the "Woke Mind Virus"

First of all, Kal Penn *sigh*. 

Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about the fuckery that is this whole 'Woke' bullshit coming from the Right. Because it has now become a 'thing' and conservatives are running with it. It's their new way to say that something is too 'diverse', which means that it's not racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic enough. BTW, here's a link for those in Canada, who apparently cannot watch The Daily show there.

And here's the thing: I've discovered I may be woke. In the Erykah Badu (who brought up the term again in the late aughts) sense.

The OED traced the origin of woke's newer definition to a 1962 New York Times article by Black author William Melvin Kelley describing how white beatniks were appropriating Black slang at the time. By the mid-20th century, woke "had been extended figuratively to refer to being ‘aware’ or ‘well informed’ in a political or cultural sense," and the dictionary credited Badu's use of the term on "Master Teacher" with catapulting it into the mainstream "with a particular nuance of ‘alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice.'"

@latimes

Am I woke because I don't accommodate but instead I call out the opposition? They are not righteous, they wallow in moral turpitude and their only sense of urgency is related to their culture of grievance. Am I woke because I despise the deplorables and I do not hide it?

Am I woke because I am conscious of identity, both in me and in others? Maybe because I feel it is my duty to be inclusive of and uplifting of voices and experiences of groups that have been (and are) marginalized? Because I have cisgender male privilege and I use it for good?

Am I woke because I see intersectionality and the interlacing and scaffolding of power structures and systems of oppression that have been at work for centuries? Maybe because I think Critical Race Theory is necessary (and it's NOT taught in K-12 classrooms), or maybe because I think that the use of people's preferred pronouns is a must and that there is a difference between sex and gender? Does that make me woke?

Am I woke because I see how racism, sexism, xenophobia and misogyny are embedded in the cloth of American society and I will always point that out? Am I woke because I think that equity is a goal and not an impediment? When some gays think about equality, they are usually covering with a glossy veneer the actual structural inequalities that permeates American society. I would accept unequal outcomes, even when justified by freedom of speech. I guess I am woke after all.

And why I am talking about this? Because at this point, conservatives and Rethuglyclowns have weaponized the word 'woke' and I will not stand by while they use racism, sexism and homophobia as a weapon while trying to get away with it because they are 'anti-woke'. They are anti-empathy. That's what they are. It's the new old 'culture war' that Anita Bryant already waged against the Queers. Some of you may remember that c*nt (sorry to all the fantastic c*nts out there) but most people seem oblivious of how history works. 

XOXO

P.S. Here's Ms. Badu, if you're nasty: