The first time I encountered the term “woke” I was watching the Netflix series “Dear White People” a few years ago. My initial reaction to the term was not necessarily offended, but it was one of curiosity and yes, a little bit of annoyance. What was it I did not know that I was asleep to? Hmmmmm?? (Don’t I know all?!?)
The term was integrated so immediately into the language of culture after that experience that I certainly felt left out of what “was happening”. I was left out. There were things I was not aware of that I did not know much about. So I started paying attention.
In the context of what we are all dealing with in America right now, and have been forced to watch over and over since the death of George Floyd in 2020, albeit at various levels and experience, I read something yesterday that made my heart ache.
It was an Instagram post of an everyday guy, expressing his frustration after a long day at the office, after another news report of another black unarmed man who lost his life all while the case of Derek Chauvin was currently being prosecuted blocks away.
He was not speaking to the potential “woke” society he needed to listen. He was writing to his own community. He was asking for help. He was hurting. He was human. He said plainly, and I’m paraphrasing…
“I went to work today and no one said anything about the Derek Chauvin case and what happened last night to Daunte Wright. It was painful to go through the whole day knowing that this happened to another man who looked like me, but no one who spends most of their days with me was able to vocalize anything about it. Take care of yourselves right now.”
Those words made me sit up and pay attention. This man spends most of his time awake with his work family and no white coworkers could mention the current events all over the news, discuss the people who are dying and ask how that was for him. I listened and heard the pain that must cause him.
The fact that black American death by the hands of police is highlighted so openly and frequently on the screens in front of us over and over again and no one speaks of it in his own work culture is hard to imagine.
And I can’t truly understand how that is for him and for so many others. All I can do is share my experiences as a white woman who lives in the South.
I personally know about an area – not my neighborhood – where white people are on first name relationships with local cops they can call when they “get into a jam”. Where tickets are frequently waived, and friendly, intentional ignorance is provided by officers when said people are clearly breaking the law. Including driving with open containers and without seatbelts.
When I compare that experience with what I see on video where black men are pulled over for tinted windows, expired tags, rolling stops, applied-for plates on brand new vehicles, air fresheners in their rearview windows…. and are harassed, pepper-sprayed, guns pointed in their face or “accidentally” killed when a 26 year veteran can’t tell the difference between a taser and a gun after prematurely pulling a weapon (for what reason again?)… when men are kneeled on for over 9 minutes until they die slowly, indifferently, in public… yes, I have to conclude something is very wrong.
And maybe that leads me to try and understand why these experiences are so different and start listening to a different perspective. It might lead me to listen to how frightening it must be being pulled over while black when that means those persons are 3x’s more likely to die at the hands of people employed to protect and serve them.
It might lead me to question historical and systemic underpinnings for why that may be along with other injustices that I would not be okay with if the shoe was on the other foot.
That is met with a lot of resistance.
I recently reacted to a post from a lovely white, Christian woman from Alabama who re-shared a post from Dr. Carol Swain – titled “What I Can Teach You About Racism”.
The post was meant to publish a well respected African American political science doctors’ perspective on how she felt society’s current focus on things like white privilege, white supremacy, microaggressions, “assumed” police brutality and unconscious racism was actually hurting our society. Her words were that “the life-sapping, negative messages about America are crippling a generation of young people. These ideas are poison.”
I agree certain terms, experiences I don’t understand, and the history behind them are uncomfortable topics to discuss. But as I have been able to lean past the discomfort of hearing that these things exist for so many, I simply wanted to know……how? How is being conscious to these things or listening to understand their overwhelmingly different experience than my own crippling and harmful?
Crickets.
This one black woman’s unicorn position was certainly antithetical to the overwhelming outcry I had been open to listening to in recent months and years. So why did this white person feel the need to share it? As I thought about it and researched more on the dichotomy of cultural opinion on this topic, I had to conclude my own opinion.
The intent behind the position that America is headed toward impending doom because of “cancel culture” and “garbage woke identity politics” and other views from so many white conservative Christians, in my opinion, does not stem from the teachings of Jesus. It is not meant to promote a compassionate society that benefits all people. Nor is it about calling out “harmful” societal, corporate or business behavior in the wake of current social “awareness.”
It is about shame.
I hear a lot of comments from certain circles that “people need to stop being so offended” and “anyone who works hard can have the American Dream.” They scoff at “woke culture”, take over its usage and cloak it in negative connotation. They go out of their way to condemn and shame people like me who are willing to listen and conclude that yes, something is wrong and things need to change.
Jesus.
What would he say? What would he do?
Would he chortle at terms that make some humans uncomfortable and other humans heard? Would he ignore pain and injustice? Would his goal be to ensure that society was actively not facing the social, moral and spiritual realities before them? Would he recommend that they ignore the conditions of the heart? Would he advocate to harden our hearts against our neighbors and brothers and sisters?
Here are some things he said.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”
“If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel will save it”
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So what should we do when we have been thrust into a culture war where politicians and media suggest that we choose a side and play to partisan positioning when peoples’ actual lives and well-being hang in the balance? Where we may not understand or want to resist change because of the possible implications to our position and comfort?
Should we just stop being so offended? Avert our eyes? Stop listening to our heart? Stop looking into the eyes of people in pain? Refuse to lift them up?
Should we start shaming the awareness of a human experience that has only gained momentum in the wake of too many unjustified deaths? Should we refuse to admit that economic inequality, voter suppression and criminal injustice exist regardless of data and overwhelming expert opinion that confirm them?
I understand that this idea in certain circles will be unpopular and I certainly believe that everyone has a right to their own opinion and act accordingly, as is their right. But here is my suggestion.
Be conscious. But not only that – use your conscience.
Watch with your eyes and listen with your ears and don’t be quick to dismiss what you see and hear.
Give people the benefit of the doubt when they share opinions and experience that don’t coincide with yours or make you uncomfortable.
Soften your heart.
Don’t avert your eyes because it does not affect you or your family personally.
Speak up when you hear something being spoken in the name of Jesus that is against his teaching or is bred from hate or indifference.
Don’t shame people to sleep when they begin to wake up.
Honest: My true concern at this point is not that we are too “woke” but that too many of us no longer have a pulse.
Kind: If we speak our words and model our positions with the commandment and teachings of Jesus over all things, we can never go wrong.
