Alright, I’ll say it. This article is racist because:
1. Being “woke” came from rising Black consciousness about systemic racism via #BlackLivesMatter.
2. White “woke” backlash is a racist euphemism for “uppity” & “stay in your place, Negroes.”
nytimes.com/2019/11/08/opi…
1. Being “woke” came from rising Black consciousness about systemic racism via #BlackLivesMatter.
2. White “woke” backlash is a racist euphemism for “uppity” & “stay in your place, Negroes.”
nytimes.com/2019/11/08/opi…
3. Like most things racist, it’s also classist and condescending. “Woke” WAS a beautiful concept, before white writers stole it. It was beautiful idea to not slog through the stupor of the damn American Dream ™️ they are always trying to pummel us with, but to wake up, to see...
...to assess, to understand, to think critically, to be WOKE & help others to get WOKE. Have you noticed how often they want us to “dream” and seek “inspiration” but to not be attuned, with critical rigor, to the realities around us & the possible realities we can create?
I am tired of the NYMFT (which jyesterday wanted Black ppl to dream of a Popeye’s chicken sandwich as a “political moment”) being racist in wanting us to limit our political imaginations. Stay WOKE. Keep trying to wake up! Feel righteous offense when they spell “uppity” W-O-K-E”
Now the “insufferably woke” help Trump? Maybe @byjoelanderson is right & we’ve lost “woke.” But I’ll be damned if I’ll be quiet as the NYMFT tries to pin the conscience of #BlackLivesMatter for Trump, when Black ppl fought Trump (& the racism which made him) more than anyone!
This is disgusting @nytegan. You should feel ashamed for blaming Trump on “insufferably woke” Black people. And if you feign that “I just didn’t know!” then it shows you’re too lazy to have done even ANY intellectual historical research AT ALL & shouldn’t be in the NYMFT.
(Aside: I wanna column called “Alright, I’ll say it,” in which I respectfully & intelligently talk to readers open and honestly about all the condescending, classist, sexist & racist messages they’re getting from ham-fisted mainstream media & politicos ALL THE TIME. Any takers?)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how colonial thinking & practices uphold a lot of journalism practices & how the profession should use decolonial theory & decolonization as useful frameworks, just as (a few) anthropologists have.
Anthropology is predicated on colonialism; the field largely has consisted of anthros from the Global North extracting ideas from ppl in the Global South. Journalism often does something similar—relatively rich (& almost always white) journos extract info from “the other.”
To counter this, I use decolonial theory & practices in my J school classes. My students are learning relational (rather than transactional) journalism models. They’re reading Zora Neale Hurson, @alexanderchee & @LewisPants to unlearn ways of knowing based on colonial extraction. 
But there’s ANOTHER colonialism in journalism: mgmt extracts knowledge not just from subjects, but from marginal labor. They’ll colonize & hire the young, lay-off the old & cut off health care for both.
They even brag it!
Remember all the praise for hiring “digital NATIVES”?!
They even brag it!
Remember all the praise for hiring “digital NATIVES”?!
There are two ways to try to avoid the fatigue of what I call “native informant syndrome” @Jamiles
1. Therapy (w an anti-racist trained therapist)
2. Demanding my colleagues & the field adopt an anti-racist, decolonial approach. (Usually fails.)
1. Therapy (w an anti-racist trained therapist)
2. Demanding my colleagues & the field adopt an anti-racist, decolonial approach. (Usually fails.)
