Language as a Weapon of Colonization; How Authoritarians' Demand for Whiteness Distorts Meaning Within the Micro-Macrocosms of Cultural Appropriation.
Important Conversation? Good luck with that.
By framersqool:
[The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to specific individuals is purely unintentional]
Okay, this term 'woke'. What does this mean exactly? I mean, to you personally?
Yeah man, like, I guess it means -
No, not a guess, just what it means when you say it. You do use this term sometimes, right?
Well, yeah, I guess (sorry), yeah-no, when I personally say 'woke' it's like, you know, somebody's like, woke up, to like, you know, systemical unjustice, and stuff.
Right. So, can you give some examples, of things you regard as, ahem, 'systemical unjustices'?
Well sure, you know, like climate change, and preferred-pronouns, and like the Patriarchy and all that.
Got it. So when you say 'all that', it sounds like there's more?
More what?
More systemic injustices. In your own opinion, I mean.
Yeah no, I mean it's isn't really about 'my opinion', right? It's like there's just a lotta things that are just like, I mean, wrong, right?
You tell me.
What do you mean by that?
I mean, what further things do you personally think are systemically unjust?
Wow. I mean like really, you have to ask? Oh my God, like defund the police, and fossil fuels, and like, racism and whatever. Oh my God, like what isn't systematically injust?
Right. Tell you what. I'll go through this list I have here, and you can tell me which ones you think are injustices, and that you need to be woke about. (pardon my English.)
What's wrong with your English?
Nothing exactly, it just feels silly to use a past-tense verb as an adjective, though I do realize this is in a certain vernacular sense....
Oh. Yeah. Um, go on then.
Okay but before I do, this kind of brings up a point: I gather that 'woke' as an adjective derives from a parent-verb 'to awake' or 'to wake', and to use a past-tense conjugation as an adjective is to intentionally alter the rules of the English language. Isn't that, to you, cultural appropriation?
Excuse me? How do you get that?
Well, for people who speak English and take its rules seriously, couldn't saying 'woke' as an adjective qualify as something that they might take offense to?
Yeah I guess (sorry), but damn, doesn't everybody speak English these days? I mean, like it isn't about all 'WASPs' rule the world' any more and whatever. Although I guess they do.... what was the question again?
So if everybody speaks English, and for the sake of argument, most who do prefer to speak it correctly according to its own rules, doesn't using a verb form as an adjective come out sounding a little presumptuous? As though the one using it already expects the one hearing it to know what it means, and not mind that it's poor grammar?
When you say, 'poor', does that mean poor people speak bad English. I mean not, you know, 'baa-aad', like they're bad people, but like, because they're poor they don't know any better?
Well no but - never mind. The point I was making is that when you use a language somebody else speaks properly and takes pride in this, whichever socioeconomic factors may be in play, maybe it just doesn't sound right when you break its rules to make a certain point?
Yeah right, yeah-no, I see where you're coming from, but like it's slang or whatever, right?
Or maybe an idiom?
What, like only idiots say 'woke'? You do know it's like Black slang, right? 'Bitch be like woke' or whatever. Are you calling all Black people idiots? Oh my Gah-id.....
Moving on.....
Yeah man, good idea. I am SO not having THAT conversation.
No. I don't expect you are..... Anyway, here's an idea: I'll read out a list, of things that I think you might agree are 'woke', and you can tell me if these describe what you mean when you say it.
Sure. Like, yeah, whatever; but I do have to get back to writing my dissertation, so make it quick.....
Oh wow, so what's your dissertation about?
Yeah right, it's called English Only: Language as a Weapon of Colonization; How Authoritarians' Demand for Whiteness Distorts Meaning Within the Micro-Macrocosms of Cultural Appropriation.
Great title.
I know right? Like I'm so excited... I got if off ChatGPT and I was like, yeah!
Best success with it. But anyway, back to my list.
Shoot. Oh my God, did I just say that? I SO didn't mean that, like 'shoot a gun' or whatever.
Right. Anyway, here goes: (since you bring it up) Gun control?
Definitely, like that bitch be SO woke, amirite?
All right then, I'll just read off a few more, and you can tell me what you, you personally, think about them: are they 'woke' or don't you think so? Here goes: climate change, defunding police, LGBTQ rights, abortion on demand, indigenous rights, gender equality, violence against women, Palestinians, Transnistrian independence, the Polish farmers' boycott, demilitarization, student loan forgiveness -
DEFINITELY woke. I mean like I had SO many debts....
...the Myanmar junta, Essiquibo, cartel violence in prisons, mass migration, the Filipino economic exclusion zone, Tibetan sovereignty -
What? Oh sorry (sorry), I SO had to take that text.... Anyway, yeah like Oh. My. God. Tibet was like SO intense! I took like a million selfies, like, 'here I am guys, I'm actually in like where the Daily Llama lives', or whatever.... so what was the question again?
No, I think I've got enough to work with here. Good luck on your PhD.
READ MORE BY FRAMERSQOOL
Thoughts from an aging bachelor of no particular consequence who is in command of more opinions than facts (but occasionally the facts, or the lack thereof) and can make a thing seem worth writing about.