The Problem With Anti-Woke Culture, Anti-Racism School Is In Session Episode 5, with Ashani Mfuko

The Problem With "Anti-Woke" Culture, Anti-Racism School Is In Session Episode 5, with Ashani Mfuko

In this episode of Anti-Racism School Is In Session™, Ashani addresses the controversy regarding being woke, explains what it actually means to be woke, and the two main problems with “anti-woke” culture. From anti-woke legislation, to viral videos on social media due to someone who’s “anti-woke” not being able to define woke, there’s a lot to discuss in this episode!

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Transcript

Speaker: 0:01

Anti racism. School is in session. It's in session. Anti racism. It's not a diet. It's a lifestyle. Commitment. 365 days a year. Live a life that's anti racist. Ashini. Teaching you. Giving you that truth. With love. Straight. With no chasing. It's a graceful and mindful. Open your third eye and take off your blindfold. You ain't gotta agree to understand, but understand you gotta take a stand. Anti racism school is in session. What? It's in, it's in session. Anti racism school is in session. What? It's, it's in session.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Ashini Mufuko wants to educate people about racism. She created a family friendly monthly seminar called anti racism school is in session and every month she'll be talking about different ways to be anti racist.

Speaker 3: 0:57

Welcome to anti racism school is in session bringing you an uncommon perspective to common issues related to racism. I'm your host, Ashinee Mfuko, and on this show, we talk about how to become anti racist, how to live an anti racist lifestyle, and how to raise anti racist kids. Why? Because we are committed to creating a more beautiful, safer, and more equitable world for all people. The topic of today's show is the problem with anti woke culture. The problem with anti woke culture. I'm sure you've been seeing the word woke everywhere recently. You see it in the news, you read it online. You hear a lot of politicians using this word woke. You see a lot of anti woke legislation being passed in various states. And we need to talk about. what the problem is with anti woke culture. But in order to do that, I need to make sure that you understand what woke actually means because we've all seen this viral video of this woman who was on the news recently talking about being anti woke but when asked to define the word woke, she couldn't define it. She was struggling. She was having problems. She was having issues. Why is it hard to define the word woke if you say that you are anti woke? It's not a difficult word to describe. It just means to be aware, to be awake to racial prejudice and discrimination. I said that in less than five seconds. Not that hard to describe unless you don't know what woke means and you're just following along with what you're hearing. You are giving into what you're seeing and you're not researching yourself. You're not asking questions. You're not doing the work to learn what this word means and why it's being used in the way that it's being used, which is the exact opposite of the original meaning of the word. So let's talk about this. I want to just encourage you to not use words that you don't know the meaning of. Don't do it. Even if you're not going to be on the news like the woman that we saw who went viral. Um, even just in everyday life, do not use words that you do not know the meaning of. Now this show today is not about cultural appropriation, but let me just touch on this. Have you heard of the term AAVE, which stands for African American Vernacular English? Have you heard of the term? Okay. If you have not heard of the term, go online and guess what? Do some research about it because what you'll find is that a lot of what you consider to be your Gen Z language. It's actually African American vernacular English and the word woke derives from African American vernacular English. So it's important for you to understand the context of words that you're using, the roots of those words, where did they come from? What is the original meaning of this word? How is it being used right now? It's very important for you to understand what words mean and what words are appropriate for you to use and what words and what terms you should just stay away from because it's not for you. Okay, so I'm going to share some definitions of the word woke from various resources online so that you can be crystal clear about what the word woke really means. Okay, so when you hear that someone is anti woke, you'll know immediately what that means. Okay, according to Wikipedia, woke is an adjective derived from African American vernacular English meaning alert to racial prejudice and discrimination. Pretty simple, right? Okay. What does Merriam Webster say? Merriam Webster says, The definition of woke is being aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice. Okay. Dictionary. com says, Woke means having or marked by an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those involving the treatment of ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities. Let's go to Cambridge. The Cambridge Dictionary says that woke means aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality. So how did woke become a derogatory term that certain groups of people with similar political affiliations use as a dog whistle that leads to harmful legislation against marginalized and historically excluded groups of people? How did that happen? For those who don't know, here's a definition of dog whistle in this context. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, dog whistle in this context means a remark, speech, advertisement, etc. by a politician that is intended to be understood by a particular group, especially one with feelings of racism or hatred, without actually expressing those feelings. So for example, now what you see happening is you see the word woke being used by non black people because remember it originated with The African American community as a part of African American vernacular English, but now when you see it used by non black people, what you're seeing happening is it's being used as a replacement for saying pro black basically, right? They're using woke instead of saying pro black. Pro black, or in some cases, instead of using the N word, they're saying woke. And so we have to be aware of how it's being misused, how it's being mishandled, how it's being used now as a weapon, a weapon against fighting. Against racial injustice and racial discrimination. So how is this showing up in the political arena? How is this showing up when it comes to legislation? Well, let's take a look according to flsenet. gov Governor DeSantis's stop woke act signed into law in 2022 essentially prohibits instruction on race relations or diversity That imply a person's status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race color, national origin, or sex. The bill also bans both schools and workplaces subjecting any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individuals to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, Color, sex, or national origin. Can you believe this? This is what's happening. Not only in Florida, it's happening all over the country. And what politicians are doing now is they're using the word woke in the exact opposite way that it's meant to be used. So instead of being awake and aware of racial injustice and racial discrimination and working to dismantle it and creating laws and policies and legislation that helped to heal, that helped to. Educate people about the truth about the facts about our history and to face these difficult and uncomfortable truths So that we can finally begin to move forward and have reconciliation and restoration and reparations Instead of going in that direction. They're doing the exact opposite They're saying, no, we're going to create laws that say you can't even talk about it. Not only are we not going to fight against it, not only are we not going to do any sort of work to dismantle it, to heal from it, it being systemic racism and anti Black racism and racial discrimination and racial injustice. Not only are we not going to fight against that or try to dismantle it in any way, we're going to actually create laws and policies that don't allow you to even talk about it. At all, you're not allowed to read books. You're not allowed to speak the truth or speak about the facts You're not allowed to speak about accurate historical context and information You're not allowed to do any of that. We don't want you even talking about it because we are anti woke. What they're saying is, no, we're going to pretend like it's not there. And not only that, we're also going to demonize the word woke. And we're going to make sure that anytime you see it, you think of it as an attack on you. You think of it as something that Works against white people and that it's a bad thing. And that anytime you see the word woke, you know, it is pro black and it is anti the status quo and anti white power. So we need to just keep it away. If it's woke, we don't want it. So you don't want to be aware of racial injustice and racial discrimination. You want to be oblivious to it. You want to be ignorant, ask yourself some important questions and reflect who benefits from you being ignorant about racial discrimination and racial injustice. And who is harmed when you remain ignorant about racial injustice and racial discrimination? Who is it working for and who is it working against? You can also ask yourself, who profits from me being ignorant about racial discrimination and racial injustice? Who benefits from it? Who profits from it? Who is harmed by it? Ask yourself these difficult questions to get a deeper understanding of what's happening around you. If you have used that word. in a negative way. What you're saying is you are not aware of or attentive to societal issues related to racial and social injustice. That's what you're saying. I have some bad news for you. You've been brainwashed. If you have used the word woke with a negative connotation related to a liberal agenda or liberal propaganda, you have been brainwashed because that is not what the woke means. So if you are anti woke, that means that you are not aware of or attentive to societal issues related to racial and social. Justice or injustice. You're not paying attention. You don't care. That's what it means. So if you're saying you're anti woke, that's what you're saying. And I don't know if you realize this, but that's not a good thing. It's not a flex. It's not something to be proud of. Not only is it not a good thing and it's not something to be proud of, do you know what else it means if you say you're anti woke? It means that you are ignorant. About social and racial justice issues that are happening in our society. If that is in fact true, and you are ignorant about racial and social justice issues happening in our society, guess what that means? That means you should not be talking about it. It means that you should not have an opinion about it because you don't know what you're talking about. That's what it means. So for you to have strong feelings and opinions about being woke It makes no sense because you don't even know what you're talking about. Is that clear? You're anti woke, which means you're anti having an awareness and being attentive to Social justice and racial justice issues that are happening in our society if you're not aware of it That means you're ignorant about it. Okay, which means you shouldn't have an opinion about something that you know nothing about It's not that complicated. You don't know what you're talking about because you're not aware. You're not awake to these issues. So why would you have such a strong opinion about it? Why would you be going around talking about it? Talking about something you know nothing about. It makes no sense. So please stop doing it. Thank you. This is the problem with anti woke culture. This is the problem with it. It is based on white supremacy, culture, characteristics of power, hoarding, fear of open conflict, either, or thinking and claiming a right to comfort. The second problem is that it's rooted in ignorance. It's rooted in being unaware, being oblivious to what is happening around you. At the end of the day, we cannot heal from what we do not. acknowledge. We cannot fix problems that we refuse to talk about. So all of this anti woke legislation, all of the people who promote and support anti woke culture, all you're doing is working backwards. Is that what you really want? You want to live a lie? Live a life of denial? Live a life of no accountability? Denying the truth and the reality that's right in front of you while you know it's harming people? Is that what you stand for? Is that why you describe yourself as a good person? Because you're ignorant about racial injustice and racial discrimination? It's not a good look. Not a good look, not a flex. It's time to do better. And I'm going to help you with that by sharing two books with you today that have been banned. They're on the banned book list, and guess what? I highly recommend you reading all of the books that have been banned from schools. How powerful are the stories and the information in these books that they want to ban them? Why would someone want you to remain ignorant and be uneducated about an issue? Why would they want that? That's what manipulators do. That's what people do when they want to control you. When they don't want you to think for yourself. They don't want you to think critically. They don't want you to have knowledge because knowledge leads to power. They want you to be powerless. That's why they don't want you reading these books. Here are two books that you need to read. today. Here's the first one. It's a classic. It's Beloved by Toni Morrison. 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Oh my goodness. Read it. Read it now. And the second one is another classic, Native Son by Richard Wright. Anyone who tells you not to read this is someone that you should not trust, okay? Trust me on that. Check those books out. Read them yourself. Read them to your children. Stay informed. Get educated. Be aware. Be attentive. Don't be ignorant. Don't choose ignorance. Don't follow people who are ignorant and want you to be ignorant like them so that they can control your mind and manipulate you so that you believe their lies as truth. You have so many options. You have the internet, you have books, you can go to the library, you can talk to black people and listen to what we say. And believe us, it'll change your life. Okay. Thank you for joining me today for anti racism school is in session. Make sure you download, share, subscribe, do all the things, and just know that I appreciate you for watching and listening and sharing this podcast with your family. And I'll see you on our next episode.