Wokeness

 If you don't like things that are "woke" you are just again the basic goals of social justice, I am told.

I wish it was that easy. I hate the land acknowledgments because they are meaningless, a way of white people to feel good about themselves with zero cost. I don't like the word latinx. My academic colleagues use it, but my sister's Mexican caregiver does not. I don't like making DEI statements mandatory for tenure or hiring. There's a lot of things that are "woke," which I define as linguistic or performative gestures of correctness in mostly bureaucratic and institutional settings. A lot of people that are not republicans agree with me in private conversations. 

Here's a good article on the Black Arts Movement.  It just tells it like it is, or as he saw it. I wish that wokeness was this, not those other things I don't like. Can you imagine Ishmael Reed having to write a DEI statement?