[: When teaching actual history is branded as woke and therefore
bad, our children are denied the truth that can make future mistakes
much less likely. ]
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WOKENESS = KINDNESS  
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Jonathan Klate
March 2, 2023
Peace Voice [[link removed]]


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_ : When teaching actual history is branded as woke and therefore
bad, our children are denied the truth that can make future mistakes
much less likely. _

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“Wokeness” is what folks on the political right love to declare
themselves as being against these days. But, what is it, really, that
they oppose?

The term “woke” was derived from African American Vernacular
English meaning alertness to racial prejudice. For those who have used
the term positively, something I am not sure anyone actually does
anymore, its meaning evolved to encompass awareness of other social
inequities and forms of oppression such as sexism, misogyny, white
privilege, the oppression of any minority person or community, and
human and environmental predations of exploitive corporations. This is
sometimes called “intersectionality,” another term that is often
denigrated.

The opposite of “wokeness” could be characterized as indifference
by those with privileged status to the suffering of others.

This is not to dismiss the criticisms of wokeness as excessive
sensitivity to language anyone might find offensive and the demand
that everyone change their usage to conform to the prerogatives of
anyone who alleges offense. Belittling and harshly calling out others
in the name of wokeness is itself not woke at all.

For those on the right it has become a generalized pejorative, almost
an expletive for any attitudes they attribute to those who see the
patterns of oppressions in the world differently than they do, who
strive to bring those oppressions out of the darkness of ignorance, to
ease the despair of those who dwell under their yoke, to contemplate
how these cultural oppressions can be remedied, and to actively work
to actualize those remediations.

It is a placeholder term for rejection of thinking about both history
and current social realities outside of the narrow descriptive
confines of the dominant biases most of us were indoctrinated with as
children.

For an obvious illustration, we all learned about George
Washington’s courage, dignity, and leadership. How much did we learn
about his immense wealth which was largely comprised by the market
value of the people he owned and traded as commodities whose freedom
was not even accorded to them upon his death in His Will
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Emphasize that and you are “woke” and therefore wicked. 

Real education requires actual history, not an attempt to erase the
mistakes made or the harms done to groups of people. When teaching
actual history is branded as woke and therefore bad, our children are
denied the truth that can make future mistakes much less likely.

In the words of the official transcript of his speech on January 3,
Ron DeSantis, the ambitious culture warrior governor of Florida, said,
“We reject this woke ideology. We seek normalcy, not philosophical
lunacy! We will not allow reality, facts, and truth to become
optional. We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where
woke goes to die!” (Note the “royal we” and the exclamation
points.)

And yet, his own general counsel defined wokeness as “the belief
there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to
address them.” So, why the crusade against this?

DeSantis even decries socially responsible investing as “woke
capitalism.” Some people prefer to invest their money in
corporations that treat workers decently­­­­, value and promote
women and minorities equitably, respect the environment and avoid
polluting and try to ameliorate catastrophic climate change, do not
produce assault weapons for civilian use or addicting products.

But according to DeSantis and those of his ilk, this is “woke
capitalism” and nearly half the states have passed resolutions or
legislation forbidding pension fund managers from making investment
decisions based upon environmental, social, or governance principles
or any other concerns other than where they can make the most money
free of any other values.

Elon Musk called socially responsible investing “the devil
incarnate.” I guess that’s what “woke” is to these folks.

When I hear or read someone put down “wokeness” I perform a
simultaneous mental translation and substitute “kindness” for
“wokeness” and this clarifies their actual sentiment.

Simple kindness; a recognition that we are all in our essential human
nature of the same _kind_ and it is imperative that we recognize we
have far more similarities to one another than differences between us,
with equal entitlement to the essentials of a healthy and comfortable
life, safety in our communities, and a sustainable environment in
which to live and to bequeath to those who follow on. To
oppose _wokeness_ is to oppose all of this in preference for
unbounded selfishness, tribalism, and the preservation of privilege
for the few.

Kindness, and its cousins sympathy, compassion, and the recognition
that we are all in this together, are not always so easy to practice,
but they are the only antidotes to selfishness and ceding power to
demagogues who would turn us against one another and exploit our
differences to extract power for themselves.

Standing up to bullies requires courage and doing so is most noble
when it is someone else who is being bullied, when your privileged
position allows you to simply stand by and watch in silence, or skulk
away. Kindness is not passive. It often requires bravery.

Placing kindness in the foreground of our
thinking, including opening to all the facts of our shared heritage,
even those that may make some of us feel uncomfortable, can lead to a
spiritual renewal. Opposing equal rights for those who may in some
respect differ from us is not just anti-wokeness, it is
anti-kindness.~~

_Jonathan Klate writes regularly about spirituality, political
ideology, and the relationship between these two._

* wokeness
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* war on woke
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* compassion for others
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