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LANGUAGE + RACISM
Why Being Woke Is More Than Being Kind to Others
We shouldn't reduce, misuse, or whitewash the term
Black Americans have become cultural architects. You can see their influence in the language we use, the music we listen to, the food we eat, and the topics that gain national attention. However, Black culture is not a free-for-all; it's a carefully crafted structure. And just as you need to understand how to construct a building to follow a blueprint, you need to understand Black culture to use the terminology accurately.
The word "woke" has been misused repeatedly by political pundits and uninformed journalists. However, all faux pas are not created equally. On the one hand, some White people see being "woke" as something horrible but can't seem to define the term, while others try to soften the term's meaning. For instance, when Bethany Mandel, a conservative writer, discussed her anti-woke book, her cluelessness took center stage. Mandel should have done her research or taken the time to understand where this term came from or why people were using it, but she didn't. So, she carelessly used the word "woke.”
Mandel said, "woke is something that's very hard to define, and we've spent an entire chapter defining it. It is, sort of, the understanding that we need to totally…
