# How is anti-wokeism different from sexism and/or racism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 11, 2023, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604 "2023-02-11T01:12:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/61 "2023-02-13T00:01:03Z")
Basically, arguments where one party starts on about that there is something you call “woke_ISM_”, are nonstarters for me. As mentioned before, it’s just taking the position of “anything to _ **my** _ left that _ **I** _ don’t like or _ **I** _ think is too much, _and I know it when I see it so you can’t make me define it_, I’ll call it that and present it as something that needs fighting” – it is a classic and old fashioned tactic, it’s forcing the other side to have to defend a strawman (“wokeism”) that means anything and everything the reactionaries want to oppose. You have a problem with active antiracism? With feminism? With gender-identity affirmation? With multiculturalism? With secularism? With restorative (as opposed to punitive) justice? Maybe not with the subject itself, but just with the manner it is being addressed? Fine. In any of those cases, bring valid argument points about _that_. Now, are you talking about elements of self-righteous attitude from some zealots within those different movements and tendencies? Hey, we _ **know** _ we have them. Believe me, _ **they** _ annoy _ **us** _ too. But that’s not a “woke movement” that is just people being full of themselves. You don’t dismiss the fight for justice as invalid because some of those fighting are obnoxious power-trippers. > [@Mijin](#): > > It’s just a term like “socialism” where the people who are most against it really have no idea what it actually means. I once observed that the average self-described “conservative American”'s notion of what is “Far Left” is meaningless because it would convey that a likely actual majority of the population can be considered “extremist”. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/62 "2023-02-13T00:07:12Z")
Well, the example that comes to mind isn’t race-based, but in college from 1993-1996 I was a resident advisor in my dorm, and part of our annual training was an extremely heavy dose of what amounted to progressive indoctrination- we got basically told about white privilege, LGBTQ rights, etc… Which was all well and good, but we got it explained to us at one point that there was some sort of several stage growth progression that people took toward LGBTQ acceptance, and that if we were only at some stage, then we needed to deliberately work toward the final stage. WTF? Although I was NOT hostile to gay people at all, I resented being indoctrinated as part of job training, and I especially resented being told that I needed to work toward greater ideological purity. At a state university, no less. I felt like as an employee of a state university, it would have been far more appropriate to explain the behaviors expected of us as employees, and then hold us to that, _regardless_ of our personal feelings on any of it. It seemed VERY inappropriate and very agenda-pushing, and I especially resented being told that in effect, I didn’t think correctly and needed to work on that, despite being a perfectly fine RA in every other respect. Basically it was “woke” before it was cool, and it totally rubbed me the wrong way. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/63 "2023-02-13T00:10:25Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Yeah, 99% of the time I see someone complaining about “wokeism,” they’re an idiot. Half or more of the times I see it, it’s coming from a Black tenured professor. Here is a recent example: > **[A Black Professor Trapped in Anti-Racist Hell](https://compactmag.com/article/a-black-professor-trapped-in-anti-racist-hell)** > > Compact Magazine, a radical American journal You’ll only see the word “woke” used once, but the article above fits a pattern where someone who has a slighly different take on racism is dismissed (“they’re an idiot”) and has a negative reaction. This pushes them onto, in some sense, the other team. My link is a great example of this. The author is in most ways progressive, but got pushed too far in terms of having to be on the progressive team in every way, and now has placed his complaint with the only kind of web site that would likley accept it, one that is right of center. When I was young I read anti-racist books in a college seminar on American Racism, and, for a few months, found myself in the progresssive cocoon when it comes to race. But then I read [Preferential Policies: An International Perspective](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/preferential-policies-an-international-perspective-by-thomas-sowell-new-york-william-morrow-1990-221p-1795/D58265EC7441C590AF2AC0CDAC2E40BE) and was won over by the idea that reverse discrimination is sometimes harmless for a while but eventually fails. We are at that moment where resentment on all sides shoots up. Saying that is no reflection on whether I may or may not be an idiot, with the caveat that I don’t like the word idiot. P.S. Others in the Black tenured push-back group include John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, and Roland G. Fryer Jr. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/64 "2023-02-13T00:16:50Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I think for me, there seems to be a certain preachiness or sanctimoniousness to people who self-identify as “woke”, and that turns me right off. Like others have said, I don’t even _know_ of anyone who self-defines as woke. If they _did_, I would agree that it would seem preachy and sanctimonious, because “woke” simply means being aware of the issues, and someone calling themselves woke within a context of a discussion on those issues is passive aggressively accusing the other person of not even knowing what they’re talking about. Even if they _don’t_ know what they’re talking about, you’re not going to win them over by being smug. However, since I haven’t heard anyone self-describe as woke, at least since the right has co-opted it, this is an irrelevant distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/65 "2023-02-13T00:29:24Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Well, the example that comes to mind isn’t race-based, but in college from 1993-1996 I was a resident advisor in my dorm, and part of our annual training was an extremely heavy dose of what amounted to progressive indoctrination You ranted about people, plural, who self-identify as “woke”. You seemed quite angry about these “preachy” and “santimonious” people, who are “insufferable as fuck”. But when asked for an example, the one that comes to mind is…a college training from a quarter century ago. That seemed to be pushing an agenda but didn’t use the word woke, or with anyone self-identifying as woke. This, right here, is exactly what I’m talking about. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/66 "2023-02-13T01:28:11Z")
Okay… that’s the closest I can come to a concrete example, and it’s far from perfect. And what the hell does it matter if they used the word “woke” or not, and was a quarter century ago? It was very clearly the same damn thing and the same attitude that turns people off and angers them even today. I don’t have a great example to illustrate it today, but anecdotally, a lot of people DO feel that way. Like they’re being condemned for not thinking along approved lines, even if they’re not actually outwardly racist or hostile to LGBTQ issues or anything like that. It’s hard to describe, but there’s a definite sort of sanctimonious/condescending feel to a lot of the progressive/woke rhetoric that comes out. Like if you disagree, you’re somehow stupid or ignorant. That’s not how you win hearts and minds; that’s how you show your street cred to people who already think like you do. I’m not racist, and I’m LGBTQ friendly but I don’t much like being told that because I’m not 100% on board with everything else woke, that I’m somehow wrong or need to change. Basically there’s no room for debate or dissention. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/67 "2023-02-13T01:35:34Z")
> [@bump](#): > > It’s hard to describe, but there’s a definite sort of sanctimonious/condescending feel to a lot of the progressive/woke rhetoric that comes out. Like if you disagree, you’re somehow stupid or ignorant. Got any good examples from _this_ century? ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/68 "2023-02-13T01:46:17Z")
> [@bump](#): > > It was very clearly the same damn thing and the same attitude that turns people off and angers them even today. …it isn’t the same damn thing. You haven’t even really been able to articulate exactly what it was that upset you so much all those years ago. You might not have been personally "hostile to gay people back in the 90’s. But that was also the decade where the Bill Clinton signed the Defence of Marriage Act. Where you could be gay in the military as long as you didn’t ever tell anyone and you didn’t fuck. Where AIDS was the leading cause of death for Americans age 25 to 44. Gay people literally didn’t have the same rights as you back in the 90’s. And they were dying at higher rates because of prejudice towards what was regarded by many as a “gay disease” back in the 90’s. So if you were made to feel mildly uncomfortable as part of your annual training for :: checks :: a resident advisor in your dorm, then yeah, that was probably the point, and its a shame that those lessons didn’t appear to stick. And none of this has anything to do with “woke.” Unless we are now redefining woke to mean “something that made me mildly uncomfortable back when it was legal to discriminate against people for being gay.” ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/69 "2023-02-13T01:46:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Got any good examples from _this_ century? …heck, even the last 20 years LOL. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/70 "2023-02-13T01:55:51Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > And none of this has anything to do with “woke.” Unless we are now redefining woke to mean “something that made me mildly uncomfortable back when it was legal to discriminate against people for being gay.” I know, right? The examples of “woke run amok” that people come up with (essentially making people feel mildly uncomfortable as a result of their own prejudices) frankly boggle the mind when contrasted against the actual harm the “anti-woke” are _actually doing_ to marginalized groups as a matter of policy. Thus I have yet to read a good answer to the OP’s question. ETA: Unless of course the answer is “it isn’t any different.” ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/71 "2023-02-13T02:01:53Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Got any good examples from _this_ century? About half of John McWhorter’s New York Times columns are on this theme. Behind a paywall, yes, but, if you are in the U.S., check your public library‘s web site, as they commonly offer somewhat inconvenient free access. By the way, this is one reason I do not consider the Times to be woke. Opinions found there, and in the Washington Post, would commonly result in outrage on college campuses. Many examples are found in my next link, not just of left-wing intolerance AKA wokeism, but also of the equivalent at conservative/religious schools: [Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression](https://www.thefire.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/72 "2023-02-13T02:05:22Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > The examples of “woke run amok” that people come up with frankly boggle the mind when contrasted against the actual harm the “anti-woke” are _actually doing_ to marginalized groups as a matter of policy. …just a few minutes ago I saw the story about Brianna Ghey. It made me sad and upset. And I’m just like: the reality right now is that the frenzy being whipped up by “anti-woke” brigade (and I’m not talking about anyone here in this thread, but specifically the likes of Chris Rufo) is getting people killed, is forcing them to relocate, to fear for their lives. You don’t have to be part of that. But when you use woke as a pejorative, it sends up an enormous red flag for me. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/73 "2023-02-13T02:21:33Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > About half of John McWhorter’s New York Times columns are on this theme. > [@NPR](#): > > McWhorter argues that certain strains of anti-racism and its adherents have effectively created a religion, and a zealous one, that stifles nuance and debate. His new book is called _Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America_ . > **['Woke Racism': John McWhorter argues against what he calls a religion of...](https://www.npr.org/2021/11/05/1052650979/mcwhorters-new-book-woke-racism-attacks-leading-thinkers-on-race)** > > Linguistics professor John McWhorter's new book is Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. He says some in the U.S. cultural left have taken "anti-racism" efforts to extremes. …oh boy. Just looking at the laundry list of complaints there, the resignation of a curator, a writer who was suspended for publicly criticising people, it just looks like “cancel culture” repackaged. So if you are telling me that half of his columns are on this very subject, then that sounds like I’d very much not want to read about 100% of anything else he has written. > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Many examples are found in my next link, not just of left-wing intolerance AKA wokeism, but also of the equivalent at conservative/religious schools: FIRE are very obviously free-speech advocates. But this thread is about “anti-wokeism.” So a casual glance at that link didn’t show me anything about woke or anti-woke positions. Its about freedom of speech. Can you be a bit more specific? ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/74 "2023-02-13T03:08:38Z")
…I just used the search function to look up the word “woke” here on the boards prior to 2020. I found this interesting thread. > [@My wife woke up with my thumb in her butt.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-woke-up-with-my-thumb-in-her-butt/96161): > > I have an odd tendency to be very active sleeper. I toss and turn, I talk, I occassionally sit bolt upright. My wife is normally very tolerant for these kinds of actions (Hey, I’m asleep, it’s not my fault!) Sometimes they are downright funny. Last week, my wife came to bed late, after I had fallen asleep. I was on her side of the bed, so she nudges me and tells me to “skootch over.” My response was to say “Oh, I’m your skootchy buddie” and laugh out loud like it was the funniest thing ever. I t… There was this thread about the devstating effects of wokedness: > [@I woke up too early](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-woke-up-too-early/34446): > > and it’s only 29 degrees out there!!! Monday – blech. I think I will attempt to go back to sleep for a while. Thank God I am self employed. The morning news: 30 million gallons of stockpiled oil, yeah like that’s going to make a dent. It’s just a Democrat ploy to help out Mr. Gore – but some of us are smarter than we look. A nine year old boy was struck by a Camaro while riding in his go cart near the construction site of my client…what the hell was his father thinking (his father was watchi… This thread about how being woke somehow set all the trees on fire. > [@I woke up today and the trees were on fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-woke-up-today-and-the-trees-were-on-fire/845057): > > One the whole, myopia is pain in the eyeball. You will not generally hear me saying, “Wow, I’m so glad I can’t see” (unless the floor is really disgusting). But. But the thing is, nearsightedness doesn’t just make things fuzzy. It also makes light sources look bigger. I opened my eyes this morning and someone had strung the treetops with crystals. The branches glinted orange and red in the morning sun, shining like Mother Nature’s own tinsel. The blurry wonder took my breath away. Yes, yes, af… How being woke magically turned a T Shirt inside out and backwards: > [@So I woke up with my shirt on backwards and inside-out this morning...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-woke-up-with-my-shirt-on-backwards-and-inside-out-this-morning/187242): > > and I have no idea how it got that way! I am 99.99% sure that it was on the right way before I went to bed last night. I don’t recall anything unusual going on during the night and you’d think that if I’d done something that required the removal of my shirt that I’d have at least some memory of it. Mr. Greywolf73 didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary during the night either. So, either I was doing some bizarre sleepwalking activity that required my shirt to be on backwards and inside out,… And that one time where being woke caused a paralysed arm: > [@So I woke up this morning with a paralysed arm...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-woke-up-this-morning-with-a-paralysed-arm/58575): > > And it’s not the first time. It’s been happening for years. But why? For some reason, on average perhaps once a month, I will wake up and one of my arms (it can be either) will have no feeling. And when I say no feeling, I mean no feeling. It’s paralysed. From the shoulder down. I can’t even wiggle the tips of my fingers… because I can’t feel them. At all. When I wake up and this is the case, I will sit up in bed and shake my dead arm around with my “good arm”… and after about 15 secs I get a… But do you know what I didn’t find? Anybody declaring themselves woke. I only found a single reference to woke used in a similar context to the way its used in this thread while scrolling this thread: > [@Can Democrats perform better with white voters?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-democrats-perform-better-with-white-voters/842261/77): > > No. It doesn’t. Everything is viewed through an intersectional woke SJW lens. It places diversity ahead of merit and in the case of colleges and universities, this frequently means preferences for middle class and wealthy black and hispanic kids over poor kids of any other race. which said “Everything is viewed through an intersectional woke SJW lens.” What we are observing here is entirely new. As someone who has been paying close attention over the last few years to the way things tend to trend, the elevation of “woke” to be used as a catch-all for all things progressive wasn’t a thing that was happening a couple of years ago, it became more prominent in the last year, in the last six months its uses has accelerated, and in the last month its gotten to the point that everybody seems to think everyone has been using that word _forever_. But we haven’t. The analogue to critical race theory hold true. One minute it was a [niche, obscure cross-disciplinary examination of how](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory) [laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_in_the_United_States), social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, [social conceptions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructionism) of [race and ethnicity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States_census). Nek minnit: "CRT admonishes all white people for being oppressors while classifying all Black people as hopelessly oppressed victims, and it is being taught in schools and we need to ban it because it is making white people feel uncomfortable. So no more teaching about the horrors of slavery! " ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/75 "2023-02-13T03:21:14Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > . . . it just looks like “cancel culture” repackaged. Yes. I’ve been on the Internet for a few decades now, many times discussing free expression of unpopular and disturbing ideas. It’s a perennial issue even though the terminology and victim profiles vary by time and place. Here’s an example from 21 years ago: [The University of South Florida Betrays the Rule of Law: The “Thug’s Veto” and the Ongoing Case of Sami Al-Arian](https://www.thefire.org/news/university-south-florida-betrays-rule-law-thugs-veto-and-ongoing-case-sami-al-arian) Re your mention of increasing death threats for speech acts, this is one reason I suspect free expression, although always under at least some threat, in the U.S., is under more threat today. As to whether left or right gets more death threats, there’s no way to know. DeSantis wants to cancel negative newspapers coverage of politicians like himself: [DeSantis, Aiming at a Favorite Foil, Wants to Roll Back Press Freedom](https://www.yahoo.com/now/desantis-aiming-favorite-foil-wants-181926920.html) Sounds to me like a freedom of the press violation AKA speech suppression AKA cancel culture AKA, if it was on the left, wokeism. After Donald Trump, hardly an exemplar of respect for disagreeing views, took up the phrase cancel culture, the term became a bit less useful, and I use it less. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/76 "2023-02-13T03:26:28Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Re your mention of increasing death threats for speech acts, …where did I mention death threats? > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Yes. > > I’ve been on the Internet for a few decades now, many times discussing free expression of unpopular and disturbing ideas. It’s a perennial issue even though the terminology and victim profiles vary by time and place. > > Here’s an example from 21 years ago: So we are redefining woke yet again? Now its a matter of free speech? I’m utterly confused as to what your point is here. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/77 "2023-02-13T03:33:21Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > I’m utterly confused as to what your point is here. That does seem to be the goal. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/78 "2023-02-13T03:41:52Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > the elevation of “woke” to be used as a catch-all for all things progressive wasn’t a thing that was happening a couple of years ago, it became more prominent in the last year, in the last six months its uses has accelerated, and in the last month its gotten to the point that everybody seems to think everyone has been using that word _forever_. Must agree with this. I mean, really, on the lib-to-prog side of the spectrum we do, oh believe us we do, in one or the other or more of our respective issues, have to deal with those who make us go “SMH, FML, _ **not helping** _, Man!” (and who themselves are saying about us: “OK Boomer: goes to prove, no such thing as an ally”) But nobody had me ever sign a Woke Manifesto. Sure, I will run into people who will act like I did, hell, they’ll act like humankind itself did. There’s always people like that. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/79 "2023-02-13T03:44:24Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > I’m utterly confused as to what your point is here. I may be wrong, but I’m not confused yet. I think that you are more focused on the content of the speech — whether it qualifies as sexism or racism — and I am more concerned about whether there are negative consequences for expressing it. To answer the OP question, sexism and racism are terms that greatly change in meaning over time and place. Equating sexism and racism with anti-wokeism would be a mistake because most in the anti-wokeism camp are also against sexism and racism. Their definitions of sexism and racism may be old-fashioned, but that’s not the same as wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604/80 "2023-02-13T03:46:50Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > But nobody had me ever sign a Woke Manifesto. …well, I don’t know about you. But I was the official Straight Dope President of the Social Justice Warriors for a time. And I (along with every other member of the Social Justice Warriors) had to sign the official SJW Agenda. But that got superseded when I became the President of Antifa. But now that I’m President of Woke, it really is time to start working on that manifesto. I’ll have a copy sent to you post-haste. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-anti-wokeism-different-from-sexism-and-or-racism/979604.md?page=5)