Bill Maher defines "woke"

I normally don't agree with him, but he's pretty on the money here. Woke seems to be a way to stop any serious debate or conversation of the issues.

 

Yet another reason I don't really fit in the US.

Besides being multilingual. Tant pis pour toi si tu n’es pas bilingue.

My politics are pretty far left in the US, but pretty centre/centre-left in Europe. Case in point, I’m enjoying reading a couple of interesting stories in L’Express: “Se focaliser sur la race et le sexe a réveillé les furies et les furieux” and “Identité, “racisé”, universalisme… Rokhaya Diallo-Yascha Mounk, l’étonnante rencontre“. OK, L’Express is at the Centre of the French political spectrum, but one of the things I enjoy about French culture is the openness of the debate without the ad-hominems found in US politics. For example, “Trump supporter” or “Bernie Bro” being used to shut down the debate. With both sides being guilty.

The first article is a great discussion of that phenomenon. Although it’s hard to summarise, but I find the sentiment about identity politics very welcome. But identity politics doesn’t just include race, gender, or sexual preference–it also includes political and religious affiliations. As critical theory pointed out, the bottom line is power: whether it is racial, sexual, doctrinal, or relating to philately. Keeping people from talking to each other is the perfect means to preserve power. Things get dangerous when people start talking to each other.

The things you miss when you are stuck in one language.

Footnote: 

You can use a translator such as Deepl, but it will miss properly translating this comment about reparations:

Réparateur de tort, s'inventant des ennemis de vent, vivant dans le passé, Don Quichotte est le premier woke de la littérature ! 

Best translated as "Reparations make enemies of windmills by living in the past, Don Quixote is the first "woke" in literature".

Could Carnival over take the Mummers?

 Serious question since the Philadelphia Mummer tradition owes a lot to Carnival. Carnival being:

Carnival is a Western Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typically involves public celebrations, including events such as parades, public street parties and other entertainments, combining some elements of a circus. Elaborate costumes and masks allow people to set aside their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unity. Participants often indulge in excessive consumption of alcohol, meat, and other foods that will be forgone during upcoming Lent.

This question is something I've been asking myself for a while since I heard the Mummer's Parade in Philadelphia was having economic problems.  Carnival It's a big thing in the Caribbean and is called Mardi Gras in the US:

Carnival celebrations, usually referred to as Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday" in French), were first celebrated in the Gulf Coast area, but now occur in many states. Customs originated in the onetime French colonial capitals of Mobile (now in Alabama), New Orleans (Louisiana), and Biloxi (Mississippi), all of which have celebrated for many years with street parades and masked balls.

 So, the two traditions. Carnival and Mummers, have a lot in common. I found this article in Al Dia about another tradition, the San Mateo Carnavalero, linking up with the Mummers

 Up until recently the suggestion that masqueraders of "San Mateo Carnavalero" should  join the long standing and massive parade of the "Mummers" had been nothing more than our suggestion. However recently there was a real rapprochement between multiple local cultural carnivals, all of which had, until then, remained mostly disconnected.

 My opinion, here's a tradition which exists that could join up with other ethnic groups. The Al Dia Article pretty much sums up how I think the Mummers Parade should evolve to become more inclusive. The issue is whether blacks are willing to join their tradition with that from other cultures.

What you miss by being monolingual.

 The US really doesn't have much in the way of a balanced media.

So, it was really refreshing to see this interview with John McWhorter in L'Express: https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/idees-et-debats/john-mcwhorter-avec-sa-croyance-inebranlable-et-son-peche-originel-le-wokisme-est-une-religion_2165058.html

You can find English versions, but the French one is much more cutting about this movement.

You touch on a crucial point. There is certainly a form of theatricality in the way some blacks claim a place, and that can be traced back to simplistic attitudes already in the early 1960s. But I really think that the black American leadership doesn't think about black people as elected officials: it's not part of the black tradition. I think that Black America thinks of itself through a very troubled history, still in the present, and that this idea that Black people should have a certain place is not an egocentric idea, but rather a fear. It comes from the fact that it can be difficult, as a black person, why you exist in the world. The relationship with Africa, it goes back centuries, it doesn't make sense anymore. We are not Africans. What do we have? It is very difficult to think collectively in such a situation. For me, it's very important that we understand this because indeed, this aspect of black activism can be very irritating. But it comes from a deep insecurity. 

I find it interesting that Prof. McWhorter is a professor of Creole Studies and isn't offering the Western Alternative to Africa: Creole culture. The slaves made their own traditions in the Western Hemisphere.

While the narrative is that blacks "were stolen from Africa", the reality is that they were sold into bondage by other Africans (e.g., Mali Empire and Benin). Slavery has been part of African culture from Ancient times. Blaming white people won't change that.

US black culture is also not monolithic as is seen by examples like Prof. McWhorter.

The Woke prove me correct (or the Bizarreness of the Woke Part 3)

I made a comment about gender and pronouns way back when I was in Law School (over 30 odd years ago) that said something along the lines of "let's stop using pronouns and maybe people will go away". Now, the ACLU removes women from the pro-choice equation.

The Bizarreness of the Woke Part 2

 I said that:

A black and a Hispanic, unless she is pretty much 100% indigenous to the Americas, is about as "Colonising" as you can get.

Now Mexico City has removed the statue of Christopher Columbus. The bronze Columbus statue was featured prominently on Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City’s main avenue since the late 19th century. The reason for this:

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum made an announcement on Sunday, the Day of the Indigenous Woman, said the Italian colonizer’s legacy is seen through “two visions”: One that is Euro-Centric, and another that recognizes that civilizations existed in the Americas long before Columbus arrived.

As I also pointed out in the original post that just having a "Latina" in the role doesn't eliminate the "colonising" aspect since just being Hispanic doesn't remove the colonialising aspect: One would have to be pretty much 100% indigenous. Not all Hispanics born in this hemisphere were kind to the indigenous people. Some were downright cruel.

The problem is that unless someone is writing in  an indigenous language (i.e., not Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, or Danish), they are acting in a colonialising way. Any of the aforementioned languages were all those of countries which had Colonies in the Western Hemishphere.

We could get into that no one is native to the Western Hemisphere since there is the theory that the Native Americans migrated from Asia. How long does one's ancestry need to go back to be "native"?

I'm not a fan of Christopher Columbus. His real role was to open the Western Hemisphere to Spanish colonialisation. We can get into other European settlements, but none were as extensive as the Spanish was in post-Columbian history. Which makes any comment about "HIspanic Culture" somehow not being "colonising" an absurdity.

The culture of the Western Hemisphere is pretty much a result of "Colonisation".

The Bizarreness of the Woke.

 Is all too evident in this headline:

Billy Porter’s fairy godmother sweeps out colonizer morals in inclusive ‘Cinderella’

This is a serious "What the fuck moment" because the reasoning behind this is something along the lines of a black and hispanic/Latina in a gender fluid fairy tale, which just happens to come from Europe I might add, somehow is anti-colonialism.

A black and a Hispanic, unless she is pretty much 100% indigenous to the Americas, is about as "Colonising" as you can get. The Spanish were responsible for colonising most of the Americas. And Blacks were brought to the Americas by the Portuguese and Spanish in the 15th Century. 

 

They might want to learn the actual meaning of the buzzwords they use instead of mindlessly parroting them. Additionally, They might want to learn something about the Spanish colonisation of the Americas before making silly statements.  Spanish culture is controversial amongst Latinos who are well aware of their history since some Conquistadores were born in the Western Hemisphere. Not all "Native" Latinos were kind to the indigenous peoples of North America.

 

Given "Western Culture" in and of itself makes any reference to colonialism pretty much a thing for the Americas since most of Europe happens to be in the EASTERN Hemishphere. And some of Africa happens to be in the Western Hemisphere as well. But the Americas are firmly in the Western Hemishpere.

The problem with trying to paint "European Culture" as somehow being removed from influences of other cultures is silly as the above map also points out. Europe is right above Africa. There has had contact with between Europe, Asia, and Africa since Ancient times. In fact, the oldest known oral version of the Cinderella story is the ancient Greek story of Rhodopis, a Greek courtesan living in the colony of Naucratis in Egypt, whose name means "Rosy-Cheeks". The story is first recorded by the Ancient  Greek geographer Strabo in his Geographica  sometime between around 7 BC and AD 23.

"When she was bathing, an eagle snatched one of her sandals from her maid and carried it to Memphis; and while the king was administering justice in the open air, the eagle, when it arrived above his head, flung the sandal into his lap; and the king, stirred both by the beautiful shape of the sandal and by the strangeness of the occurrence, sent men in all directions into the country in quest of the woman who wore the sandal; and when she was found in the city of Naucratis, she was brought up to Memphis, and became the wife of the king."

There are around 500 varients of the Cinderella story just in Europe. It is a common theme throughout the world. But the familiar one, which this article mentions, is firmly from the European tradition.

 

Their ignorance made me laugh uncontrollably.

Oh, ye of undetermined gender

 I think what is bothering me about the "woke" trend of listing your pronouns is that a lot of the people doing it are "CIS Gendered". That is they identify with their birth gender. The bit with listing pronouns came with the people who are "non-binary", or haven't quite figured out what exactly they are.

Hence, they need to tell people what pronouns to refer to them as. And they dislike the English gender neutral pronoun "it".

I do know this has been going on for a while now, but I don't think that someone who has to worry about what pronoun someone will use to describe them (he/her/it) will ever really be truly satisfied.