Opinion: Is the term woke ‘dead’?

We are in constant reminder that we live in a world where ‘wokeness’ (being ‘awake’ to issues about social justice, equality, and fairness) is a modern and pervasive ‘threat’.

How has it come to pass that people wanting to help and look out for their fellow humans have been tainted with a ‘toxic’ label? Professor of Sociology Andrew Pilkington discusses woke, challenges a few myths about it, and explains why the term might not be useful in the ongoing ‘battle’ for social justice.

Woke rising

The term ‘woke’ is not a recent invention. It was in use long before the death of George Floyd and the incredible upwelling of anger and feeling across the world that followed with the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Woke emerged in the African American community in the 1930’s, after the ‘Scotsborough Boys’ trial. A group of Black men were found guilty of raping two white women following an altercation on a train. Largely cited as an example of legal injustice along racial grounds, the men, who were innocent, spent long stretches in prison.

Fast forward nearly a century and umpteen legal and political reforms and inquiries but only inches of ground on the ‘battle map’ of racial equality and justice have been secured. If we strive for – or even mention! – being ‘woke’ we are shouted down with a barrage of negativity.

Is this thing we call woke helpful in wanting cultural, legal, political, and social parity? I say it isn’t, the term should be abandoned, and this is what we should do instead.

Is woke still relevant?

Both political correctness and woke can slip in and out of cogent, agreed upon terms and sets of principles and precepts. Instead, they are used to depict the ‘other’ in a disparaging way and suggest there are powerful forces suppressing inconvenient truths and steadily eroding our freedom.

Since around 2016, woke has been attacked by right wing politicians and media outlets. Despite its positive origins, it’s now largely become a negative word.

For some, woke signals concern for social justice, but for others it’s associated with ‘virtue signaling’ or pretending to be woke.

We often hear that there is a ‘free speech crisis’ – exacerbated by the advent of the snowflake generation entails – according to those critical of PC, cancel culture, a modern form of ostracism whereby people who speak out against fashionable left-wing positions are abused online and may even lose their jobs. But a belief in absolute free speech – one removed of all responsibility, no matter what we say or offend – is indefensible.

This ‘campaign’ by those on the right wing – support and promoted by sections of the media – has been invidiously successful, presenting anti-racism measures in a negative way. This discourse around woke issues has proved very persuasive and underpinned the success of the Brexiteers in the EU referendum and the advent of Trump to the American Presidency.

Consequently, the term woke has lost its meaning. Colloquially, it’s seen as something to avoid. It’s not a term people want to align with or, perhaps most importantly, be seen to align with or even agree with.

To my mind the seemingly endless, negative arguments around woke and its usage are getting the way of us tackling the serious issues in society, if not actively impeding those efforts. It’s time to move away from woke and going (with apologies for use of a Conservative quote) ‘back to basics’.

What’s next for social justice issues and can universities help?

It’s genuinely important that social justice concerns are being dismissed. My action plan to address this is, firstly, to critique the way woke has been conceptualised and attacked.

Universities are a good place to start these conversations and to help steer them toward action. For instance, if the terminology used in EDI policies and practices can seem, to some, restrictive or sanctimonious, academics can help develop more human-sounding, practical language that brings people in rather than ostracises them.

We must remind people that safe spaces, trigger warnings, and no platforming are exceptional but necessary situations. In the grand scheme of things, these events rarely occur. So-called cancelling maybe a new term, but it is not a new phenomenon and does not necessarily mean someone or an organisation has been irretrievably silences. The world isn’t falling to pieces because these things happen every now and then.

We then need to defend further attempts to uphold and deliver social justice, whilst ‘packing up’ the term woke and moving away from it toward referring to what is at its heart – social justice, or fairness for all, an equal share in society, whatever term one wishes to use, so long as it’s not woke!