According to the state of Florida, you are likely “woke”

Over the past few years, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been a big opponent of “woke”. Some people love him for that, and some hate it, but he’s proud to be fighting it.

The definition of “woke” is very muddy, perhaps on purpose, but the state of Florida has put it in clear terms. Not long ago, a judge forced DeSantis’ general counsel to define the term “woke” and they came back with:

“the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them”

I don’t really understand how there can be an argument against that.

Digging into this certainly goes deeper than the scope of this blog, and indeed further than the depth of my knowledge on the subject, but to think that there are zero systemic injustices in our country seems difficult to comprehend. There are plenty of stories and anecdotes to support that, but this is talking at a higher level.

To be clear, we’re talking about systemic issues, and not individual racist humans. That’s another issue for another day.

Here are just a few examples:

• Black Americans with “white-sounding” names receive 50% more callbacks for their job applications (source).
• “Redlining” was largely eliminated in the late 60s, but still has impacts today (source).
• Black drivers are 20% more likely to get pulled over than white drivers (relative to population) (source).
• For every student enrolled, the average nonwhite school district receives $2,226 less than a white school district (source). This leads to the disparities in college enrollment, and later into jobs and income (source).
• In school, black students are three times more likely to be suspended than white students for similar infractions (source).

Curious Refuge has a list of 65 others, with stats and sources to support each one. You may not agree that all of them are indicative of systemic racism, and you may be right. However, if you believe just one of the items listed are an accurate example, then the statement of “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them” applies to you as well.

You’re woke. Embrace it. Work to be the change that we all want to see.