There's Not a Thing Wrong With Being "Woke"

The term "woke" or "being woke" or "wokeness" is very simply defined as having a full awareness of social injustice and being politically and culturally well informed when it comes to issues related to marginalized communities, and more recently and specifically, it is a term that generally applies to the Black Lives Matter movement.  It is a generally descriptive term applied to people who understand the roots of racial injustice, how it has permeated our culture and society without much attention or notice from people who are not part of a racial or ethnic minority, and desire to see the resources and power of government applied in a way that levels the playing field and contributes to eliminating injustice and educating people about it. 

So being "woke" instantly elevates the status of anyone who claims it, or who talks about social and racial injustice factually, to that of flaming liberal.  So be it.  

Liberal.  adjective.  1.  One who is willing to accept behavior or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas.  2.  relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy and free enterprise.  

noun.  1.  a supporter of policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare.  2.  a supporter of a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy and free enterprise.  

Noting that the word originates from the Latin liberalis, meaning "free man."  Liberty or freedom, is the big picture here.  Liberals are the originators of individual rights, civil liberties, democracy and free enterprise.  Well, how about that?  So what are the characteristic terms associated with "conservative'?  I'll leave that alone because I have already made the point here.  

So being woke is, first of all, recognizing that there are indeed marginalized communities where, because of their differences from the majority community, whether that be racial, ethnic, language, culture or religious, there is a restriction on individual rights, civil liberties, on their participation in a democracy and disadvantages when it comes to free enterprise and economic opportunity.  That's a provable fact in our society.  

New Arguments Against Racial Equality 

The Evangelical right, and I'll avoid using the term "Christian" here because they've separated themselves out from most of the rest of Christian philosophy and thought on this issue, claims that being woke is contrary to biblical teaching.  They claim, based on prooftexting a few verses in the New Testament, that human identity has nothing to do with race, that race is superficial, and that attempts to right past wrongs by actions which not only reverse the discrimination, but which work to restore a level playing field, are based on "worldly" ideas.  That's one of the reasons why Critical Race Theory has become such a bugaboo for them.  

And yet, a close examination of the characteristics of Evangelicals shows that they are one of the few remaining bastions of institutional segregation left in America.  They have absolutely no standing whatsoever to claim some kind of non-existent or nebulous biblical mandate against social justice aimed at eliminating racist practices because they are among the major perpetrators of racist segregation and promoters of bigotry.  

The term "Evangelical" has, itself, come to define a segment of the Christian church that is characterized by the fact that most of its churches are overwhelmingly made up of older white, upper middle class and located in suburbs or rural areas.  Where most mainline Protestant churches have been integrated and have African American, Latino and Asian leadership in institutions, teaching in their colleges and theological schools, and in the pastorate, racial and ethnic minorities are few and far between among Evangelicals, and are segregated into their own "fellowships."  

I'd suggest before they get on their high horse about Critical Race Theory, and being woke, they demonstrate with action what they claim the Bible teaches about race.  They are certainly not doing that now.  Given what they claim to believe, and the attitude they convey that they are more righeous than other Christians because they beleive the Bible more, they should be the leaders of racial reconciliation in this country, starting in their own churches.  But not only are they not leaders, they are among the biggest detractors.  It's hard to take their gospel preaching seriously when they don't follow their own principles. 

Quitting Reconstruction for Political Expediency

The party of Lincoln, as they like to call themselves while taking credit for emancipation of the slaves and being the "abolitionist" party prior to, during and after the Civil War, was making good progress toward assimilation of nearly 5 million African American former slaves into the economic and social life of the United States.  Knowing that it would take generations to change the minds and attitudes of Americans about a race of people who were brought here forcefully, against their will, and who had been in slavery, who were largely uneducated and skilled only in manual labor, and that it would also take massive amounts of resources, they went about the job of assimilation into the economy and society in the best way they knew how.  

But not all Northern Republicans were abolitionists.  Some had opposed the expansion of slavery, but saw nothing wrong with leaving it alone where it already was.  And other than the business community who was eager to exploit the cheap labor provided by blacks moving to the North, most Americans in the union states were not so happy about the stream of former slaves headed north and into the big cities where the manufacturing jobs were located.  

The party was willing to trade all of the progress that had been made up to that point, to make a deal to preserve their control of the Presidency in the disputed election of 1876.  The restoration of elections in most of the former Southern states led to a dispute over electoral votes after the Democrat, Samuel Tilden, clearly defeated the Republican, Rutherford Hayes, in the popular vote.  It was a referendum on Reconstruction and in order to preserve their political power, the Republicans agreed to end Reconstruction in order to pick up the electoral votes that had been disputed, which gave the incompetent, inept Hayes the Presidency.  

It's hard to say where America would be today, in terms of racial and ethnic equality, had Reconstruction been the law of the land for a couple of generations following the Civil War.  But that one political deal set everything back a hundred years and relegated African Americans into a cycle of poverty and second class citizenry right up to the Civil Rights movement of the 60's and right on into the twenty-first century.  "The Party of Lincoln" failed one of its most important constituencies and was able to ignore their plight because the right to vote, which they had been given following the Civil War, was taken away from them. 

Being Woke Has a Legacy and a Future 

So it is that we are still seeing black political activism continue to organize, address grievances and work to turn out voters who identify with wokeness and see exactly what our society needs to do to change. Most of what we've tried to do to resolve these issues in the past have had only limited success, and we still have the effects of racial and ethnic discrimination and exclusion.  The fact that we've made progress, or that "it's not as bad as it used to be" doesn't mean that forward progress stops.   Black Lives Matter, and everything that goes along with being Woke, is an expected and predictable response to injustice which continues to go on.  

There are plenty of people who are educated enough, intelligent enough and who understand human nature and psychology enough to be at a point where racial differences are inconsequential.  The Canadians are way ahead of us in this regard, thougn they have not completely resolved this problem by any means.  So full assimilation and equality is possible to achieve.  

Those who claim that only God will be able to resolve this problem, and that the solution to it is obedience to Biblical principle, need to get out of his way and practice those principles instead of taking the other side out of loyalty to a political cause and resisting what they claim is God's way of resolving the problem.