being an adopted member of the black community it’s a term that I’ve been privy to for many years. “You better wake up!” was something my friends and family would tell me when I’d share my experiences of racism with them. “Stay woke!” they’d tell me. In other words, don’t be fooled, racism is alive and well.
Being a non-melanated person of eastern European origin many in this country just looked at me as being “white.” Being a Canadian I never learned to identify myself by the colour of my skin. When I first moved to the States to go to college and was asked to check certain boxes on applications, surveys, etc., I always marked “Other” because my ethnicity didn’t fit into any of the categories they wanted me to choose. In most cases, however, Americans would look at me and think “That’s a white girl.” When I would meet someone new one of the first questions people would ask me was “What are you?” It seemed to be the most important thing for them to know about me before anything else. What ethnicity was my last name? What was my political affiliation? What was my religion? What box could they put me in to help them categorize me and decide whether I fit into their clique or was an outsider? When I would say I was not one or the other some would accept that and move on to get to know me without prejudice. For others it allowed them to place me in their own boxes of “not one of us”.
Choosing not to be one thing or the other set me down the path of being what many would consider a rebel or a radical. 30 years later I am happy to identify myself as being just that, a non-conformist non-compliant individual. I did learn early on that being a rebel was not something that I could advertise if I wanted to work. Even still, I have been privately raging against the machine since I landed here. New York Times conservative commentator described “being woke” in 2018 as “…racially aware…cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures.” He also suggested that it implies social activism…rage, passion, resistance, action; seeking to draw a line against the unacceptable.” So I guess I have always been woke. What I didn’t realize, until I joined corporate America, is that I had even more waking up to do.
Work Woke Me Up! Work in the U.S. started with admin jobs here and there while I worked on my business degree before finding my passion in sports and special event marketing. I didn’t pay much attention to office politics back then and professional sports and street festivals in the Bay Area have always been very inclusive. Once I decided to get a “real job” and accepted a position in healthcare marketing things changed. It didn’t take too long to find out that being identified as “white” had advantages. I rarely shared my personal life at work so my coworkers weren’t aware of my plethora of diverse friends. I won’t go into detail but let’s just say some of the conversations I overheard were less than ethnically aware. I heard upper management describe black women as angry and assertive black men as thugs. I watched as qualified applicants for jobs and/or promotions were systematically overlooked because of their race. As if that wasn’t an awakening to the institutionalized racism in corporate America there was more to come. At one major organization my when an upper manager discovered the ethnicity of my future husband she asked, in front of my coworkers, “Does he have a big d****?” and everyone laughed as if that was an acceptable joke. Talk about a wake-up call! I never felt the same and found that I was treated differently from that point so, of course, I quit that job as soon as I could. For my remaining work life I kept my private life, private. Still, I remained wide awake and paid close attention. Woke!
In the last few years being woke has been a theme of popular black musicians such as Erykah Badhu and Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) and Macy Gray*. When the BLM movement gained momentum after the murder of Trayvon Martin the hashtag #staywoke started showing up all over social media. After the killing of George Floyd people of every color started to adopt both the term and the resistance with mass protests and demands for changes in racial and socio-economic matters. As with many progressive movements the protectors of the status quo had a visceral reaction to seeing white people in the streets carrying signs that said “Black Lives Matter.” In 2020 we started to see the usurping of the phrase and the mocking of those whose perspectives on race and gender issues had changed after being exposed to the injustice rampant in our society. Now neoconservatives and liberal critics say woke is a synonym for “cancel culture”. Forcing out opinions that did not comply with one group’s definition of correctness, political or otherwise somehow morphed into being woke. However, many of us radical, political, feminist activists refused to accept this new categorization recognizing the dog whistles. Oddly enough *Macy Gray who had a hit record “Stay Woke” was recently cancelled for her comments on LGBTQ+ people – go figure.
Today you see pundits on every side arguing that “wokeness” is the problem. While some political correctness might go a little far – like being “assigned female at birth” or “un-housed” or the worst “the enslaved experience” you shouldn’t fall into this racially charged trap. Being woke is still being aware and awake to the reality of injustices in our society at work, in your community or anywhere. It’s disturbing that we would have to say “black lives matter”, as if they don’t but in the war against wokeness they’ve weaponized that as well. Critical race theory is also now a bad thing. CRT is a conceptual framework that considers the impact of historical laws and social structures on the present-day perpetuation of racial inequality. It is a very small part of the curriculum in some law schools and has never been taught or even proposed to be taught in elementary or high schools. Racist politicians have used these ideas to rile up paranoid white families. Now they are banning books by and about the African American experience. They are suggesting that children will be taught to hate themselves because of their ancestors’ REAL participation in slavery. The war against BLM, CRT and being woke are simply rallying cries for the neoconservative’s goals, to turn back the progress made for our civil rights. Now they are trying to demonize DEI; diversity, equity and inclusion programs which, as I mention above, are very necessary in corporate America.
Being aware and awake to the truth of racism, sexism and other ‘isms’ in today’s world is not a bad thing, being ignorant to what is going on in your community or your workplace is. I hope my observations will help you understand the need for people and workers to be awake to the reality of today’s world. I have refused to conform to what those with the biggest blow horn, or corporate titles, have told me to be and can truly say that I am happier for it. Still proud to be awake to the truth and refuse to close my eyes to what is happening around me. I am proud to be woke.
gdba 