By Tom Burke / Herald columnist
Last month’s column, about the obsession with “woke” garnered a near-record harvest of emailed-to-me responses. All, save two, were positive and said, essentially, “Nice job.”
Of the two detractors one simply said they don’t like anything I write (and said a similar thing about fellow Herald columnist Sid Schwab) and the other was a series of considered opinions, criticism and references about the use of “woke” by both the right and the left. It was detailed, objective and ten times longer than I have room for here in The Herald.
The author, a retired attorney, made some credible points: the main being that I have “over and over again collapsed all the complexity and nuance within this debate (about today’s big issues) — which is vitally important to the future of our country — into a simple, black and white dichotomy.”
The writer is correct.
Unquestionably. there’s no shortage of complex “gray” issues that scream for massive, civilized, truth-based debate. But there are also outright lies, promulgated by the right and couched in accusations of “wokeness”; such as it’s “woke” to identify and decry institutional racism; think LBGTQ kids and people have rights; deny the election was stolen; disagree that covid, masking, and vaccines were frauds; that books shouldn’t be banned; and to shout that Joe Biden isn’t a pedophile groomer, contrary to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s claims. These lies need to be called out for what they are: words-as-weapons designed to polarize, enrage and advance the MAGA march toward authoritarian government.
You see; there are issues that are black and white and we don’t have to look far to find them.
Historically, there wasn’t nuance in the World War II fight against fascism; the cannonballs that flew at Vicksburg and Minie balls at Gettysburg, Antietam, and in the Wilderness were fired to end slavery and preserve the Union; the Civil Rights movement was (is) well-defined with no middle ground (I dare anyone to find a justification for lynching, voter suppression or Jim Crow laws); and despite “manifest destiny,” European America’s treatment of Native America and its theft of an entire continent was one of conquest, abuse and even — yes — genocide. (A brief tally: Native American killed at Wounded Knee, 250; the Round Valley, Calif., massacre, 1,000; or the Yontoket massacre, 457.)
Now the use of “woke” as a pejorative was instigated by the Republicans. Originally “woke” was a phrase used among African Americans, for example, in the blues singer Lead Belly’s 1938 lyric warning about southern Jim Crow, “I advise everybody to be a little careful when they go down there. Stay woke. Keep your eyes open.”
And there is certainly a time and place for nuance and debate and painstakingly-detailed analysis, such as when bills are pending in Legislatures.
But now the MAGAs, ultra MAGAs, and just plain Republicans (all terms I use interchangeably as descriptors of the right who vote straight party line as dictated by Trump, Steve Bannon, Taylor Green, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Ron DeSantis, etc.) use “wokeness” to define what they are against, leaving what they’re for as a question.
So we see in Republican-controlled state houses and the U.S. House of Representatives not reasoned debate or a focus on the issues mattering most to Americans, but MAGA/Republican abuse via party-line votes mandating inspection of children’s privates (to keep trans kids from participating in sports), abortion bans, partisan “investigations” into the “weaponization” of the deep state or Hunter Biden’s laptop. And instead of dealing with inflation, immigration, gun control, Russia/Ukraine, climate change, education, hunger in America, out-of-control medical costs, policing, the drug crisis, et al they deal with “woke.”
While I much appreciate the effort put into that reader’s emails, because they triggered a self-examination of my writing, I do look somewhat askance at the attempted shot at my job when the author wrote to my editor, “I thought my perspective might be useful in choosing which voices to feature on the opinion page in the future, as I know I am not alone in my reaction to this” after listing opinion page contributors such as Schwab, Eugene Robinson and other (“liberal”) writers as targets.
If I’m being put in the same category as Schwab and Robinson, all I can say is “Thanks, that’s quite an honor.”
But then, perhaps, I’d next opine that my correspondent’s understanding of the nature and purpose of commentary seems skewed. If commentary were straight news, there would be the detailed analysis, comprehensive reviews, descriptions of the various “sides,” and deep dives into all those gray areas.
But opinion is not straight news. It is how columnists interpret the world around them.
As writers we are obligated to be honest in our opinions and provide the rationale for our perspectives, as I did when I wrote about “woke” and how it is used by the Republicans, MAGA Republicans and Trumpists as a weapon to divide and deceive, to pander to grievances, and turn needed debates into performative culture wars as a way to mask the Republicans’ inability to coalesce around a position (such as a budget) and take attention from truly important issues needing to be debated, discussed, and voted on.
The right’s fantasies, typified by the Big Lie; their Hunter Biden obsession; and rejection of democracy (the Tennessee Three, Jan. 6 insurrection, and defense of Trump’s crimes) are embodied in their war against “woke,” and that, gentle reader, was the battle I was fighting last month.
Slava Ukraini.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
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