Opinion | What it means to be ‘woke’ about history

In contrast, it has been appalling to read other center-right columnists casually parrot Republican talking points by using “woke” as a pejorative, implying that those who use the term are somehow naive, or that they are raising trivial historical issues or that they are simply faculty lounge radicals bent on indoctrinating their students on the mores of a mythical cancel culture. In doing that, they are in effect saying that our sordid history in matters of race has nothing to teach us about our current racial crisis. One can only conclude that rather than being “woke,” they wish us to stay asleep.