Wokeness: the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination: “will this new era of wokeness really change things?” (Oxford Language)
I am proud to be “woke.”
This word, lifted from Black culture, is meant to be derogatory. It has become an anthem of the MAGA world.
As an Alaska Native descendant, I hope my grandchildren are taught about the evils of racism and how Native Americans had their lands taken from them. I want them and all Alaskans to learn about how boarding schools ripped children from their parents and stripped them of their language and culture.
All Americans should be taught how Black people rose from slavery only to be subjected to Jim Crow laws, and became second-class citizens in separate but unequal schools, housing, employment and voting rights.
What’s wrong with educating our children about how Japanese Americans were locked in internment camps during World War II? Or how in a land of immigrants European Jews hoping to flee from Hitler’s mass extermination were denied entry to the U.S.
Despite the horrors these citizens were subjected to, Native Americans, Black Americans and Japanese Americans played key roles in the military during WWII.
Learning about the racial history of the U.S. makes White American children feel ashamed, a complaint repeatedly voiced by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Florida’s legislature subsequently passed House Bill 7, which restricts what can be taught to students about certain topics, including race.
Materials for grades K-6 had read civil rights icon Rosa Parks “was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin.”
Studies Weekly, a publisher that provides educational periodicals for Florida’s K-6 grades, revised one of their lesson plans for the 2022-2023 school year to take out race as the reason Parks was told to change her bus seat and why she was subsequently arrested.
In response to public and political reaction, the race reference was restored, but I anticipate there will be more attempts to rewrite history as wokeism is a key issue in the MAGA world.
My “wokeism” extends beyond history, as I have long been a feminist and have several family members who are trans and I wish them best in their new lives.
I am proud to be “woke.”
Rodger Painter is a Juneau resident who can trace his Alaska roots to 1798 when an Alutiiq woman married a Russian trader. He is a former journalist, legislative aide and was active in Alaska seafood politics for decades.
