And suddenly “being woke” or “stayin’ woke” has crept out from Black American usage since the 1920s to now become mainstream. Not that it ain’t contested, but the disagreement itself – as to whether folks should be woke or not – contributes to the term’s ubiquity. There are some who’re pushing “wokeness” in Guyana now, as is probably inevitable with America still dominating with its “soft power” globally!!
For the baby boomer generation – now passing on – being “hip” was the Black zeitgeist of their era. It persists in the “hipsters” who try to dominate what’s “cool”; those who are called “Influencers” nowadays!!
So, back to being “woke”. It started with ole Marcus Garvey exhorting Blacks everywhere to be “awake” to the systemic conditions keeping them in bondage. Being woke in America now means that the state should play a part in rectifying the damage done, not just to Black people – but analogously to women, gays (LGBTQ…), the old, ethnics, other races, and so on and so forth.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the USA in the last decade gave the term a new impetus – and created its inevitable backlash. Action creates reaction, and – we’re told in school – they’re equal and opposite.
And who’s at the base of the oppression?? Well, duh!! – “Whitey”, “the Man”, the white male who held all the levers of power when the mask’s pulled off, of course!! The politics of difference defined “wokeness”, and since oppression could simultaneously affect a person along more than one characteristic – say, being a black, gay handicapped woman – we now had another woke expression: “intersectionality”!! So, we now had in America – and being demanded in Guyana, of course – the notion of pushing “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion) as new norms in all spheres of our activity.
Now, to the oppressed by whatever name, they were merely seeking rectification of past exclusions through programmes like affirmative action. But after a few decades, the kickback has arrived, with Trump and his chainsaw-wielding billionaire cohorts who’re gonna wipe out woke programmes and their beneficiaries from every branch of government. And the private sector has jumped right it – since cutting workers has always been their go-to option to make more profits!!
So, what about us in Guyana?? While back in colonial days it was “the white man” keeping us down – as Garvey reminded us during his 1937 visit – we should note that we’ve been independent for 59 years and are a Republic for 55!! So, shouldn’t we have straightened out things by now?? Well, yes…save that we discovered that our own – like Burnham – could oppress us even worse!!
Be woke to his successors who’d ban again!!
…on Village Rams
The story of the fella with 14 children – inside and outside – reminded your Eyewitness of Sparrow’s classic on Caribbean machismo – the Village Ram. “Not a woman ever complain yet with me.
I ent boasting but I got durability. And if a woman ever say that I/ Ever left her dissatisfied, She lie, she lie, she lie!! Is me the Village Ram / I don’t give a damn, / Ah cutting down black and white
Man Ah wucking day and night.
If you have a job to be done see me – I ent making fun. Beware when Ah drinking rum. I ent like to done/ And Ah bad like a cobra snake / doh try to escape/ When Ah put you in the clinch/ Doh care how you bite and pinch/ And Ah got meh hand on yuh mouth/ The way Ah does lock yuh neck yuh cyar shout. All meh bouts is fifteen rounds/ If you ent in shape doh come/ Anytime this champion connect.”
The power of the punch always get respect” Still?
