politics of grievance

‘If you don’t know, vote No!’ This tag line from the recent Voice referendum captures succinctly the political stratagem of the conservative right. Turning ignorance and indifference into celebrated public virtues in a bid to capture the vote of the dominant white cohort. The sustained attack on all things ‘woke’ is part and parcel of this 21C campaign. Identifying examples of woke in workplaces and public life have been vote winners for socially conservative candidates and parties. I remember it began with things like the apparent banning of racially offensive terminology from children’s books. Niggers and gollywogs were the first to get the chop. White folk were upset about the removal and amendments of characters and aspects from much loved stories from their childhoods. Big Ears had to bow out from Noddy: The woke conspiracy. Roald Dahl stories were full of inappropriate and politically incorrect characters and terminology. There was this air of ‘how dare they!’ The majority white view was – can’t these people take a joke. Of course, this is the problem in a nutshell, because unless you are in the shoes of those being racially slurred you have no idea what it feels like.Continue Reading