i really don’t like the term ‘Woke’. 

For a number of reasons. But the main one being that it describes an event that has happened. Before i was not ‘woke’ and then this thing happened and now i am ‘woke’. Much like the movie ‘The Matrix’ where Neo choosing a pill determines his level of wokeness for the rest of his life.

The truth that i am discovering every day, is that there is no moment of arrival, just journey. The hope i carry is that today i will move a little bit further along that journey so that my life starts to look noticeably different from the way it did yesterday.

The Woke Police

This was sparked by a tweet i read on the Twitterer this morning from my friend Dave who said i could use it here:

Now Dave and i have chatted and we land largely on the same place with this stuff. And i think he is speaking more specifically to those people who really do seem to be policing every word or idea or moment in someone else’s life and comparing it to theirs.

But the challenge i have resonates deeply with what i wrote over here about the challenge behind allowing white people to take their time to enter or move along in their journey of anti-racism. It feels like there is a price attached to that. Similar to when we ask our black friends to do the work of helping us become less racist [DON’T DO THAT!]

We are indirectly saying to black, coloured and indian people in the country that we realise that this work of anti-racism is necessary and important, but we need to do it slowly because otherwise it can feel uncomfortable or even cause us pain. “So please continue to live in your discomfort and pain – that which is caused by my words and actions and ideas and lack of change – until i feel ready to do the work.”

That doesn’t feel good. 

Lean into the Discomfort

A few years ago my friend, Craig Stweart, spoke at the Justice Conference on the topic of Disequilibrium as a call particularly to white people [Give it a watch over here!]

If we think of how violent and painful and messy and premeditated and uncomfortable both colonialism [hundreds of years] and apartheid [decades] were, then we have to know that we are going to have to visit – and spend time in – places and moments and conversations that are painful and messy and uncomfortable and costly.

We tend to avoid comfortable conversations. Most people i know hate confrontation. We have to arrive at a place where the strength of our feelings towards the injustice that lives in racism and injustice and the distance between us as people and groups outweigh our desire for comfort and ease and order. Even politeness. If we truly want to move forwards then we really are going to have to be prepared to listen to the pain and cries and desperation of those who have been living in injustice all of their lives.

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” – B. Franklin

The truth is we are largely not directly or noticeably affected by these things. And one of the greatest indicators of privilege is the opportunity to decide that we don’t want to have to think or talk about race. Black, coloured and indian people do not have that privilege as it is in their face every day.

In summary, none of us have arrived. i don’t believe we are ever going to. It is a journey we need to actively and intentionally and with great urgency step into and it will be a part of us for the rest of our lives. We have to move past dealing with the racism that exists in us to a place of anti-racism where we are actively shutting down racism when other people parade it in front of us, and where we are working towards unlearning and dismantling and rebuilding [and we have to work out restituting!]

Don’t worry about being ‘woke’. Or whether others think it or know it or not. Just get doing the work that is needing to be done in you and around you. Commit to a #NotOnOurWatch mentality that refuses to let racism pass by unchallenged. Have the conversations, but also be making the changes. And please don’t take your time on this…