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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>FYI-political commentary<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'>Wake Up!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'>Marcia J. Wick<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>432words<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'>What exactly is a “woke mob?” The definition seems to depend on who you ask.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'><span style='font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2A2A2A'>The word “woke” in the not-so-distant past was </span>simply the past tense of the verb “wake.” During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Progressive black leaders began using the term “woke” as slang to refer to people who were <span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"poynter-oldstyle-text",serif;color:#1A1A19;background:#FAF9F7'>aware of and educated about important issues regarding racial and social injustice toward minorities. </span>Over the past decade, <span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"poynter-oldstyle-text",serif;color:#1A1A19'>the term “woke” was adopted by the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements as a symbol of social courage and advocacy.<span style='background:#FAF9F7'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'>Within the past two years, the right-wing conservative movement has seized the phrase in a derogatory or pejorative way to refer to people who espouse the LGBTQ agenda, the evolution of gender neutral pronouns, and the threat of climate change. The Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC) blames the “woke mob” for traumatizing children by teaching them about the history of race relations in this country, using the <span style='font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2A2A2A'>government to impose liberal values on others, and cancelling the culture of privileged white people.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'><span style='font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#2A2A2A'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'>The woke mob is everywhere, according to Fox News.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'>Similarly, the word “mob” historically has referred to a <span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#212529;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>large and disorderly crowd of people…sometimes shoppers…bent on riotous or destructive behavior. </span>Today, right-wing conservatives refer to mobs as out-of-control <span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#1A1A1A;background:white'>liberal radicals promoting inclusive policies or ideologies that welcome or embrace ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities that threaten the power and privilege of the white (mostly male) majority.</span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#212529;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#212529;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'>How did a word that evokes <span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"poynter-oldstyle-text",serif;color:#1A1A19;background:#FAF9F7'>consciousness and awareness come to be used as a </span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212;background:white'>buzzword </span>Weaponized by the right <span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212;background:white'>condemning a set of values different from their own? </span>Many conservatives can’t define these terms but somehow they’ve succeeded in redefining them. Such disambiguation by rival groups <i><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#4A4A4A;background:white'>skews the meaning of a word depending on the context in which it is being used.</span></i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212;background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-left:1.0in;background:white'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212;background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='margin-left:1.0in;background:white'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212;background:white'>At it’s best, “woke” is a compliment to people who are aware of </span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif;color:black'>what’s going on in their community related to racism and social injustice. </span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"poynter-oldstyle-text",serif;color:#1A1A19;background:#FAF9F7'>At its worst, the word is an insult, rife with condemnation and hate. </span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#121212;background:white'>Politicians and the media further confuse the issue by peppering their commentary with phrases like the “woke mob,” wokism, or the “woke agenda” when </span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Roboto;color:#222222'>discussing immigration reform, police brutality, military recruitment, gun control, and critical race theory. Critical race theory is not a curriculum, it’s a conversation.</span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'>By banning the conversation, conservatives are whitewashing history, Limiting progress, and fear mongering because they are afraid of change.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'>Change is inevitable. Even the intoxicated Rip Van Winkle eventually woke up to the reality that the world had changed while he slept. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in'># # #<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>