Why the concern with WOKE/CRT and the Woke Generation



Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Lyrics

"Wake Up Everybody"

Wake up, Everybody, no more sleeping in bed
No more backward thinking, time for thinking ahead
The world has changed so very much from what it used to be
There's so much hatred, war, and poverty, whoa, oh

Wake up, all the teachers, time to teach a new way
Maybe then they'll listen to whatcha have to say
Cause they're the ones who's coming up, and the world is in their hands
When you teach the children, teach 'em the very best you can

The world won't get no better
If we just let it be
The world won't get no better
We gotta change it, yeah, just you and me

Wake up, all the doctors, make the old people well
They're the ones who suffer and who catch all the hell
But they don't have so very long before their Judgement Day
So won't you make them happy before they pass away

Wake up, all the builders, time to build a new land
I know we can do it if we all lend a hand
The only thing we have to do is put it in our minds
Surely things will work out, they do it every time

The world won't get no better
If we just let it be
The world won't get no better
We gotta change it, yeah, just you and me (yeah, yeah)

Change it, yeah (change it, yeah)
Just you and me
Change it, yeah (change it, yeah)
Can't do it alone (can't do it alone)
Need some help, y'all (y'all)
Can't do it alone (can't do it alone)
Yeah (yeah)

Wake up, Everybody, huh
Wake up, Everybody
Need a little help, y'all (yes I do)
Need a little help (say it, boy)
Need some help, y'all (uh-huh)
To change the world
From what it used to be

Can't do it alone
Can't do it alone
Need some help, yeah
Need some help, yeah

Wake up, Everybody
Get up, get up
Get up, get up
Wake up, come on, come on

Wake up, Everybody
Teach a new way
Maybe then they'll listen
To what you have to say

Wake up, Everybody
No more sleepin' in bed
No more backward thinkin'
Time for thinkin' ahead
Come on

Wake up, Everybody
I'm talkin' about the dope pusher
Stop pushin' that dope
Dope users
Stop usin' the dope

Wake up, yeah

False lyin'
False preachin'
False teachin'
Wake up, y'all
Come on

You preachers
Start preachin' what you teach
Teach the truth
Wake up, preachers

All liars
Politicians
Stop lyin'

Why don't someone
Help the poor people
Help the babies

You businessmen
Start treatin'
Start treatin'
Start treatin'

Wake up, yeah
Wake up, yeah
Wake up, yeah
Wake up, yeah
Yeah, yeah

Now it don't matter
What race, creed or color
Everybody we need each other

Wake up, Everybody
You see
We need
Wake up, Everybody

Wake up, Everybody
No more sleepin' in bed
No more backward thinkin'
Time for thinkin' ahead

Wake up, all you teachers
Time to teach a new way
They're the ones that suffer
Each and every day

Teach the children
Teach the babies
Teach the children
Teach the babies
Teach the children

They're the ones who's coming out

 

 

 

The political divide has never been so expansive, nor the choices so clear.  Across the United States -hospitals are closing (in rural and urban areas), and hundreds of schools are closing or restricting educational opportunities. Both reflect a crisis as witnessed by the severe shortages of medical staff- particularly nurses, doctors -  teachers, and related support staff.  At the center of these shortages has been a continual decline in the willingness of politicians to fund either health care or education adequately.  A conservative takeover of the House and Senate will likely lead to cuts in Social Security and Medicare. The Affordable Care Act and the recent bill that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices are also likely to be repealed.   Attacks on education, targeting Critical Race Theory and Gender studies, have led increasingly to calls to decrease funding as school boards and educational advisory meetings have degenerated into shouting matches. Calls to defund education can be heard as legislators at all levels seek to control what is being taught, who is doing the teaching, and who gets taught. The attacks have resulted in districts across 26 states that have banned more than 1,600 books, a third of which deal with LGBTQ issues. For these reasons, this year, this mid-term vote is so critical. Stay at home, do not vote, and watch the deniers, the anti-democratic, the Make America White again pro-fascist take control. Recent supreme court actions have taken away the right of women to control their bodies.  Today, Oct. 30, 2022, they began to discuss eliminating affirmative action.  The next issue will be a ban on gay marriages.   It is your choice... I will choose Freedom, Justice, and Democracy - I will stay disconnected from the Matrix and woke.

 

 

 

But what is the Matrix, and what does woke have to do with anything? Glad you asked. The Matrix is our book, now in its second SAGE edition, several thousand sold, and in universities across America. The Matrix is a textbook focusing on race, but intersectionally and systemically.    For those that haven’t a clue, check it out on Amazon.  Based on the analysis,  I would argue that our concerns with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion rest upon faulty constructions. That is to say, the concern with DEI is that identities are based on the singularity of major socially constructed identifiers such as race, gender, age, disability, sexuality, etc. And within these singularities, it assumes that they are monolithic. It believes that Black, White, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, Asian or male, female, trans, gay, lesbian, etc., are somehow monolithic groups. But this is not the case. Black, including native-born African Americans, African Immigrants, African-Latino/Cuban/Brazilian, etc., are all quite different.  Even worse, it assumes that African Americans are a monolithic entity. When clearly, those from the south, north, east, and west are not the same. Nor do they have the same histories, cultures, values, or issues that they deal with. Another example will suffice, while we can deal with each of the major identity clusters. Lumping all LGBTQ identities into one box fails to realize that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer identities are not the same. They also face unique challenges and have unique cultures, values, histories, and issues that they must deal with, how they construct realities, and how they identify.   And then, when we consider institutions, things take on a different level of complexity.

 


Each institution has evolved a different set of contingencies by, in, and through which identities must confront, adapt, transcend, or transform. And finally, these institutions do not operate alone but in tandem with other institutions. Hence, we discuss the systemic ways in which realities are structured and, as a result by, in and through which identities must confront, adapt, transcend, or transform. 

 

What does this have to do with being Woke? Glad you asked. It means understanding the multiple identities (within and external to race, class, gender, sexuality, etc.) and the intersectionality of identities operating systemically within society.    This chapter deals with how to become and stay woke.

 

Wake Up Everybody, no more sleeping

 

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