Racist is a black man getting the life choked out of him for nine minutes (seriously stare at your watch for nine minutes) for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit twenty while white cops just stand around and tell the people who are telling the kneeling cop he’s killing the guy to back off, and if it wasn’t filmed those cops would a got off scot free, racist is a white man that shoots and kills 11 people in a church gets a free cheeseburger from the cops, racist is a black kid in a park playing with a toy gun getting shot and killed within two seconds of the cop rolling up (seriously 2 seconds! Cop must a been a quick draw artist, or more likely, he was ready to shoot when he rolled up) and the cop getting off scot free, racist is a white guy that kills 11 random people with an AR15 and gets arrested without a single shot being fired while a black man gets shot 60 times (apparently they think they’re Rambo) for running a red light and the cops get off scot free.
Woke is you think that’s racist and government ought to do something about it.
Racist is passing laws that replace black Democratic election officials in Detroit and Atlanta and Houston with white Republicans from other counties, gerrymandering districts specifically to deprive black people from power, and bragging about it, passing laws that specifically target black and low income voters to make it harder for them to vote, because they are Democrats, closing dawn precincts in black neighborhoods so they have to wait in line for hours and hours to vote, then making it illegal to give them food and water while they’re waiting, while leaving all the precincts in place in white suburbs, and bragging about it. I live in California, population 40 million, and I’ve never waited longer than 30 minutes to vote. There’s no reason it has to take 8 hours in Georgia other than racism.
Woke is you think that’s racist and government ought to do something about it.
Racist is a Senate where 50 Democrats represent 200 million people, and 50 Republicans represent 150 million, (it’s even worse when you drill down, a California Senator representing 40 million gets the same vote as a Wyoming Senator representing 585,000) and the Republicans stop the Democrats from passing laws like the VRA that address systemic racism. Honestly the Senate is the most racist institution in America. It’s as bad as the KKK. Worse even because we accord it the facade of being a legitimate organization when it’s really an illegitimate rump minority. And the Supreme Court is even more illegitimate than the Senate.
I could go on and on and on but now I’m too depressed. I’ll just finish by saying I’m woke and proud of it. I wear it as a badge of honor.
I also am woke and proud of it. I’m ashamed of the racial injustice and inequality that still exist in 2023. We are slipping backwards instead of moving forward because we are allowing a minority of people who are racist to control the narrative. Our Supreme Court is racist and biased against anyone who is not a white male. Everything you said is true
I'm not disagreeing. I believe racism is both, throughout pretty much all of our so-called civilization. Which is highly illogical. As we are all of one same human race, the very concept seems alien to me.
"Human race" is a big abstraction. Physical and other differences (e.g., language or religious observance) are up close and personal. When it comes to human behavior, "up close and personal" trumps "big abstraction" almost every time, especially when people are looking for someone to blame for whatever goes wrong in their lives. True, the contortions people will go through to justify their scapegoating are astonishing -- like when physical differences range from "hard to spot" to non-existent, they came up with the one-drop rule.
That is where I do disagree. Fact is not abstraction.
"Most biologists and anthropologists do not recognize race as a biologically valid classification, in part because there is more genetic variation within groups than between them."
I see it as merely a method of "othering" discriminating against and disenfrachising an individual or group, learnt (or not) through peer pressure as children then reinforced in self perpetuating behavioral echo chambers. Bullying en masse.
In 2016 my law firm partner, vacation home owning, 2 kids in private school etc etc neighbor tried to splain me how he was voting for tDuMp cause he was tired of being the victim of anti-white prejudice. When I stopped rolling on the ground laffing I suggested he seek mental health support. We haven't spoken much since then.
This anti-Woke thing, while it is nebulous, is going to be really pushed by the GOP for the next two years.
A few weeks ago at our monthly former military aviators meeting (all ex-officers of Navy, USAF, and Army), some loudmouth started complaining that the military of today was too woke to fight well and that Biden was ruining the military. His comment was loudly well-received. Believe me, all these old guys were well aware of Trump's degradation of John McCain's Vietnam record as Attack pilot and POW; yet most of them voted for draft-dodger Trump.
Anyway, I stood up and said "If woke means to stop offending people by using certain words, there is nothing wrong being woke. If woke means recognizing that some people have been harmed by being discriminated against, I'm woke." I finished by telling them that in 1966 and 1967 my squadron was on the carrier Ticonderoga off North Vietnam, 4500 officers and men; and only one black officer. A LTjg in communications. I said "Blacks have been held back for generations; things have got to change faster to make up for lost time." Only a few of this all White group (which sort of proves my points) publicly agreed with me.
As for VMI (and the Citadel in SC), I consider them state-funded fake West Points. If you can't get into the real thing, why bother?
Thanks for speaking up. I saw and heard racism in the Navy in the 1970s, particularly from the southern Chief Petty Officers toward lower ranked black enlisted men in my unit. There was no avenue for them to complain. A very ugly time.
Lucian didn't like my dissing VMI/Citadel as fake West Points. Well, he does probably know some grads, and he lives in Virginia. I'm 80 and have stopped caring about minor stuff.
My opinion of the efficacy of the air war over NVN is that it was, in short, not worth the huge effort. This is a blunter, more concise, statement of what Robert McNamara testified to Congress in August of 1967. People should know that after WW2, McNamara was a leader of the Army Air Force's Bomb Damage Assessment Group. This BDA concluded that a very tiny percentage of all the bombs dropped in WW2 actually hit their targets. After his testimony, and how LBJ slavishly had followed McNamara's advice, I felt certain that the air war over NVN would be sharply curtailed. Instead, he resigned in December, 1967, and little changed. It was then that I chose to leave my squadron, go train with the Marines, and then spend an interesting year on an Army Advisory Team by the Cambodian border. My squadron, btw, went back to NVN and had 8 KIA out of 24 flying officers.
I actually have your book on my Kindle! I have a difficult time reading about Vietnam, but I promise to read it soon. You, or anyone for that matter, can reach me at smartstaff@sbcglobal.net. I live in Prescott AZ.
Nailed it. It's about power which translates into money. Here's the simple truth that scares the snot out of them. White males power in society is going away period, full stop. IMHO the sooner, the better. Stay WOKE be proud.
Once again, thank you for addressing an extremely important issue. Let's start a proud to be WOKE movement and take it to those who claim to be victims! And speaking of victims, we continue to conveniently ignore the treatment of our Indigenous peoples, the original Americans.
Oh and lest we forget Reagan opened his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Mississippi. That's as racist as a candidate for president can get.
The city of New York is comprised of 5 boroughs, as you all know. Yesterday Desantis came to “New York.” At least that’s how it was reported outside of the city. He let his smug anti-woke self go public in...ta da...Staten Island. The whitest borough where the Emancipation Proclamation needs to be published annually. The 22% non-whites living on Staten Island are very, very brave. I stand fully WOKE with them.
Not a fan of Mayor Adams, but did like his tweet welcoming DeSantis to our city:“Welcome to NYC, @GovRonDeSantis, a place where we don’t ban books, discriminate against our LGBTQ+ neighbors, use asylum seekers as props, or let the government stand between a woman and health care,” Adams wrote. “We’re happy to teach you something about values while you’re here.”
jeez, me too! it was the first time I didn't dislike Adams as the piece of shit sell-out to the Real Estate scumbags he is on every other day. probably THAT day as well, but he had a good five minutes, which is more than I ever expected. but Adams has good reason to be very pissed off after those sick stunts DeSantis and Abbott thought were "cool."
nah...pretty much everyone knows that Brooklyn is part of the city and most of them know there's a much-too-funky place called The Bronx and some of them know Queens as the punchline to NYC jokes and the place where there are airports. I don't really know anyone who thinks of Staten Island (actually, Richmond County) as being part of the city, including most New Yorkers. and, actually, including Staten Islanders. if I've been in Staten Island a dozen times in 74 years, it's a LOT (and too many). in the '70s, I did spend some time visiting Black friends there, and it was in a very nice neighborhood. I went to one job interview there and by the time I'd gotten there, I apologized and went home.
but when I heard DeSantis, who looks more and more like the overreaching little thin-skinned fascist he aspires to be, was going to be in Staten Island, I just laughed. where the fuck else would he go?
One of my cousins sent me this excellent explanation of The Lost Cause earlier today: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lost-Cause. As I was reading it, an anger started to bubble up inside of me. I was angry that the "freed" slaves were basically cast out on their own with no education to help them obtain jobs and housing, and no knowledge of how the world works. What kind of "freedom" is that? It is so cruel that I cannot help but to feel an unending sadness for them. I remember after George Floyd was murdered, there was a black woman being interviewed on tv during one of the "riots". She was so frustrated and angry that she was crying. She said something that has stuck with me all this time: "Y'all are lucky that all we want is equality and not revenge."
Anti-woke agenda = Anti-Christ agenda. Let’s bring their favorite Trojan horse, Jesus, into this and let them prove us wrong. Be woke, my friends. Be very very woke!
You're right. We need to spray these people with the words of the Lord. Over and over and over again. Will it help? I doubt it. They love to wallow in hate. So sad.
my thought precisely. I actually hadn't known it was a publically-funded school. I do know that Clarence Thomas once had to recuse himself from a case about it because his son was attending. and I bet he did it very reluctantly.
a man quite literally born without the shame gene.
Fear seems to be what is behind Republican attitudes. Fear of minorities, fear of their arsenal of guns being reduced making them fearful of not feeling fully protected, fear of spending government funds o n social programs, fear of the gay community, fear of corporate America cutting off or reducing campaign contributions for favors rendered, just fearful in general it seems to me, even fearful what is written in books that their children might read. The list goes on and on....Certainly fear of the definition of WOKE " Woke is now defined in this dictionary as “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice),” and identified as U.S. slang. It originated in African American English and gained more widespread use beginning in 2014 as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
I can't understand how Republicans keep winning the language wars, how do they possibly turn WOKE or BLM into pejorative terms. Is it just that liberals are too fair-minded, or do we need more marketing majors to help with branding?
When advocates started pushing for abortion—not "women's reproductive"—rights I shuddered, but look at Kansas and now Wisconsin. I guess those decades of Madison Avenue euphemisms haven't done as much damage as had been assumed and honesty is even appreciated.
In reply to Runfastandwin: Somebody needs to come up with a button that says "I'm WOKE and Proud of It," and has a great, eye-catching design!!! Lucian, readers, ????? The American Tragedy is the persistence of racism -- and the denial of that persistence......
Every time the RepubliKKKlan Hitler Youth are allowed to control the language used in politics, this is the result. We must fight them, whether it's Drumpf coining yet another inane nickname, or Boebert, or Greene mouthing off.
Woke is where it's at, if you possess a scintilla of human decency, or a functioning cerebral cortex.
Here’s how I see it.
Racist is a black man getting the life choked out of him for nine minutes (seriously stare at your watch for nine minutes) for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit twenty while white cops just stand around and tell the people who are telling the kneeling cop he’s killing the guy to back off, and if it wasn’t filmed those cops would a got off scot free, racist is a white man that shoots and kills 11 people in a church gets a free cheeseburger from the cops, racist is a black kid in a park playing with a toy gun getting shot and killed within two seconds of the cop rolling up (seriously 2 seconds! Cop must a been a quick draw artist, or more likely, he was ready to shoot when he rolled up) and the cop getting off scot free, racist is a white guy that kills 11 random people with an AR15 and gets arrested without a single shot being fired while a black man gets shot 60 times (apparently they think they’re Rambo) for running a red light and the cops get off scot free.
Woke is you think that’s racist and government ought to do something about it.
Racist is passing laws that replace black Democratic election officials in Detroit and Atlanta and Houston with white Republicans from other counties, gerrymandering districts specifically to deprive black people from power, and bragging about it, passing laws that specifically target black and low income voters to make it harder for them to vote, because they are Democrats, closing dawn precincts in black neighborhoods so they have to wait in line for hours and hours to vote, then making it illegal to give them food and water while they’re waiting, while leaving all the precincts in place in white suburbs, and bragging about it. I live in California, population 40 million, and I’ve never waited longer than 30 minutes to vote. There’s no reason it has to take 8 hours in Georgia other than racism.
Woke is you think that’s racist and government ought to do something about it.
Racist is a Senate where 50 Democrats represent 200 million people, and 50 Republicans represent 150 million, (it’s even worse when you drill down, a California Senator representing 40 million gets the same vote as a Wyoming Senator representing 585,000) and the Republicans stop the Democrats from passing laws like the VRA that address systemic racism. Honestly the Senate is the most racist institution in America. It’s as bad as the KKK. Worse even because we accord it the facade of being a legitimate organization when it’s really an illegitimate rump minority. And the Supreme Court is even more illegitimate than the Senate.
I could go on and on and on but now I’m too depressed. I’ll just finish by saying I’m woke and proud of it. I wear it as a badge of honor.
I also am woke and proud of it. I’m ashamed of the racial injustice and inequality that still exist in 2023. We are slipping backwards instead of moving forward because we are allowing a minority of people who are racist to control the narrative. Our Supreme Court is racist and biased against anyone who is not a white male. Everything you said is true
Me too.
Me too 👍👍
You nailed it too. Institutionalized.
Don't be depressed, be determined, and get the WOKE word out! I'm WOKE and PROUD, too!
I'm not disagreeing. I believe racism is both, throughout pretty much all of our so-called civilization. Which is highly illogical. As we are all of one same human race, the very concept seems alien to me.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/institutionalized-racism
"Human race" is a big abstraction. Physical and other differences (e.g., language or religious observance) are up close and personal. When it comes to human behavior, "up close and personal" trumps "big abstraction" almost every time, especially when people are looking for someone to blame for whatever goes wrong in their lives. True, the contortions people will go through to justify their scapegoating are astonishing -- like when physical differences range from "hard to spot" to non-existent, they came up with the one-drop rule.
That is where I do disagree. Fact is not abstraction.
"Most biologists and anthropologists do not recognize race as a biologically valid classification, in part because there is more genetic variation within groups than between them."
I see it as merely a method of "othering" discriminating against and disenfrachising an individual or group, learnt (or not) through peer pressure as children then reinforced in self perpetuating behavioral echo chambers. Bullying en masse.
In 2016 my law firm partner, vacation home owning, 2 kids in private school etc etc neighbor tried to splain me how he was voting for tDuMp cause he was tired of being the victim of anti-white prejudice. When I stopped rolling on the ground laffing I suggested he seek mental health support. We haven't spoken much since then.
This anti-Woke thing, while it is nebulous, is going to be really pushed by the GOP for the next two years.
A few weeks ago at our monthly former military aviators meeting (all ex-officers of Navy, USAF, and Army), some loudmouth started complaining that the military of today was too woke to fight well and that Biden was ruining the military. His comment was loudly well-received. Believe me, all these old guys were well aware of Trump's degradation of John McCain's Vietnam record as Attack pilot and POW; yet most of them voted for draft-dodger Trump.
Anyway, I stood up and said "If woke means to stop offending people by using certain words, there is nothing wrong being woke. If woke means recognizing that some people have been harmed by being discriminated against, I'm woke." I finished by telling them that in 1966 and 1967 my squadron was on the carrier Ticonderoga off North Vietnam, 4500 officers and men; and only one black officer. A LTjg in communications. I said "Blacks have been held back for generations; things have got to change faster to make up for lost time." Only a few of this all White group (which sort of proves my points) publicly agreed with me.
As for VMI (and the Citadel in SC), I consider them state-funded fake West Points. If you can't get into the real thing, why bother?
Thanks for standing up and speaking out.
Thanks for speaking up. I saw and heard racism in the Navy in the 1970s, particularly from the southern Chief Petty Officers toward lower ranked black enlisted men in my unit. There was no avenue for them to complain. A very ugly time.
Lucian didn't like my dissing VMI/Citadel as fake West Points. Well, he does probably know some grads, and he lives in Virginia. I'm 80 and have stopped caring about minor stuff.
My opinion of the efficacy of the air war over NVN is that it was, in short, not worth the huge effort. This is a blunter, more concise, statement of what Robert McNamara testified to Congress in August of 1967. People should know that after WW2, McNamara was a leader of the Army Air Force's Bomb Damage Assessment Group. This BDA concluded that a very tiny percentage of all the bombs dropped in WW2 actually hit their targets. After his testimony, and how LBJ slavishly had followed McNamara's advice, I felt certain that the air war over NVN would be sharply curtailed. Instead, he resigned in December, 1967, and little changed. It was then that I chose to leave my squadron, go train with the Marines, and then spend an interesting year on an Army Advisory Team by the Cambodian border. My squadron, btw, went back to NVN and had 8 KIA out of 24 flying officers.
I actually have your book on my Kindle! I have a difficult time reading about Vietnam, but I promise to read it soon. You, or anyone for that matter, can reach me at smartstaff@sbcglobal.net. I live in Prescott AZ.
I know why DeSantis and his ilk are so ardently anti-woke: It's a hell of a lot easier to pick the pockets of people who are asleep.
preeeeecisely.
Nailed it. It's about power which translates into money. Here's the simple truth that scares the snot out of them. White males power in society is going away period, full stop. IMHO the sooner, the better. Stay WOKE be proud.
Once again, thank you for addressing an extremely important issue. Let's start a proud to be WOKE movement and take it to those who claim to be victims! And speaking of victims, we continue to conveniently ignore the treatment of our Indigenous peoples, the original Americans.
Oh and lest we forget Reagan opened his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Mississippi. That's as racist as a candidate for president can get.
I did not know that. Pardon me while I lie down and scream.
Dog, meet whistle.
I am not only woke and proud of it, I am also anti fascist and proud of it.
Amen
The city of New York is comprised of 5 boroughs, as you all know. Yesterday Desantis came to “New York.” At least that’s how it was reported outside of the city. He let his smug anti-woke self go public in...ta da...Staten Island. The whitest borough where the Emancipation Proclamation needs to be published annually. The 22% non-whites living on Staten Island are very, very brave. I stand fully WOKE with them.
Not a fan of Mayor Adams, but did like his tweet welcoming DeSantis to our city:“Welcome to NYC, @GovRonDeSantis, a place where we don’t ban books, discriminate against our LGBTQ+ neighbors, use asylum seekers as props, or let the government stand between a woman and health care,” Adams wrote. “We’re happy to teach you something about values while you’re here.”
jeez, me too! it was the first time I didn't dislike Adams as the piece of shit sell-out to the Real Estate scumbags he is on every other day. probably THAT day as well, but he had a good five minutes, which is more than I ever expected. but Adams has good reason to be very pissed off after those sick stunts DeSantis and Abbott thought were "cool."
motherfuckers.
Staten Island!?! Really? LOL! Can't help wondering what tiny percentage of Americans even know New York City isn't limited to Manhattan.
nah...pretty much everyone knows that Brooklyn is part of the city and most of them know there's a much-too-funky place called The Bronx and some of them know Queens as the punchline to NYC jokes and the place where there are airports. I don't really know anyone who thinks of Staten Island (actually, Richmond County) as being part of the city, including most New Yorkers. and, actually, including Staten Islanders. if I've been in Staten Island a dozen times in 74 years, it's a LOT (and too many). in the '70s, I did spend some time visiting Black friends there, and it was in a very nice neighborhood. I went to one job interview there and by the time I'd gotten there, I apologized and went home.
but when I heard DeSantis, who looks more and more like the overreaching little thin-skinned fascist he aspires to be, was going to be in Staten Island, I just laughed. where the fuck else would he go?
I think you're giving too much credit to Americans' geographic awareness but I like the rest of what you wrote. Especially your last lines.
thank you. and you're probably right...I'm still a little optimistic about what I think people actually KNOW.
Long Island. It's just as bad and getting worse.
i have a close friend who lives near Smithtown and I rib her constantly about being in KKK territory, which it actually WAS.
Well, if DeSatan decides to show up in northern NJ (yeah, fat chance) I will go for the express purpose of heckling that little POS
I’ll be standing right there with you!
One of my cousins sent me this excellent explanation of The Lost Cause earlier today: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lost-Cause. As I was reading it, an anger started to bubble up inside of me. I was angry that the "freed" slaves were basically cast out on their own with no education to help them obtain jobs and housing, and no knowledge of how the world works. What kind of "freedom" is that? It is so cruel that I cannot help but to feel an unending sadness for them. I remember after George Floyd was murdered, there was a black woman being interviewed on tv during one of the "riots". She was so frustrated and angry that she was crying. She said something that has stuck with me all this time: "Y'all are lucky that all we want is equality and not revenge."
Thanks for the link.
And your last quote...wow...truer words have never been spoken.
A bit parallel to sending central American refugees to Martha’s Vineyard, or to DC in winter wearing shorts and tshirts
Thank You. That was hard to read.
I guess they'd rather be asleep and dreaming of the past instead of WOKE.
It's a lot easier than changing things for the better.
Black is an adjective. Not a crime.
It's disappointing to see the military's involvement in this horseshit. Unless I'm mistaken, all blood runs red.
Anti-woke agenda = Anti-Christ agenda. Let’s bring their favorite Trojan horse, Jesus, into this and let them prove us wrong. Be woke, my friends. Be very very woke!
You're right. We need to spray these people with the words of the Lord. Over and over and over again. Will it help? I doubt it. They love to wallow in hate. So sad.
Or pepper spray...whichever works!
This is an excellent article Lucian! Maybe VMI should lose its government funding. Works for woke me.
my thought precisely. I actually hadn't known it was a publically-funded school. I do know that Clarence Thomas once had to recuse himself from a case about it because his son was attending. and I bet he did it very reluctantly.
a man quite literally born without the shame gene.
Fear seems to be what is behind Republican attitudes. Fear of minorities, fear of their arsenal of guns being reduced making them fearful of not feeling fully protected, fear of spending government funds o n social programs, fear of the gay community, fear of corporate America cutting off or reducing campaign contributions for favors rendered, just fearful in general it seems to me, even fearful what is written in books that their children might read. The list goes on and on....Certainly fear of the definition of WOKE " Woke is now defined in this dictionary as “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice),” and identified as U.S. slang. It originated in African American English and gained more widespread use beginning in 2014 as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woke-meaning-origin
What Does 'Woke' Mean? | Merriam-Webster
Yes! I am Woke. My eyes are wide open. I can see what is going on. Republicans cannot blind me to the racist realities of their platform.
For sure. I see some Republicans are wising up re woke
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/young-republicans-begging-party-elders-130000442.html
I can't understand how Republicans keep winning the language wars, how do they possibly turn WOKE or BLM into pejorative terms. Is it just that liberals are too fair-minded, or do we need more marketing majors to help with branding?
When advocates started pushing for abortion—not "women's reproductive"—rights I shuddered, but look at Kansas and now Wisconsin. I guess those decades of Madison Avenue euphemisms haven't done as much damage as had been assumed and honesty is even appreciated.
We need both. Most democrat politicians speak in complex sentences with no punch—try Schummer. And they just don’t “go for it”.
In reply to Runfastandwin: Somebody needs to come up with a button that says "I'm WOKE and Proud of It," and has a great, eye-catching design!!! Lucian, readers, ????? The American Tragedy is the persistence of racism -- and the denial of that persistence......
It has to be a very catchy and very simple, because many Americans...(fill in your own observations)
Is "WOKE is the Opposite of ASLEEP!" too complicated?
How about...
"I too WOKE up for any BS!"
Every time the RepubliKKKlan Hitler Youth are allowed to control the language used in politics, this is the result. We must fight them, whether it's Drumpf coining yet another inane nickname, or Boebert, or Greene mouthing off.
Woke is where it's at, if you possess a scintilla of human decency, or a functioning cerebral cortex.