To think that "wokeism" is for the privileged few?

[Mooscow]

Wokeism and identity politics seems rife at the moment in the UK. But Canada and the US seem even worse. There is this massive push to avoid the possibility of ever offending anyone, ever. For example, I work for a North American company and we've just been given a long list of words never to use. This includes "female", "blind", "deaf", "blacklist", "homeless", "rule of thumb" and it goes on and on and on. So you can't say things like "turn a blind eye" or "tone deaf" etc. any more in case it offends a blind or deaf person. Really?!

I've just read an article in the FT (sorry can't share) that says the US has only sent 111million out of its pledge to send 1 billion vaccines to poorer countries. The US has 2 and a half times the amount of vaccines it needs for itself and Canada has ordered 8 times what it needs.

I know that vaccines and wokeism has little in common but it just struck me how so much effort is put into this new purity culture whilst at the same time demonstrating utter selfishness and lack of compassion for anyone else.

It's also like the push to remove the word women from healthcare such as cervical screening in case a transman, as a "cervix haver" 🤮 is offended at being grouped with women, while 40% of women (especially those without English as a first language and those in lower socio-economic groups) don't even know what a cervix is. But screw them, let's let them get cervical cancer while we pat ourselves on the back and virtue signal at making sure we don't offend by telling the truth the tiny, tiny proportion of trans people.

I wonder if the whole work/identity politics stuff is based in the fact that privileged people can effortlessly virtue signal to feel better about themselves whilst remaining selfish, uncaring and apathetic towards people who are actually in need or vulnerable. AIBU?

I think everyone who has used “woke” to now include everything and anything and therefore diluted/taken attention from the original intention is unreasonable.
It happens all the time and it’s very annoying.

Another example is a Karen ( although I don’t agree with using an existing name) but a Karen is now anything and everyone.

@Marchingredsoldiers

That list of words not to say is annoying. I like the idea behind wokeness (a word?) - basically empathy. But when it become a tool to censor, it is self-defeating.

But why is "homeless" offensive? It is a important social problem. What do you use instead - or am i being horribly ignorant?

"People experiencing homelessness" is preferred - puts the person first and doesn't just describe them as their situation in the way "the homeless" does.

@StrapOnSallyChasedMeDownTheAli

I am both female and (partially) deaf and most definitely can't sing, so technically I am a tone deaf fanny. Why is the truth offensive? 🤷‍♀️

Some truths are uncomfortable.

But why is "homeless" offensive? It is a important social problem. What do you use instead - or am i being horribly ignorant?

Recently, I've seen 'unhoused person' when mainly focusing on poverty or other systemic issues and I know HSBC and some others have had 'no fixed address' programmes because in situations like domestic violence, the person may have a home, but cannot safely be there. I don't really have a strong opinion on the word used, but that's what I've seen and I can see for the latter why it might be more useful to ensure needed groups can get help.

I think semantics debates can often be a barrier to really dealing with social issues like medical inequality, but I also think at times it can be good to consider if our well-worn cliché expressions and words are really conveying what we mean in the best way.

@CaliforniaDrumming

I am a WOC. What people think I am offended by: wishing me Happy Diwali because I am brown. Or wishing me Merry Xmas when I might not celebrate it. What I am offended by: vaccine inequity. The one is easier than the other to achieve though.

Literally. I'm mixed and I have to tell my white mc partner to give it a rest with the virtue signalling and getting offended on the behalf of others.

It's a amazing how people latch onto stupid things like this rather than actual problems in society.

As a friend of mine, who lost her eyesight completely in her 20s, says "Fuck off with your 'vision impaired'. My vision is not impaired. I have no fucking vision at all. I am fucking blind, and calling me 'vision impaired' may make you feel all good and kind, but it doesn't help me get a job."

Wokism is absolutely privileged. People who cannot imagine ever needing what they give lip service to. Such a shame that being aware of the needs of others, needs that may be unimaginably different to your own, has become tokenistic lip-service.

This is all PC, though. It’s been around half a century. Nothing to do with “woke” (for better or worse).

And my take on PC is 80% good 20% bad. It’s good that language that was seen as ok or just worthy of a giggle in the 80s/90s, stuff like “the Paki shop, Chink, coloured people, etc” is no longer acceptable. It’s a sign of progress and it’s a sign of progress that most people try to think carefully about the language they use where minority groups are concerned. And the occasional bit of silliness/overzealousness with language “policing” is a price worth paying.

OP, you might be interested in reading some stuff by Adolph Reed - you can find lots of articles online. He's an American academic. He basically says that the whole point of identity politics, which is what wokeism really amounts to, is to allow neoliberals and elites to go on exploiting people while deflecting criticism for doing so. They can maintain the moral high ground (look, we are anti-racist) while still exploiting the poor. So long as the poor are reflective of the population demographics, it's ok!

So they don’t upset the transwomenn. Trans men don’t count cos you know..

Well for balance there's a whole other thread somewhere claiming that they're not allowed to identify as women because it will upset transmen!

This does all sound very much like the same slightly paranoid broken record of grievances that's been playing for at least forty years, about first the loony left ("can't call them manholes any more, it's personhole now, oooh they won't let you say Blackpool, whatever next") and then political correctness ("we're not allowed to say we're English any more, you mustn't say merry Christmas, it's political correctness gone mad").

Some people like to feel like victims!

In the US, but people were laughing at the place that tried it.

I like the term Purity Culture. It also works well with Purity Politics 👍.

Woke is another word for idiot. Let’s just call it what it is. These people are idiots.

@EnidFrighten

You are following the tabloid definition of woke, which is surprisingly similar to the old political correctness trope. Which suggested that considering other people's point of view was some kind of impossible task.

The original definition of woke, which came from black activist circles, was entirely opposite to this. It was about seeing the systemic, structural inequalities that cause oppression, rather than being distracted by minutiae. Because the powers that be would really rather we were debating toilet signs than demanding equal pay or an end to pollution, child labour etc.

Taking the time to avoid hurting someone is a decent thing to do. Whatever you call it.

As a woman of colour someone using ‘offensive’ language is the LEAST of my problems. I’ll give you an example One of my previous workplaces were soooo ahead of the curve on encouraging diversity. We all had unconscious bias training, women in tech rah rah, all great right?

Except that HR was so bureaucratic that people switching into certain roles etc not allowed on certain training. Boss had to fight to get me in. A disproportionate number of thé switched were women.

Bad line management meaning a lot of teams had cliques that formed among people of similar interest. So the video gaming lads were best friends, most office chit chat revolved around that and anyone who didn’t game may as well not exist. No team building, efforts to talk about anything else effort from line management or anybody else.

Basic common sense and inclusiveness for everybody training would be great. But all of this nitpicking is for show. Actions hurt the most not words

I agree with your points but the word 'woke' was bastardised by white people to co-opt what was otherwise a word for Black people being aware of the injustices they face on a daily basis. It's been done very effectively, I must admit.

I try not to get involved. I am pleasant to everyone and do not jump on bandwagons such as adding pronouns to emails etc.

I find that those shouting the loudest and virtue signalling are the least likely to treat people fairly and decently.

Totally agree, OP.

When the whole Trans-self-obsession thing took off - about toilets etc. I thought, you total twats (obviously not literally) - some people can't pay the rent, are homeless, are destitute and you are getting your fake tits in a twirl about this complete self-indulgent nonsense. Completely sickening for those of us in life who have struggled so much (health wise, or financially, or being a good single mother etc).

@Iggly

Your post makes no sense and you lost me at the vaccine bit.

People throw around the term “woke” to shut down sensible debate about racism, sexism etc so I have little time for people that use that phrase in a derogatory way.

If it doesn’t make sense, have another go at reading it. The line of argument is clear and coherent.

Totally agree.

Let’s be honest, those poor souls that live in a 3rd world country with little to no access to clean water and food, would swap lives with us lot in a heartbeat, if it meant they could feed/hydrate their babies.

I’m all for inclusiveness and I do believe, to a degree, we’re products of our environment, but some of the ‘worries’ that people have in developed countries would be a perfect life for those billions of people that can’t get fresh water.

It's definitely easier to pronounce what you'd do when the situation is hypothetical.

OP yes this is why the Left lost me.

All the really woke people I know are very much privileged (across race lines btw).

There was a theory that the “elites” (never sure who they are so not overly fond of that term) like wokeness (I’m talking about the current incarnation of what woke means these days) because it avoids having to deal with the real socio-economic disparities between people while getting virtue points.

You see this in the way womens rights and the trans debate happens. People who will most likely never end up in a womans shelter or a prison literally couldn’t give a monkeys about the impact of the erosion of single sex spaces on other women. But I guess domestic violence, abuse, sexual assaults just aren’t interesting. It’s easier to talk about BLM and defunding the police than rather try to actually tackle disadvantage black people face in society. Or I’ll fly in a private plane but because I say I care about polar bears that excuses me. I think making a real difference is actually very difficult and probably this is an easy way to scream “I’m a good person” while not having to do anything that will make a substantive difference to anyone.

Always reminds me of Ricky Gervais blasting celebs at the golden globes for signalling virtue whilst working for apple etc.

To answer a couple of questions. No they did not include males in the forbidden list, only females. One of the many things that pissed me off.

"Homefree" is apparently allowed but "homeless" isn't. And yes rule of thumb is about DV. It's ridiculous. I experienced DV all through my childhood and would never be offended by someone using this phrase. If these people put their energy into actually helping people experiencing DV that would be something but no, they pat themselves on the back that they would never say such an "offensive" thing and think themselves morally superior.

I take the point about the original meaning of woke but I think nowadays it includes all sorts of things, including identity politics.

This company screws us over on pay, appraisals, training, all sorts of things, but thinks it has the right to police our language to avoid any possibility of offence.

In my experience it is only white, middle class professionals who spout about this stuff. And none of them volunteer in homeless shelters or DV helplines like I do - but I don't even tell anyone IRL about that.

I just get really mad about the hypocrisy of it all. Especially the "be kind" message of gender identity politics when it is creating real life dangerous situations for 51% of the population and labelling anyone who is concerned about the safety of women and girls bigots.

“Woke” doesn’t mean anything anymore. It’s a lazy catch-all term for right-wing media, nothing more. If you use it with a straight face you’re like those morons in the 90s who complained about the “PC Brigade.”

So how do we object without being labelled a "moron" ( is that word acceptable now?)

@ChooChooSan

So how do we object without being labelled a "moron" ( is that word acceptable now?)

Complain about something specific. I’m sure you can manage that.