Hmmm, maybe we should outright ban the term so it can no longer be used as a weapon.
First a declaration: I did not want to venture into the woke debate. It is so emotionally-charged and divisive that my point of view is guaranteed to offend one or more parties. But I feel obliged to speak up.
In preparation, I did my homework on the issue. Woke, as I understand it, was originally the African-American synonym for the General American word awake as far back as the 1930’s. It was used to refer to awareness of social and political issues affecting African-Americans.
The phrase was popularized by Black Lives Matter activists as they sought to raise awareness of police shootings by white people. Around 2010, it came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities including racial injustice, sexism and LGBTQ rights. In 2017, it found its way into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summary, woke originated as a term for promotion of liberal progressive ideology relating to systemic injustices and prejudices and had a comparatively positive connotation.
But in recent years, the phrase has been widely misappropriated. The political right has seized upon it to denote progressive or left-wing attitudes that conservatives view as self-righteous or pernicious. The connotation is this context is negative.
The end result is that we have arrived at the point where the term woke has become twisted and tortured beyond recognition. On one hand, it is a rally cry by liberals for social justice. On the other hand, a negative buzzword from anything deemed by conservatives to be too progressive.
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is one of the worst offenders of the misappropriation of the term. He uses it as a flaming arrow in his relentless, often crude and unapologetic criticism of the Trudeau Liberals. It has become in some sense his unofficial campaign anti-slogan alongside Axe the Tax.
As the writer of one incisive CBC article argued, grappling with the use of the word woke is now … like trying to box a shadow. Whatever it originally meant, it has become a way to say something without saying anything.
Experience had demonstrated that language can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of those who twist it to serve their own ends. Sadly, the children’s rhyme sticks ands stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me no longer applies.
From my perspective as a writer, the only solution is to ban the term woke altogether and take the weapon out of the hands of those who willfully and maliciously misappropriate it. If it is to remain in the Oxford English Dictionary at all, the definition should be:
Abused and worn-out term beaten to death by opposing ideologies.
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~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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Tags: awake · metaphor · Michae Robert Dyet · stay woke · woke · wokeismComments Off on Woke: Boxing a Shadow
