Analysis: The ‘anti-woke’ crusade has come to Europe. Its effects could be chilling

Stripped of its original meaning of a person being awake to progressive issues, “woke” has been appropriated from the Black vernacular and turned into a political lightning rod in the West’s culture wars. It is now used pejoratively by lawmakers and pundits from both left and right, criticizing the perceived excesses of social and racial justice movements.The politicization of the word, which has seen degrees of success in the United States, has bolstered political resistance to calls for more equality in Europe. The amorphous term has also been interpreted differently, depending on where it is deployed. In the United Kingdom, woke is used to “describe anything that could previously [be] described as ‘politically correct,'” Evan Smith, a visiting fellow at Australia’s Flinders University and author of “No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism and the Limits of Free Speech,” told CNN. The term is “used to describe a broad range of ideas [and] movements concerned with social justice,” including anti-racism, intersectional feminism, trans rights and critical histories of the British empire, he said. Cultural institutions and academics have been targeted by members of the ruling Conservative Party for supporting those movements. In September, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesperson accused a charity set up in the name of Winston Churchill of trying to “airbrush” the “giant achievements” of the former wartime leader. The charity’s mistake? Being accused in rightwing tabloids of being “woke,” for changing its name from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to The Churchill Fellowship and acknowledging that Churchill’s views on race would not be accepted today. “The Prime Minister has always been clear that whilst it’s legitimate to examine Britain’s history and we should aim to educate people about all aspects of our complex past, both good and bad, and not erase them,” the spokesperson said at the time according to PA Media. “We need to focus on addressing the present, and not attempt to rewrite the past and get sucked into the never-ending debate about which well-known historical figures are sufficiently pure or politically correct to remain in public view.” These anti-woke government interventions have power. They “sharpen the public’s sense of moral purpose and help to galvanise voters in a country they perceive to be under siege,” “Woke is seen as a threat that comes from a society thought to be multicultural and violent and does not have the same values on secularism that France does,” Hayat said. The word plays against the French egalitarian, anti-elitist mindset, said Hayat, placing all the theories someone might struggle to understand, such as intersectional feminism, “into a single phenomenon that came from outside France.” As Franco-American relations plunged to new lows this fall over a security deal the US forged in secret with the UK and Australia, French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer opened a think tank to uphold French values against what he described as “wokeism.”Speaking to France’s Le Monde newspaper about his think tank, Blanquer said “wokeism” is an ideology that “fragments and divides, and has conquered certain political, media and academic circles.” He added that the backlash to “wokeism” helped “bring Donald Trump to power; France and its youth must escape this.” New bogeyman According to Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal scholar from Toulouse Capitole University, woke’s arrival in France’s culture wars is part of a wider reaction among members of Macron’s party, La République en Marche (LREM), against left-wing and progressive views, rearing its head after It also raises questions about academic freedoms, Hayat told CNN. France only needs to look at how Hungarian leaders chipped away at its education sector, banning gender studies in colleges and History has been the main battleground, where the Conservative government pits patriotism against any attempt to reckon with Britain’s colonial past. It is a narrative that has played out in the education sector, which has seen a government-picked commission release a race report that fended off calls to “decolonize” Britain’s schooling curriculum. This atmosphere can have a chilling effect on cultural institutions that may feel compelled to think twice about what programs they support or which people they hire. This is alleged to have played out at the BBC, when media executive Marcus Ryder’s job application was reportedly blocked due to his It also shows that while the anti-woke messaging works with their base, British society is getting more multi-ethnic, tolerant and woke, Bale said. “The Conservatives are going to have to make a decision if they carry on railing against the way society is going,” Bale said. “There is a long-term risk for them as it alienates [younger] future voters who they need to keep on side,” Bale added. “There is a limited number of grumpy, older White men to get off on this kind of stuff.” Even the 73-year-old grandson of Winston Churchill, Nicholas Soames, has heard enough, calling the furor over the Churchill Trust “so sad and so pathetic” in an interview with the Times. “Apparently anyone who modernizes anything or does anything to remotely bring it up to date is ‘woke.'” he said. “It’s absolute b****cks.”