The white supremacists who now completely control the Republican Party are always in search of the next target to hate.
Their latest bogeyman is CRT even though they have no idea what it means.
But Republicans have been targeting one group or another for focused hatred for decades. Under Reagan it was the poor, the so-called welfare queen, supposedly stealing white people’s tax revenues. Under Nixon it was the anti war activists, and the hatred was whipped into such a frenzy that national guard troops shot and killed peaceful protesters, on multiple college campuses, with impunity. Under Bush the target of hatred became Muslims, the “terrorists” who supposedly hated us for our freedom, rather than recognizing that a handful of fanaticists actually were attacking us because they were in a war and we were funding their opponents.
There will always be targets of Republican hate because they are a minority party whose actual beliefs are unacceptable to the majority of Americans. So they need to stir up fear and hatred in order to get voters to act against their own best interests.
And sadly there will always be white voters who fall for this Republican BS because white Americans have been taught to hate the “other” since they were children. Republicans channel this hate by giving those Americans a target every single election cycle.
That target is often, although not always, Black people and CRT is just another excuse to attack us.
But we African Americans will #StayWoke in spite of white supremacist Republicans. We have no choice.
What I wonder is will enough white Americans stay woke with us? Will enough white Americans renounce their culture of hate so this country can survive? They did in 2020 when we elected Biden. Will they do it again in 2024 or will we really devolve into another Civil War as Republicans seem to want? That choice is what every white person in this country should be asking themselves.
Elvis Costello once asked musically, “What’s so funny about peace love and understanding?” They are not the norm, and are losing the public. Thus they manufacture boogeymen to fight. They are becoming more ridiculous by the day.
Thanks Steven. I finally think I better understand the term "woke." Those using the term are obviously election deniers and support taking rights from women and the LGBTQ community, as well as our children's rights to an education based on truth - let's stay with the fantasy world - Washington did chop down the cherry tree and Africans came to America on their own free will. Didn't you know they wanted to be slaves? I saw over the weekend Congressman Swalwell's ad where a woman who had taken an abortion pill was being arrested. Jarring! This needs to go all over America. Dems have got to start acting like Trumpers, just make sure the rhetoric is based on truth, not lies. Maybe this will work.
The ridicule of "Woke" merely shows an ignorance of what the term even means. How Easily these easy led people on the right are, always looking for something to scorn, even if they have no clue what it means. To them - they would rather be "un-woke".
In Gibson Bakery v Oberlin College, Oberlin dropped appeals and agreed to pay $36m for defamation in labeling the bakery racist. Such cases give just enough credence to anti-woke rhetoric for a sympathetic audience. A challenge is to get people inclined to think every case is Gibson v Oberlin all over again to realize it was one counter example (based on the settlement) but one overwhelmed the the cases about which there really should be no dispute.
It is the never-ending GOP search for the newest US v. THEM and normal v. Abnormal white v. Non-white. Couched in whatever terms they use. Back in the day, they didn’t bother using euphemisms - now they do. It’s all the same racist, sexist, antisemitic, homophobic garbage it always was is and will be. These people are like the Taliban, ISIS and all of the rest of the religious extremists who are afraid of the other - of women for reasons I will never understand. They are afraid of their power? Afraid of a women’s ability to bear children, work, keep a house going, be a wife and do all of that while wear ing heels? (Homage to Ginger Rogers) I will never understand it...I am affected by it though and my grandchildren are surely affected by it now and in the future. I have no answer except to vote them out nationally, locally and statewide. Their hatred, shortsightedness, religious fervor that they want to impose on everyone is just too much.
Steven, a great history where “woke” entered the lexicon. In short, to be “woke” simply means you are aware, have knowledge, and see the world through the facts before you. So for Death-Santis to want to fight “woke” means to make us dumber, make us less aware, make us ignore the facts before our very eyes. It is the making of an Idiocracy.
I am a graduate of the University of Florida with degrees in history and economics, and also later was faculty member. To see what is happening to my alma mater is disgraceful and is only hurting the state. Maybe Death-Santis should have taken a few history classes here and learned not just the state’s history, but had his eyes opened up to the world as I did. Hell, let me take him to Rosewood (just down the road from Gainesville) to the site of a massacre and burning down of the town of African Americans in the 1920s. Make him feel shame, make him understand what he proposes in gory detail. Make him see the movie as well! Since reading is obviously not in his skill set.
That is called history, not “CRT” which is just a fever fantasy of made up crap on the right. Next thing we will see is Critical Capitalist Theory replacing economics because some point out things like market power, monopolies, scams and deceptive practices. Or better yet, Critical Gun Theory replacing epidemiology because of the loads of data showing the deaths from firearms which are a leading cause to death. Facts and empirical evidence are what they are.
So that idiot from Dunedin currently residing in Tallahassee wants to be anti-woke. That means to be unaware, without knowledge, and ignoring facts and empirical evidence. In short he wants us all to be dumb. Somebody needs to make a TV spot that boils his message down to that to call bullshit on him. Since he is such a snowflake, he will Simply melt away.
Beautifully written piece on a very sad, destructive, divisive, backward looking fringe group in our country. Your opening paragraph sets it up so well, sop I have to quote it: "In a country founded on free speech and freedom more broadly, this rights-shrinking mentality seems like gaslighting. Do these folks really want to turn the clock backwards? Do they really want to deny the truthful study of American history? Do they really think they make the world better by attacking vulnerable populations, stripping individual rights, rejecting academic freedom and passing laws meant to repress and oppress?" I think not too long ago we discussed that disparaging marginalized groups and immigrants represents weakness. That is exactly what this is. DeSantis (wow, it's almost as difficult to use his name as not is to use the name of the former president) is weak. He is afraid that if people become enlightened they will reject him. He doesn't have his own strength to portray. So all he can do is tear down others. Sadly the people of FL overwhelmingly re-elected him. So, I guess the vast majority of people in that state think s he does. Our country was built by immigrants. Our country is principled on lifting up the downtrodden. Our country is built on enriching people's lives by giving them more knowledge. Free speech is right there in the Bill of Rights. Yes, the Gov of FL (I can't use his name again in the same post) doesn't believe in any of that. Last week MTG spoke about a national divorce between red states and blue states. Nothing can be more divisive than that. I remember responding with Lincoln's words that a house divided against itself cannot stand. However, MTG's divisive views fit very well into the FL Gov's approach. Maybe she wants to run as his VP if 45 doesn't pick her as his VP. Both MTG and the Gov of FL seem to want to make FL different in values from the basis of our Constitutional Democracy. Maybe the Gov of FL wants to divorce his state from the rest of the country. He is obviously divorcing his state from the values and enlightenment and empathy that most of us want to highlight and make as goals for our great country. He may be Harvard educated, but he is not intelligent and he is not compassionate, and he clearly doesn't want the best for our country. He is weak and trying to keep people down, rather than lifting them up. He is un-American.
Thank You Steven. I have been confused about just what all the furor is regarding the term.My wife has tried and tried to get me to understand what "Woke" is and how it is being used but until I read this article, I was out of it.
Just seems to me that Democrats need to publicly define “woke“ whenever there was a challenge, whenever there is a negative statement by Republican. Really, how could somebody say empathy and compassion and understanding the lives of others, and caring for all people is a bad thing?
Thank you for explaining the historical origins of the word woke so well, Steven. Woke seems to be a convenient catch word that Republicans launch across the partisan divide, targeting anyone or anything that doesn't align with their restrictive world view. You asked 'Do these folks really want to turn the clock backwards?' Apparently, they must find security in the past. When you ponder whether 'they really want to deny the truthful study of American history', it appears they find a sense of security in their own select version of history. And we can also assume the affirmative to your third question: ' do they really think they make the world better by attacking vulnerable populations, stripping individual rights, rejecting academic freedom and passing laws meant to repress and oppress? There is a frightening LACK of concern for others, and a void of compassion in the woke naysayers. Unfortunately, they are still on the path of an alternate reality, fabricated and perpetuated by TFG.
Nothing is wrong with compassion racial justice or being safe. Many try to say that when you use the emotion compassion it is allowing some code message of some sort. COMPASSION GOD GIVEN, RACIAL JUSTICE CARING FOR FELLOW HUMAN BEING, ENOUGH SPEAK OUT AGAINST WRONG BEHAVIOR TOWARD THEM. The problem comes when those seeking compassion and receive it not then in their mind it is uncaring, unkind, but those same folk when their mind seem fitting to do it to others seem it is not wrong, double standard.
Thank You for shining light on what"WOKE" really came from and what it was used for. IT IS NOT TO BE RACIAL, IT IS NOT AGAINST THE LGTBQ COMMUNITY, IT IS NOT AGAINST CRT, BANNING BOOKS, ERASING A WHOLE CULTURE, NATION WORLD WIDE HISTORY INCLIDING THIS COUNTRY.
Florida House Bill 999 should be numbered 666. Some statistics: There are 385 colleges in Florida with 1,053,530 students.There are 4,202 k-12 schools with 2,838,866 students. There are 184,967 teachers.
Ronald DeSantis has an inner circle of 12 advisors, policy makers dictating to these lily-livered
"educators." How sad they abide while Starbuck employees from 100 stores have enough gumption to protest and walk out on strike. I am concerned for my grandchildren, 4 of whom are enrolled in FL schools. I have 2 in NJ, but I am not worried about them.
Wokeness has so many meanings now, it is hard to understand some of them. Associated with Democrat Progressives, this would include Bernie Sanders who believes older people should be entitled to teeth and food stamp receivers should be able to buy toilet paper.It is doubtful the trump, DeSantis followers understand,know what the word stands for, just say what they hear as they do with Antifa-who knows what that means but that they are the ones who invaded the Capital?
There is even what is called woke capitalism-company advertisers marketing it to sell products, i.e.
Nike- Colin Kaepernick.Couples are now shown as black and white partners; gay men are shown kissing. If there's a buck to be made, good old American companies will participate.
Florida so into controlling sex lives of people-wanting no abortion, contraceptives,doctors' arrest etc, yet nobody says anything when women go to the grocery store in a bikini. Or take the Villages, primarily Republican voters, noted in the past(and who knows now?) for "swinging" retirees.The old saying don't do as I do, do as I say applies. The only vote cheaters I have heard about or abortion paying politicians have been Republican. And look at Fox News !!
I am not sure what is so supreme about white skin. I am lucky I guess that I am white, Anglo Saxon, protestant for I have never felt nor known discrimination.But neither have I ever participated in it. I have no desire to exchange electricity for gaslighting prevalent in the 1800s and favored by President Harrison who would not touch the switch for fear of shock.
There are more Democrats than Republicans. trump is fading and DeSantis rated lower than he. So I am in tune with the Dave Frishberg song - I'm hip, I'm no square. I'm alert, I'm awake, I'm aware
The white supremacists who now completely control the Republican Party are always in search of the next target to hate.
Their latest bogeyman is CRT even though they have no idea what it means.
But Republicans have been targeting one group or another for focused hatred for decades. Under Reagan it was the poor, the so-called welfare queen, supposedly stealing white people’s tax revenues. Under Nixon it was the anti war activists, and the hatred was whipped into such a frenzy that national guard troops shot and killed peaceful protesters, on multiple college campuses, with impunity. Under Bush the target of hatred became Muslims, the “terrorists” who supposedly hated us for our freedom, rather than recognizing that a handful of fanaticists actually were attacking us because they were in a war and we were funding their opponents.
There will always be targets of Republican hate because they are a minority party whose actual beliefs are unacceptable to the majority of Americans. So they need to stir up fear and hatred in order to get voters to act against their own best interests.
And sadly there will always be white voters who fall for this Republican BS because white Americans have been taught to hate the “other” since they were children. Republicans channel this hate by giving those Americans a target every single election cycle.
That target is often, although not always, Black people and CRT is just another excuse to attack us.
But we African Americans will #StayWoke in spite of white supremacist Republicans. We have no choice.
What I wonder is will enough white Americans stay woke with us? Will enough white Americans renounce their culture of hate so this country can survive? They did in 2020 when we elected Biden. Will they do it again in 2024 or will we really devolve into another Civil War as Republicans seem to want? That choice is what every white person in this country should be asking themselves.
Elvis Costello once asked musically, “What’s so funny about peace love and understanding?” They are not the norm, and are losing the public. Thus they manufacture boogeymen to fight. They are becoming more ridiculous by the day.
Thanks Steven. I finally think I better understand the term "woke." Those using the term are obviously election deniers and support taking rights from women and the LGBTQ community, as well as our children's rights to an education based on truth - let's stay with the fantasy world - Washington did chop down the cherry tree and Africans came to America on their own free will. Didn't you know they wanted to be slaves? I saw over the weekend Congressman Swalwell's ad where a woman who had taken an abortion pill was being arrested. Jarring! This needs to go all over America. Dems have got to start acting like Trumpers, just make sure the rhetoric is based on truth, not lies. Maybe this will work.
Amen!!! Brilliant and Important!!! Hopefully it will be widely circulated.
The ridicule of "Woke" merely shows an ignorance of what the term even means. How Easily these easy led people on the right are, always looking for something to scorn, even if they have no clue what it means. To them - they would rather be "un-woke".
In Gibson Bakery v Oberlin College, Oberlin dropped appeals and agreed to pay $36m for defamation in labeling the bakery racist. Such cases give just enough credence to anti-woke rhetoric for a sympathetic audience. A challenge is to get people inclined to think every case is Gibson v Oberlin all over again to realize it was one counter example (based on the settlement) but one overwhelmed the the cases about which there really should be no dispute.
It is the never-ending GOP search for the newest US v. THEM and normal v. Abnormal white v. Non-white. Couched in whatever terms they use. Back in the day, they didn’t bother using euphemisms - now they do. It’s all the same racist, sexist, antisemitic, homophobic garbage it always was is and will be. These people are like the Taliban, ISIS and all of the rest of the religious extremists who are afraid of the other - of women for reasons I will never understand. They are afraid of their power? Afraid of a women’s ability to bear children, work, keep a house going, be a wife and do all of that while wear ing heels? (Homage to Ginger Rogers) I will never understand it...I am affected by it though and my grandchildren are surely affected by it now and in the future. I have no answer except to vote them out nationally, locally and statewide. Their hatred, shortsightedness, religious fervor that they want to impose on everyone is just too much.
Steven, a great history where “woke” entered the lexicon. In short, to be “woke” simply means you are aware, have knowledge, and see the world through the facts before you. So for Death-Santis to want to fight “woke” means to make us dumber, make us less aware, make us ignore the facts before our very eyes. It is the making of an Idiocracy.
I am a graduate of the University of Florida with degrees in history and economics, and also later was faculty member. To see what is happening to my alma mater is disgraceful and is only hurting the state. Maybe Death-Santis should have taken a few history classes here and learned not just the state’s history, but had his eyes opened up to the world as I did. Hell, let me take him to Rosewood (just down the road from Gainesville) to the site of a massacre and burning down of the town of African Americans in the 1920s. Make him feel shame, make him understand what he proposes in gory detail. Make him see the movie as well! Since reading is obviously not in his skill set.
That is called history, not “CRT” which is just a fever fantasy of made up crap on the right. Next thing we will see is Critical Capitalist Theory replacing economics because some point out things like market power, monopolies, scams and deceptive practices. Or better yet, Critical Gun Theory replacing epidemiology because of the loads of data showing the deaths from firearms which are a leading cause to death. Facts and empirical evidence are what they are.
So that idiot from Dunedin currently residing in Tallahassee wants to be anti-woke. That means to be unaware, without knowledge, and ignoring facts and empirical evidence. In short he wants us all to be dumb. Somebody needs to make a TV spot that boils his message down to that to call bullshit on him. Since he is such a snowflake, he will Simply melt away.
Beautifully written piece on a very sad, destructive, divisive, backward looking fringe group in our country. Your opening paragraph sets it up so well, sop I have to quote it: "In a country founded on free speech and freedom more broadly, this rights-shrinking mentality seems like gaslighting. Do these folks really want to turn the clock backwards? Do they really want to deny the truthful study of American history? Do they really think they make the world better by attacking vulnerable populations, stripping individual rights, rejecting academic freedom and passing laws meant to repress and oppress?" I think not too long ago we discussed that disparaging marginalized groups and immigrants represents weakness. That is exactly what this is. DeSantis (wow, it's almost as difficult to use his name as not is to use the name of the former president) is weak. He is afraid that if people become enlightened they will reject him. He doesn't have his own strength to portray. So all he can do is tear down others. Sadly the people of FL overwhelmingly re-elected him. So, I guess the vast majority of people in that state think s he does. Our country was built by immigrants. Our country is principled on lifting up the downtrodden. Our country is built on enriching people's lives by giving them more knowledge. Free speech is right there in the Bill of Rights. Yes, the Gov of FL (I can't use his name again in the same post) doesn't believe in any of that. Last week MTG spoke about a national divorce between red states and blue states. Nothing can be more divisive than that. I remember responding with Lincoln's words that a house divided against itself cannot stand. However, MTG's divisive views fit very well into the FL Gov's approach. Maybe she wants to run as his VP if 45 doesn't pick her as his VP. Both MTG and the Gov of FL seem to want to make FL different in values from the basis of our Constitutional Democracy. Maybe the Gov of FL wants to divorce his state from the rest of the country. He is obviously divorcing his state from the values and enlightenment and empathy that most of us want to highlight and make as goals for our great country. He may be Harvard educated, but he is not intelligent and he is not compassionate, and he clearly doesn't want the best for our country. He is weak and trying to keep people down, rather than lifting them up. He is un-American.
Thank You Steven. I have been confused about just what all the furor is regarding the term.My wife has tried and tried to get me to understand what "Woke" is and how it is being used but until I read this article, I was out of it.
Just seems to me that Democrats need to publicly define “woke“ whenever there was a challenge, whenever there is a negative statement by Republican. Really, how could somebody say empathy and compassion and understanding the lives of others, and caring for all people is a bad thing?
Thank you for explaining the historical origins of the word woke so well, Steven. Woke seems to be a convenient catch word that Republicans launch across the partisan divide, targeting anyone or anything that doesn't align with their restrictive world view. You asked 'Do these folks really want to turn the clock backwards?' Apparently, they must find security in the past. When you ponder whether 'they really want to deny the truthful study of American history', it appears they find a sense of security in their own select version of history. And we can also assume the affirmative to your third question: ' do they really think they make the world better by attacking vulnerable populations, stripping individual rights, rejecting academic freedom and passing laws meant to repress and oppress? There is a frightening LACK of concern for others, and a void of compassion in the woke naysayers. Unfortunately, they are still on the path of an alternate reality, fabricated and perpetuated by TFG.
And the term bull is so appropriate.
Nothing is wrong with compassion racial justice or being safe. Many try to say that when you use the emotion compassion it is allowing some code message of some sort. COMPASSION GOD GIVEN, RACIAL JUSTICE CARING FOR FELLOW HUMAN BEING, ENOUGH SPEAK OUT AGAINST WRONG BEHAVIOR TOWARD THEM. The problem comes when those seeking compassion and receive it not then in their mind it is uncaring, unkind, but those same folk when their mind seem fitting to do it to others seem it is not wrong, double standard.
Thank You for shining light on what"WOKE" really came from and what it was used for. IT IS NOT TO BE RACIAL, IT IS NOT AGAINST THE LGTBQ COMMUNITY, IT IS NOT AGAINST CRT, BANNING BOOKS, ERASING A WHOLE CULTURE, NATION WORLD WIDE HISTORY INCLIDING THIS COUNTRY.
Florida House Bill 999 should be numbered 666. Some statistics: There are 385 colleges in Florida with 1,053,530 students.There are 4,202 k-12 schools with 2,838,866 students. There are 184,967 teachers.
Ronald DeSantis has an inner circle of 12 advisors, policy makers dictating to these lily-livered
"educators." How sad they abide while Starbuck employees from 100 stores have enough gumption to protest and walk out on strike. I am concerned for my grandchildren, 4 of whom are enrolled in FL schools. I have 2 in NJ, but I am not worried about them.
Wokeness has so many meanings now, it is hard to understand some of them. Associated with Democrat Progressives, this would include Bernie Sanders who believes older people should be entitled to teeth and food stamp receivers should be able to buy toilet paper.It is doubtful the trump, DeSantis followers understand,know what the word stands for, just say what they hear as they do with Antifa-who knows what that means but that they are the ones who invaded the Capital?
There is even what is called woke capitalism-company advertisers marketing it to sell products, i.e.
Nike- Colin Kaepernick.Couples are now shown as black and white partners; gay men are shown kissing. If there's a buck to be made, good old American companies will participate.
Florida so into controlling sex lives of people-wanting no abortion, contraceptives,doctors' arrest etc, yet nobody says anything when women go to the grocery store in a bikini. Or take the Villages, primarily Republican voters, noted in the past(and who knows now?) for "swinging" retirees.The old saying don't do as I do, do as I say applies. The only vote cheaters I have heard about or abortion paying politicians have been Republican. And look at Fox News !!
I am not sure what is so supreme about white skin. I am lucky I guess that I am white, Anglo Saxon, protestant for I have never felt nor known discrimination.But neither have I ever participated in it. I have no desire to exchange electricity for gaslighting prevalent in the 1800s and favored by President Harrison who would not touch the switch for fear of shock.
There are more Democrats than Republicans. trump is fading and DeSantis rated lower than he. So I am in tune with the Dave Frishberg song - I'm hip, I'm no square. I'm alert, I'm awake, I'm aware