Waking

Exciting sneak preview for next week: I am going to reference Bethany Mandel not being able to define "woke". 

It's not even a major point, but what I realized is that if I did that today, I would be tempted to go on a tangent, especially because I have had some thoughts on the use of the word. 

I believe the point I want to make next week will go better if I get this out of the way. That is called knowing myself, including knowing my tendency to take a roundabout path to a conclusion, believing that it can clarify the logic.

Let me start with "political correctness".

What I most associate with this specific term is displeasure when people started objecting to the R-word. Yes, I remember people complaining about other racist and sexist jokes not being received as funny as political correctness, but mostly I remember it with ableism. 

It may stick with me because I remember that the mocking associated with that word seemed to mimic cerebral palsy, but the word itself when used properly was referring to delayed cognitive ability. If you were a terrible person, not having one catch-all word that you could use to insult and marginalize a large and diverse group of people might be inconvenient, but it's not the sort of complaint that I sympathize with.

"Politically correct" was the key insult for a long time, the justification being that it stifles free discussion, and we all know how important freedom of speech is. I agree, but if you can't communicate effectively without showing respect to other groups -- especially when that relates specifically to marginalized groups where there might be a history of oppression that needs to be dealt with openly -- that is a "you" problem.

Shortly after getting on Twitter, I became aware of a new insult: "social justice warrior".

I personally would not have found that to be an insult, but something aspirational. However, that's how it was being used, with the idea being that any sentiments in favor of social justice were insincere desires for prestige and acceptance.

Here is another potential "you" problem: if you don't care about justice or fairness and are too cynical and self-absorbed to even begin to feel such things. You can insult people that way, but that says more about you.

Which brings us to "woke".

It is not something I have ever called myself, largely because it seemed easy to rate yourself too highly. Sure, I know stuff... and then discover more things that you did not know.

What I do remember from that time period was finding things that once known, could not be unknown. Those common expressions have a racist background. These practices are inherently unfair; while these other practices would not be inherently unfair except for the structure they are interacting with.

It can be an uncomfortable process. One day you have a basic idea that racism is bad but there are a lot of things that don't seem to be racism, and then you realize they are. It's not just neighborhoods and inherited wealth and policing trends; those are all important, but they are obviously important. You know that and are frustrated, but it seems like all you can control is your vote.

But let's say in your circle of acquaintance you have people who changed the name of "Hillsboro" to "Hillsburrito" (because so many Mexicans live there) or Canada's Vancouver to "Hongcouver", with a bit of a fake Chinese accent (because so many people from East Asia buy property there)... that's just being cute, right? 

You go from being shocked at how many expressions that are "cute" or "funny" have racist roots, and then it stops being shocking because you see how it was practically inevitable. 

You used to not notice, then it makes you cringe, and then you need to say something.

Maybe they will be embarrassed or irritated, or maybe they will cast you as an enemy of freedom of speech.

If we are being intellectually honest, it should not be such a hard concept for anyone to understand. Plato was working toward a different point, but I think we can find a clear correlation to the concept described in the allegory of the cave. There may be another, stronger correlation...

“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. ”  -- James Baldwin

You can work up a fair amount of rage without being Black. 

I don't say that to center myself, but to acknowledge that there is a price to be paid for becoming aware. You get angry. There is no ignorant bliss, but ideally you work toward making things better. You have more empathy, and more of an eye for injustice. Maybe you see a police interaction and you start recording.

And you correct people on their racist language.

Because we should know. We should know how we got here. We should know how it affects people. We should let go of those illusions.

If what you want is the right to keep on being ignorant and oppressive without having to think about it, that's a you problem, making it a very legitimate question whether struggles to define the word are actually about trying to not sound horrible.

I have no obligation to support someone's ego in ignorance. Wanting that could be something worthy of mocking, but the mocking doesn't really help. 

That's what I was going to write about today, but next week should work better, now that I have rambled enough about "woke".