Woke

is no longer what it used to be.

The term, which could be translated as awake or alert, has been used for some years now for those sensitive and involved people against social injustices (especially in American politics, although appearing in other countries, where these trends are replicated even if they are not as notorious).

It was the way in which certain movements in pursuit of social and climate justice proudly called themselves: from the anti-racism of Black Lives Matter, first, to then reaching the feminism of #MeToo or the fight against global warming.

Woke

seemed to advocate a new time of equality and justice.

Now the tables have been turned by a growing

anti-woke

trend that, by virtue of the law of action and reaction, has made a fortune by turning the term into a scarecrow to wave to discredit these progressive causes.

What began as a rejection of the right, now also encompasses a sector of the left less identified with the struggles that were born with the New Left of the sixties, or dissatisfied with its current prominence, or concerned about its excesses, or by its lack of universality.

Woke

is now a mantra, a laughingstock, a thrown weapon, an insult.

This criticism from the left is growing and generating tensions, as reflected in the publishing landscape, with recent essays by authors such as Susan Neiman, Umut Özkirimli, Stéphanie Roza..., not to mention the bookish exuberance of right-wing criticism.

“By subverting the word

woke

, the ultra-conservative sector of the American Republican Party managed to turn it into a kind of catch-all for criticizing any aspect of the progressive side of the political spectrum that it does not like, be it education on racism, feminism, identity politics or even books that they consider inappropriate,” explains journalist and writer Lucía Lijtmaer, author of

Ofendiditos.

On the criminalization of protest

(Anagrama, 2019).

Today,

antiwoke

, especially on the right in the United States, could already be considered a movement in itself.

The response to the

woke

is complex, multiple and varies across political sensitivities.

The extreme right has long used the term to completely attack identity-based and environmental social movements, which it describes, out of conservative fears, as different dictatorships:

woke

dictatorship , or environmental dictatorship, or politically correct dictatorship.

Also gender ideology,

gay lobby ,

queer

fashion

.

He warns of cultural Marxism that, in his opinion, is coming to destroy white, Christian, capitalist, heterosexual civilization.

“There is a manic compulsion to discover the

woke

everywhere, they are like hypermotivated Pokémon hunters,” says the writer Gonzalo Torné, author of

Cancellation and its Enemies

(Anagrama, 2022), who points out that, despite everything, attempts censorship tends to come, generally, from the conservative side.

The 8-M demonstration that was not trans-inclusive, this past Friday, as it passed through the Gran Vía in Madrid.

Claudio Alvarez

Thus, the anti-woke

right

has led to more reactionary positions in the United States, which have managed to ban sexual education in schools or abortion in some States.

For example, the

Stop Woke

law , with which the conservative governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, tries to prohibit companies and educational institutions from disseminating content on antisexism or antiracism.

Some parts have been declared unconstitutional this week, when an appeals court considered that they could violate freedom of expression.

“Florida will be the grave of the

woke

,” DeSantis had said.

Woke capitalism

The so-called

woke

capitalism has been criticized from different branches of the political spectrum;

that is, the way in which these demands have entered Hollywood cinema (for example, the feminism of films like

Barbie

or the choice of black actors for roles that are supposed to be for whites), the advertising with diverse models or the concern environmental (sometimes mere

greenwashing

) and inclusive policies in large companies.

That some large corporations have assumed the theses of inclusion and social justice (especially when it does not negatively impact their economic results) is seen by some as progress, by others, as an infection of the radical left, and by others, simply , as a matter of reputational profitability: pure opportunism.

According to critic Özkirimli, 'woke' focuses more on particular offenses than on structural injustices

From more centrist positions, the legitimacy of struggles such as the feminist, the LGTBI or the environmentalist is recognized, but the “excesses of the

woke

” are denounced, where the so-called cancel culture, the considered outbreaks of puritanism or the denunciation of injustices would enter. historical events, such as the one that led to a wave of attacks against statues and monuments of colonizers and slavers.

For example, within feminism a gap has opened between a traditional feminism (conservative with respect to the trans issue and abolitionist of prostitution) and another more inclined to

queer

theory and the regulation of sex work, as it has been re-staged. in the 8-M demonstrations.

Thus a strong debate arises within the left.

From some sectors it is considered that entering the

woke

rag in these terms is buying the conceptual framework of the right, feeding its Frankenstein monster, playing on the terrain it has laid out.

From others, a criticism is exercised that, in addition to pointing out the excesses (have these struggles gone too far?), also calls into question the essence of identity, demanding a universalist left that focuses on human beings in general and not so much in certain oppressed minorities in particular.

Let it deal with what is common and not with what is different.

The anti-woke left

The first book that criticized identity politics from the left in Spain was

The Diversity Trap

(Akal, 2018), by Daniel Bernabé, which generated a great stir: it denounced how these policies were a product of neoliberalism that fragmented the working class in identity individualism and distracted the struggles in the symbolic, away from the material or labor (considered as the priority struggle, due to its transversality).

In her recent book

De ella Izquierda no es woke

(Debate, 2024), the American philosopher Susan Neiman defends this universalist character of the left against the

woke

, focused on minorities, and considered by the author as a form of tribalism.

“The current debates are heirs of that declaration of war on the Enlightenment”

Stéphanie Roza, philosopher

The

woke

, according to Neiman, is based on emotions common to the entire progressive left, such as the defense of the oppressed or the vindication of historical injustices.

“But, at the same time, it is influenced by philosophical theories that are right-wing, even reactionary: tribalism, for example, or the belief that all claims for justice are hidden claims to power,” says the author.

She denounces how the right takes advantage of the scaremongering of the

woke

to discredit the global left, to the point of almost turning the

woke

into a synonym for the left (hence the refutatory title of her work).

“The right uses

woke

as an insult to discredit anyone who fights against racism, sexism or homophobia.

It is dangerous, because we still have to combat these evils.

But the way the

woke

fight them often leads to outright rejection.

It also leads many on the left to feel alienated because they do not agree with each of their demands,” explains the thinker.

The discomfort has its roots.

Modernity, based on the brilliance of the Enlightenment, was criticized during the 20th century by different philosophical currents, such as the Frankfurt School (for example, Adorno and Horkheimer) or postmodern thinkers (such as the ubiquitous Foucault or Deleuze), accused of having used reason to produce colonialism, domination, homogenization, destruction of nature, and even concentration camps and nuclear bombs.

Enlightened humanism, the philosopher Rosi Braidotti denounces, put the human at the center, but a very particular human: white, European, male, heterosexual;

marginalizing the rest.

To pursue the objectives of emancipation, which are noble, Neiman precisely proposes a return to the ideas of the Enlightenment.

“What unites most

woke

and postcolonial people (the categories overlap) is the rejection of any idea derived from the Enlightenment.

If you looked at the theories you would find that some important

woke

ideas , such as that the world should not only be seen from European perspectives, come directly from the 18th century movement that they believe they despise.

The American also criticizes the effectiveness of the

woke

to develop policies, always lost in the symbolic field and in “acting as a language police.”

Neiman is not the only one who criticizes the hostility toward Enlightenment values ​​in identity discourse.

The French philosopher Stéphanie Roza, in the recent

The left against the enlightenment?

(Laetoli), denounces that the criticism of rationalism, progressivism and universalism is increasingly fiercer.

“Contemporary debates are heirs of that declaration of war on the Enlightenment,” she writes.

She thinks that this opposition does not entail any advance in intellectual, moral or political emancipation, but rather, it represents a “regression” to the “arguments and theses of the old conservative and counterrevolutionary criticism of the anti-enlightened.”

Awareness of this situation is necessary for the “ideological rearmament of the left in the face of contemporary challenges.”

The so-called cancel culture is another point of friction.

For some, it is an attack on freedom of expression, for others, quite the opposite: the voice of those who never had it, who express their disagreement through consumption or thanks to communication technologies.

“I would say that

cancellation

is a culture of smoke through which public and window-dressed people try to avoid the criticism that may come to them from a trained public that has found its voice on social networks,” says Gonzalo Torné, who also points out that, in general, those who complain about the cancellation tend to do so, paradoxically, from powerful public forums.

“It is a victimhood that aims to curtail the legitimate freedom of expression of audiences,” he adds.

Another leftist critic of

woke

, Umut Özkirimli, starts from the cancellation in his book

Canceled.

Leave the woke behind for a more progressive left

(Paidós, 2023).

“When I try to explain

woke

to my older friends and family, I tell them to think about Stalinism.

Everything fits,” says the author, “instead of gulags, we have social death, cancellation.

Of course, the old Stalinism is worse, but not very different.”

Özkirimli thinks that, in effect,

woke

refers to the most extreme versions of identity politics, but he also thinks that identity politics today are like that: extreme.

“The

woke

is a distortion and a betrayal of the original identity politics, which were open to the construction of coalitions, concerned about all types of inequalities and blatantly socialist.”

Great social advances, such as gay marriage in some countries and other rights for the LGTBI community, were achieved before the emergence of the

woke

.

The

woke

is, according to Özkirimli, narcissistic, more interested in perceived individual offenses than in structural historical injustices, and prioritizes individual empowerment over systemic change, symbolic resistance over collective struggle.

It also affects, like the aforementioned authors, its particularistic character compared to universalism.

A universalism that, from identity politics, has been seen as restricted to the dominant classes and a generator of oppression.

Therefore, it is argued, difference must be included to expand the range of human representation.

There are those who, observing the debate from a global perspective, think that the opposition between material and identity policies generates a schism on the left and only benefits the right, which thus sows tares, opposing class to race, gender or sexual orientation.

And that the left must reject these false alternatives.

“What arises is a false dilemma: minorities are overrepresented among the working classes, and, conversely, the proportion of working classes is greater among racial minorities,” Éric Fassin, professor of Sociology and Studies, explained to this newspaper. of Gender at the University of Paris 8, “there is no reason to oppose the policies of recognition and redistribution.”

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