ABC of Woke

Originating as Black American parlance for resisting racial and social inequality, Woke has morphed into a generic term for radically left-wing social and political awareness. According to Perry Bacon Jr. of the Washington Post it represented the following doctrines for the American Left: rejection of American exceptionalism; a claim that the United States has never been a true democracy; that people of colour are victims of systemic and institutional racism; that white Americans enjoy ”white privilege”; that African Americans deserve reparations for slavery and post-enslavement discrimination; that disparities among racial groups are explained by discrimination; that U.S. law enforcement agencies are designed to discriminate against people of color and so should be defunded, disbanded, or at least heavily reformed; that women suffer from systemic sexism; that individuals should be able to identify with any gender or none; that U.S. capitalism is deeply flawed.

Invariably victimhood

Bacon’s list is not definitive, but the common subtext of Wokeism is invariably victimhood (q.v.). This is a psychologically determined attitude and considered by Wokeists to transcend any contrary empirical evidence. Professor Jean-François Braunstein of the Sorbonne has remarked that Wokeism offers theories of knowledge that validate feelings over facts. Sometimes celebrities empathise with victimhood by claiming it for themselves. Even Prince Harry wanted us to believe that he had been ”cut off” financially by his father, despite having been able to buy a multimillion dollar California mansion; he also claims to ”want his family back” and an apology from it, picturing himself as the injured party after insulting the royal family repeatedly in public.