My English teacher the senior year of high school was a fine woman named Olive Katter, who got into trouble with administrators for speaking out about a tough principal being replaced by a milquetoast type. She was demoted from her post of department chair as punishment.
Many of her students set out with petitions calling for her reinstatement. I remember one long night canvassing Moxham. Back then, one could roam freely in Moxham after dark without regard for personal safety. It was, after all, 50 years or so in the past.
The lessons from this exercise were many, including, but not limited to, the realization that those in control cared little about the on-the-ground impact of their petty vindictiveness.
Miss Katter can thank her lucky stars she doesn’t teach in this period of out-of-control Wokeism. One day, while the class was reading some bit of classic literature, the word “gay” was part of the story, eliciting snickers from the students.
These days, the class would be sent straight to some Diversity, Equity, Inclusion indoctrination. And Miss Katter would have been right there with us because her response to our reaction was to lament that one of her favorite words had been co-opted to refer to sexual orientation instead of a state of being happy and carefree.
This all came to mind as I woke this morning – old meaning of having arisen from sleep, not becoming a ridiculous navel-gazer – and was greeted with the two granddaughters watching some PBS kids cartoon programming.
First there was some manner of Caribbean ethnicity family. Next up, a Filipino family. My tax money at work on PBS, which of course has no political agenda. Wink. Wink.
The first white faces to be seen were on the third show, which came after a channel change They were all animals with painfully white fur accented with black trim.
Take some time to view children’s programming, on various outlets, and you will be stunned at the messaging attempts from the Woke crowd.
I was curious to see if others were picking up on this. Apparently so. One story from 2021 on Idahofreedom.org, noted the folly of spending tax dollars to have Daniel Tiger teach kids about transgenderism, or PBS Kids insisting that three-month-old babies exhibit “white privilege.”
I’m not sure beloved Fred Rogers, he being a white male, could have passed the PBS gatekeepers these days. Rogers was a registered Republican – ick – but is well-chronicled to have been more in line with liberal ideals, so maybe he would have gotten a pass.
Next, I did some quick computer searching and made the mistake of reading a story from The New Yorker on those poor striking writers in Hollywood.
These are the Woke types who make it their life’s work to over-represent minorities of all stripe in their work.
One writer quoted recalled the good, old days of 2008 when she was happy to work in a writers’ room that was “half queer, majority female.” While she didn’t cite current numbers, it’s probably more so on both counts these days.
Funny how the stock Doesn’t Look Like America rubric of the Woke types doesn’t matter in cases such as this.
Having scored diversity over-representation, writers are on strike for, wait for it, MORE MONEY!
Let’s be clear here. People absolutely should not be discriminated against on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or any other arbitrary determinant. But that should work both ways, and it doesn’t.
The Woke types never seem to be satisfied until they have dominated any situation, to the exclusion of opposing opinion and representation, be it racial, sexual, or matters of faith.
Even worse, they must re-educate those who do not buy their claptrap hook, line and sinker.
And they are everywhere, from government and public schools, to the boardrooms of beer producers. They play a large role in the decline of this nation as they succeed in changing it from a meritocracy to a pathetic Potemkin village celebrating the visual facade over legitimate qualification and achievement.
Bill Maher, heretofore a predictable proponent of all things political left, has had (pardon the pun) an awakening regarding Wokeism and has come to recognize it as the absurd caricature of liberalism that it has become.
Along a similar line, former leftist hero and current villain Elon Musk speaks of the “Woke mind virus” and its detrimental effects.
If you are content with this all-Woke-all-the-time state of affairs, continue to stay quiet and accept. If not, muster the courage to speak out and risk the wrath of the Woke warriors.
Sam Ross Jr's site 