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Op-Ed: While Republicans battle over ‘woke’ — What does ‘woke’ mean?

While DeSantis defines “woke” as a form of cultural Marxism, Trump complains that most people don’t even know what it means.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is widely expected to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has positioned himself as the leading Republican alternative to White House candidate Donald Trump — © TAUSEEF MUSTAFA
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has positioned himself as the leading Republican alternative to White House candidate Donald Trump — © TAUSEEF MUSTAFA

While DeSantis defines “woke” as a form of cultural Marxism, Trump now complains that most people don’t even know what it means.

During the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, speaker after speaker attacked “woke” ideology in their speeches to conservative activists, reports USA Today.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley decried wokeness as “a virus more dangerous than any pandemic, hands down,” while GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy bragged, “I traveled the country calling out the woke-industrial-complex in America.”

Meanwhile, Republicans have declared war on “woke capitalism” and even introduced legislation like the “Stop WOKE Act,” in Florida, an acronym for Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, won reelection in 2022 and has made battling a supposed progressive 'woke' ideology a central concern of his second term
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, won reelection in 2022 and has made battling a supposed progressive ‘woke’ ideology a central concern of his second term – Copyright AFP –

All the hyperbole associated with the term “woke” has now muddied the 2024 Presidential race and managed to confuse American voters who just want to know what in the hell these politicians are talking about.

“Woke” has an interesting meaning

Neither Gov. Ron DeSantis nor former President Donald Trump can lay claim to the term. It has been around since the 1930s and was used in the phrase, “Stay Woke,” referring to an awareness of the social and political issues affecting African Americans.

The term emerged in the 2010s, and, increasingly, it meant not only racial consciousness but also that of gender, as well as other discriminated identities, originally in the American context.

However, by 2020, the broader definition of the word was redefined by members of the political center and right-wing in the U.S. and several Western countries, who used it as an insult for various progressive or leftist movements.

According to The Economist, as the term woke and the #Staywoke hashtag began to spread online, the term “began to signify a progressive outlook on a host of issues as well as on race.”

But, more recently, among American conservatives, woke has come to be used primarily as an insult. The Republican Party have been increasingly using the term to criticize members of the Democratic Party, while more centrist Democrats use it against more left-leaning members of their own party.

This brings us to Florida and De Santis’s Stop WOKE Act, a law that limits the discussion of racism in Florida schools. A program of eliminating books by LGBT and Black authors from schools was conducted by the Florida government and by vigilantes calling themselves “woke busters.”

As part of the Republican Party’s electoral strategy. Former President Donald Trump stated in 2021 that the Biden administration was “destroying” the country “with woke.”

Earlier this week at the Westside Conservative Breakfast in Urbandale, Iowa, Trump said he didn’t like the term because “half the people can’t even define it.”

“I don’t like the term ‘woke’ because I hear, ‘Woke, woke, woke.’ It’s just a term they use, half the people can’t even define it, they don’t know what it is,” Trump said.

It looks to me like most politicians – including Trump and DeSantis – don’t have an inkling what the word means, either.

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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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