The Dangers of Woke

I am a bit dismayed that so-called conservative media has adopted the language of the left. I wrote an essay for a solidly conservative organization that proceeded to capitalize “black” but not “white”. I capitalize neither and asked why did they change my style? They replied that they used the AP style guide. A bit later I wrote a letter to the editors of the Wall Street Journal complaining that they also capitalized “black” and not “white”. Their response was that they followed the AP Style Guide. I then wondered if they were then going to refer to pregnant women as “birthing people”? Doesn’t the AP style Guide say “Phrasing like pregnant people or people seeking an abortion seeks to include people who have those experiences but do not identify as women, such as transgender men and nonbinary people. Such phrasing should be confined to stories that specifically address the experiences of people who do not identify as women.” Here the so-called conservative press veers away from the style guide and continues to use the term “women” to refer to “women”. Yet the so-called conservative press often uses feminine terms to refer to men who now claim to be women and male terms for women who now profess to be men.

There are other examples of woke-speak now creeping into everyday usage, like cisgender which is defined as “Identifying as having a gender that corresponds to the sex one has been assigned at birth; not transgender”. Other terms like “binary”, “cultural appropriation”, “marginalization’, “microaggression”, “privileged”, “safe space”, “systemic racism”, “social justice”, “anti-racism”, “unconscious bias”, “gender fluid”, “gender affirming care”, “Latinx”, “LGBTQ+”, “preferred pronouns” and “woke” itself have intruded into our everyday language. They have even tried to get rid of “master bedroom.”

When Stanford University devoted thousands of dollars and manhours (woke alert!) to write and publish a glossary to eliminate “harmful language” it was mocked to the point that it withdrew the glossary. Stanford said “The goal of the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative is to eliminate* many forms of

harmful language, including racist, violent, and biased (e.g., disability bias, ethnic bias, ethnic slurs, gender bias, implicit bias, sexual bias) language in Stanford websites and code.” The glossary was extensive with the preferred translation of hundreds of words. Its website cautioned with the following: Content Warning: This website contains language that is offensive or harmful. Please engage with this website at your own pace.

I did not find the content harmful or offensive. I guess only those who suffer microaggressions and feel hurtful and need the shelter of a safe space would be offended. Nonetheless, the left is relentless in seeking to alter how we speak and how we speak does affect the public’s perception of things. Note that we have substituted “handicapped” for “crippled”. We seldom hear the word “retarded”. We now use Native American instead of Indian. I am awaiting the press to use alternatives for black box, blackball, white paper, white hat, black sheep, black mark, brown bag, yellow fever, white paper and “go off the reservation”. It’s a wonder I haven’t been pressured to change my last name. Also isn’t it interesting after insisting that “convicted felon” be changed to “person who is/was incarcerated or convicted of a crime”, that the left constantly ignores their own wokespeak and calls Donald Trump a convicted felon?

One must understand the power of language. The left seeks to change our language insisting that in its current form injustice will continue until the language itself – which they insist represents privilege – is dismantled. The left attacks what it calls “imperialist and patriarchal” systems and charges that “capitalism is racist and racism is capitalism.” We are now in the world of the “oppressor versus the oppressed.” 

All of this wokeness has migrated into the classroom. The teachers’ unions are solidly progressive. Our schoolchildren who lack proficiency in reading and math are now proficient in wokeness. School systems are dumbing down their curricula and eliminated standards. Some states are proposing to eliminate entrance exams to law and medical schools and then eliminate proficiency exams to be admitted to practice.  Schools have ethnic studies curricula that are anti-capitalist, pro-transgender and woke to the extreme. Years of indoctrination in our schools will not lead to a more just and equitable society. Rather it will foster resentment and racial strife. It will also produce generations of illiterates who cannot perform basic skills. This is woke America until we all awaken.