Condemning “Woke” is now the acceptable way to promote prejudice…

I can’t honestly say I know what being “woke” means, but it has become very clear that attacking “woke” culture is the new way the exact same individuals with questionable disposition to bias (based on their feeling of superiority usually via class, race, privilege etc.) now seek to continue unchallenged.

This week some university students decided to remove the Queen’s picture from their student union room and are being condemned for being “woke” because their reason for removing the picture is apparently because they allege the Queen is linked to colonialism. Andy Burnham a former Member of Parliament who lost his seat and is now currently Mayor of Greater Manchester but has huge ambitions of one day becoming UK Prime Minister, rushed in to criticise the students and another MP stood up in Parliament to condemn “lefties”, with another government minister stating England’s football team taking the knee is divisive. What isn’t divisive these days? We’ve had Brexit, Scotland wanting out of the union etc. Divisiveness is how today’s society and that before it, is wired to work: why else would a senior MP talk about “lefties” in Parliament? We are constantly finding ways to cause division and foster divisiveness. We have a govt and the opposition sitting across from each other in Parliament; is that not divisive?

We cannot eternally apologise for sins of years gone by! Yes, people sold other humans (slavery) and many nations profited from it. Yes, brutal repression and worse occurred during the colonial era, but do we have to continue to apologise for the past? What is more concerning today, is the fact that ALL of those past evils can very easily recur: people are still openly carrying confederate flags in the US (and brazenly marched through the US capitol with those emblems and worse, with the then sitting US president saying he loved them and they are nice people). Nazis are still operating across Europe and there are several openly bigoted politicians all over the world, operating with impunity

People hide behind terms such as “conservatism”, “make America great again” etc. Can we not be proud of our past (or some aspects of it) while condemning past ills and making sure we avoid a repeat?

Personally, I am always very proud to be British and I have gladly promoted Britishness everywhere I have lived or visited. I am extremely proud of the history of the British naval exploits even if some British merchant ships were used to trade human beings some years back. I can condemn that aspect of our history, while retaining my pride in a huge chunk of British history. But right-wing politicians would have us believe that we must blindly applaud every aspect of our past or we are not patriots! Asking for the removal of the statue of a slave trader is labelled “woke”. One side feels aggrieved and brutalised and any attempt to listen to their concerns is labelled “woke”

The same types condemn the so-called “woke” culture. You list those folks, from “junior” to those other folk, and you begin to see a very consistent pattern of nativist zeal and a certain kind of supremacy.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to achieve a better society for all.

Whatever “woke” may be, society must continue to strive to be better. Condemning and trying to avoid a repeat of evils of the past does not make one less proud of our history or less patriotic. Some of us simply want to see an end to some of the glaringly obvious horrible stuff going on.

What’s bad’s bad. It doesn’t matter whether George Floyd used to be a drug dealer or wife-beater, nobody should die the way he did. Children should not be in cages in the name of immigration control, nobody (white, black or any other colour) should suffer as a result of bias, these should all be basic tenets that have nothing to do with politics. Taking the knee, not taking the knee, defund the police, statues or no statues etc. I couldn’t give a monkeys about any of all that and none will achieve any lasting result, if as it were, basic decency is nowhere to be found…

The world is just so messed up!