America is going Anti-Woke

The United States of America is turning anti-Woke. That is the best things that could have happened. Gone are the days when we have to listen to the moralism of the Left telling us so-called truths, in all kind of fancy language, that were (and are) nothing more and nothing less than propaganda for reversed discrimination, or for mad, illogical assumptions about social construct, preached as scientific truths.

Note that there is a reason for me titling this post “America” is going anti-Woke. This reason is because I know that it is not applicable, and will not happens to the country where I am living, which is South Africa. But it still warms my heart to take note what is happening in what is still the largest economy and most powerful country in the world – and the leader of the West World.

What is "Woke"?

The term “Woke” was originally drafted by Black American communities in the 1900s. For them, at the time, it meant “ … that someone is informed, educated and conscious of social injustice and racial inequality…” The Black Lives Matter movement associated it with discrimination against Black people in the United States, including police brutality against them.

Liberals express “Woke”-ness as “awareness of social justice in society.” Obviously, if you then don’t want to be labelled a “racist”, “biggest” and all other types of badness associated with the social changes enforced on society over the last few decades, you had to accept to be “woke” as to be good, and being against it, as being bad. Consider, for instance, the definition of the Cambridge English Dictionary for the term “Woke”: “A state of being aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality.”

However, this argument is deliberate and disingenuous. What the proponents thereof neglect to say, is that the modern interpretation of “Woke”-ness” has, as its paradigmatic pillars, the theory of Critical Race. In this regard, Google, through its AI widgets, put it nicely as follows: Critical race theory (CRT) is an intellectual movement and legal analysis framework that's considered an aspect of wokeness. "Woke" means being aware of and attentive to important societal issues, especially those related to racial and social justice.

The theoretical roots of "Woke"-ness: Critical Race Theory

The New York Times, in an article titled “What Is Critical Race Theory? And how to learn more about the issue dividing school districts across the country” provides the following comprehensive and informative explanation of what “Critical Race Theory” is.

“Critical race theory is a concept, once the domain of graduate schools, that some observers say is now influencing American K-12 curriculums. The theory argues that historical patterns of racism are ingrained in law and other modern institutions, and that the legacies of slavery, segregation and Jim Crow still create an uneven playing field for Black people and other people of color. The idea is that racism is not a matter of individual bigotry but is systemic in America. Recently critics have made C.R.T. a catchall target for opposition to equity efforts, affirmative action and “wokeness” in general.”

Critical Race Theory has been taught in some US schools, as part of the curriculum. In others, personnel have bene hired to introduce it as part of cultural change in schools towards greater diversity and tolerance (or, rather, that is what the leftist proponents thereof call it). In simple terms: It is taught as scientific theory to school-children.

The problem with Critical Race Theory, when it is “put in practice”, as an ideological framework for framing public – or organisational policies, it boils down to the principle that corrective measures, often discriminating against White people, cannot be “discr9imination”, because it is simply the correction of an unjust “system”. In effect: White people must accept discrimination against them in government and even private policies and practices, as “necessary for correcting past wrongs”; regardless of whether they, themselves, where responsible for those wrongs, or not.

There is actually no other country on earth that has taken Critical Race Theory to the levels that South African has. It is written into the country’s Constitution, it is written into more than 300 individual pieces of legislation, and it is preached as “natural justice” by all major political parties.

Black Lives Matter and George Floyd

Following the death of George Floyd, four years ago, the United States went in Woke overdrive. Federal agencies were forced to conduct staff training that sometimes border on the ridiculous, where assumptions about race and racism were not only extremely one-sided, but presented in a manner that leave not room for a two-sides argument. Only one side of the racial divide could be guilty of racism.

 Immense pressure were put on private companies to engage in what is called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Programmes. The Democratic Party, taking control of the Presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives, introduced directives for promoting DEI Programmes in federal agencies.

The new President, the leftist Joy Biden, issued an executive directive on 25 June 2021, aiming to “strengthen the Federal workforce by promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility…” This order re-introduce affirmative action in the US federal government. The executive order it was built on, issued on 20 January 2020 (that is, the day Biden was inaugurated as the US President), defined designed beneficiary groups as “Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality”. 

The George Floyd anti-racist movement was contextualised within the parameters of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was gaining traction at the time.

The Black Lives Matter social movement resulted in a multiple of changes in the United States’ community; including the removal of statues of confederal symbols, the changing of so-called “offence” names throughout the country, and even the changing of the flag of the state of Mississippi to remove the Confederal battle flag.

However, on a tangible level, it was especially the renewed emphasis on workplace policies and hiring practices, and college admissions that caused the most controversy among Americans.

The movement had wider implications as well. Support for social changes related to the LGBTQ+ community peaked. This led to one of the most controversial aspects of the debate, namely how to regulate transgender persons in sport. The point of most contention was the participation of transgender persons born as biological males in women sports, and specifically the use of bathroom facilitates initially reserved for women.

The George Floyd event and its aftermath has resulted in far-reaching liberal changes in the United State’s society. However, it must also be acknowledged that the country had a long history Social Justice movement preceding George Floyd; the most noticeable of which was the Martin Luther King years, and the legacy thereof.

Radicicolous dimensions and resistance

In the United States, the Woke Movement, in the context of the George Floyd aftermath sweeping over the country, was taken to ridiculous dimensions, which culminated in the “Defund the Police” campaign. The slogan has advocating for reallocating funds from police departments to non-policing forms of public safety and community support initiatives, such as social services, youth programs, housing, education, healthcare, and other community resources. The goals of those using the slogan vary; some support modest budget reductions, while others advocate for full divestment as part of a broader effort to abolish contemporary policing systems. The definition part of the paragraph was quoted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police)).

However, even for the voters of the most progressive cities in the United States, this was a bridge too far on the evolutionary scale of Wokeness. Even in Minneapolis, the city where the George Floyd incident occurred, 56% of voters rejected the defunding of the police department during a referendum, in 2020, when the year of the George Floyd incident.

The resistance in the United States to the culture of Wokeness was intense, and grow exponentially over time.

Even prior to the George Floyd episode, there was resistance to affirmative action; especially in the use of race quotas as a measure for determining college admissions.

In 2023, the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Students for Fair Admission, Inc. v President and Fellows of Harvard College, struck down affirmative action in college admissions, and, by implication, prohibited the practice in the US. In September 2024, a bill barring accrediting organizations from requiring colleges and universities to adopt diversity, equity and inclusion policies as a condition of accreditation passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Initially it seems likely that the bill will be voted down in the Senate, then under the control of the Democratic Party. However, the Republicans won the majority in the Senate in the November 2024 elections, and the bill will now probably be voted into law.

In various school districts in the country, parent organise to prevent, or undo, programs aimed at promoting Critical Race Theory in schools.

More than 30 states in the US have introduced anti-DEI laws, of which three, including the second most populated states, Texas, have already passed and enacted such legislation. Florida, the third most populated state, has enacted the Stop WOKE Act, also known as the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, prohibiting Florida educational institutions and businesses from discussing whether race, gender, and systemic racism intersect with various social systems, including legal, healthcare, education, and so forth. 

On 21 November 2024, the Dismantle DEI Act passes the House of Representative Oversight Committee. I quote from the website of Michael Cloud, who introduced the bill:

“The Dismantle DEI Act represents a comprehensive effort to end all DEI-related activities within federal agencies, prevent DEI mandates in federal contracting and grants, and ensure that federal accreditation bodies prioritize merit and qualifications over identity-based quotas. This bill seeks to restore fairness and competence in government operations by targeting these wasteful and discriminatory practices.”

After the November 2024 elections in the United States, the Republicans control the Presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and have nominated six of the nine justices currently serving on the US’s Supreme Court. The Act is high-profile and will likely passes Congress and be signed into law in 2025.

This will undone Biden’s Executive Orders referred to earlier in the article.

Gender Identity

Homosexual relationships and gay marriage are one thing. What people do in their private space has nothing to do with me, and, frankly, as long as it is consensual, do not interest me.

But to let biological males introduce the private spaces of biological females (such as locker rooms), or to expect of women to compete against persons that are (or were) biological males, are ridiculous and unfair. More than that, it is downright degrading and dangerous for the women.

In the United States, this issues has turned into a major election matter during the November 2024 Presidential elections. It helped Trump, a substantially, to get elected.

According to Gallop Polls “A larger majority of Americans now (69%) than in 2021 (62%) say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform with their birth gender. Likewise, fewer endorse transgender athletes being able to play on teams that match their current gender identity, 26%, down from 34%.”

Trend

There is a more profound, long-term occurrence taking place here: The resistance to Wokeness has brought together the groups that leftist activists have tried to artificially paly off against each other for many years.

This include young men, tired of being blamed for what they are (and were) from the day they were born. And, yes, it also include their mothers; demographically referred as “married women”. Even their sisters. And potentially their girlfriends.

Perhaps what the Left cannot grasp, is that intimate relationships will always be stronger than any perceptions, real or imaginary, of discrimination against women. During the years of legitimate struggle for women rights, husbands, fathers, brothers and boyfriends voted to stop the discrimination against the women in their lives. Now, perhaps, it seems to me, the favour is increasingly being returned. 

No mother wants to see her son live a life of a second class citizen, because of his gender and race. No (or very few) girlfriends wants to see their future husbands being held back because of his demographic features.

The alliance also include so-called Hispanics. What the Left don’t seems to grasp, is that Hispanics, in the United States, are not one race; in fact the majority are White. The reason why this is important, is because it immediately implies that these (White) Hispanics are subjected to policies that aim to discriminate on the basis of race.

Alliance also includes African-American men, and then specifically young men. Again, what typical identity-based Wokeness does, is to create a hierarchy of preference. On this scale, Black men are not on top. Moreover, Black men in the United States are tired of being told that they are obligated to vote for a specific candidate, because they must toe the race-line, as if they cannot decide for themselves.

The Corporate Angle

Ten of the USA's largest companies that have recently announcing that they are discontinuing DEI compares are McDonalds, Walmart, Molson Coors, Ford Motors, John Deere, Lowe's, Harley-Favidson, Brown Forman, Tractor Supply Co. and Toyota Motors. Many more have scaled down on these programs. This include enormous companies, such as Google and Meta (Facebook).

Image source: 123RF