Abstract
This paper explores the emergence and proliferation of Wokism and Cancel culture in the context of democracy. It traces the origins and evolution of the aforementioned concepts and their contemporary application through the conceptual framework of concept appropriation. The key finding is that the current discussions on racism and social justice are significantly dependent in the way concepts like ‘Whiteness’ and ‘Blackness’ are interpreted. This enquiry reveals a tendency to conflate ‘Whiteness’ and ‘White supremacy’ and to appropriate ‘Blackness’ in a way that creates an otherness that distinguishes African-Americans from other members of the Black race. It also identifies the dangers of Wokism and Cancel culture to democracy like impediment to the rule of law and free speech. The major contribution of this paper is the utility of concept appropriation in explaining how ambiguous and benign concepts can be employed to re-characterize racialization and influence the understanding of race relations.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
This is not applicable to this article because it did not generate any dataset and did not make use of any data.
References
Abrams SL (2017) What makes a person ‘truly’ black? The complicated intersection of genetics and race. The Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-makes-a-person-truly_b_10432316. Accessed 29 Apr 2021
ACLRC (2021) Whiteness. Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre. http://www.aclrc.com/whiteness. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
Adams C (2020) Not all black people are African American. Here’s the difference’. CBS NEWS. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/not-all-black-people-are-african-american-what-is-the-difference/. Accessed 29 Apr 2021
Barone A, Barnier B (2021) What is the American dream?. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/american-dream.asp#:7E:text=The%20American%20dream%20is%20the,mobility%20is%20possible%20for%20everyone. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
Blumenbach JF, Bendyshe T (1865) The anthropological treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. Anthropological Society, London
Bradshaw S, Howard PN (2019) The global disinformation order 2019: global inventory of organised social media manipulation. https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/93/2019/09/CyberTroop-Report19.pdf. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Britannica (2022) Riding freedom: 10 milestones in U.S. civil rights history. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/list/riding-freedom-10-milestones-in-us-civil-rights-history. Accessed 10 Feb 2022
Budiman A (2020) Key findings about U.S. immigrants. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants. Accessed 26 Apr 2021
Burke M (2016) 6 immigrant stories that will make you believe in the American dream again. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2016/10/04/6-immigrant-stories-that-will-make-you-believe-in-the-american-dream-again/?sh=3eb9d5cf8027. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
Carter SP et al (2007) What do you mean by whiteness?: A professor, four doctoral students, and a student affairs administrator explore whiteness. Coll Stud Aff J 26(2):152–159
Churchwell S (2018) End of the American dream? The dark history of ‘America first’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/21/end-of-the-american-dream-the-dark-history-of-america-first. Accessed 28 Apr 2021
Coates T-N (2013) What we mean when we say ‘race is a social construct’. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/what-we-mean-when-we-say-race-is-a-social-construct/275872/. Accessed 27 Apr 2021
Coon C (1968) The origin of races. Cape, London
Connor P, López G (2016) 5 facts about the U.S. rank in worldwide migration. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/18/5-facts-about-the-u-s-rank-in-worldwide-migration/. Accessed 26 Apr 2021
Davis FJ (2014) Who is black? One nation’s definition. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/onedrop.html. Accessed 29 Apr 2021
Diamond A (2018) The original meanings of the “American dream” and “America first” were starkly different from how we use them today. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/behold-america-american-dream-slogan-book-sarah-churchwell-180970311/. Accessed 28 Apr 2021
Dictionary.com (2021) Definition of woke. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/woke. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
Dudenhoefer N (2020) Is cancel culture effective? How public shaming has changed. PEGASUS. https://www.ucf.edu/pegasus/is-cancel-culture-effective/. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
Freeman J (2020) Black lives matter and the family. https://www.wsj.com/articles/black-lives-matter-and-the-family-11595530123. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Gannon M (2016) Race is a social construct, scientists argue. Scientific American, 5. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Glendinning L (2008) Barack Obama declares ‘change has come to America’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/05/barack-obama-victory-speech-chicago. Accessed 10 Feb 2022
Golchin A (2015) The most common reasons why people immigrate to US. https://sandiegoimmigrationlawcenter.com/the-most-common-reasons-why-people-immigrate-to-us/. Accessed 26 Apr 2021
Gopal P (2020) We can’t talk about racism without understanding whiteness. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/04/talk-about-racism-whiteness-racial-hierarchy. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
Gottbrath L-W (2020) In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement shook the world. Aljazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/12/31/2020-the-year-black-lives-matter-shook-the-world. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Grzanka PR et al (2020) The white racial affect scale (WRAS): a measure of White guilt, shame, and negation. Counsel Psychol 48(1):47–77
Hall R (2017) Who counts as black?. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/who-counts-as-black-71443. Accessed 29 Apr 2021
Harper’s Magazine (2020) A letter on justice and open debate. Harper’s Magazine. https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Hickman CB (1997) The devil and the one drop rule: racial categories, African Americans, and the US census. Michigan Law Rev 95(5):1161–1265
International Organization for Migration (2020) World migration report 2020’ https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/wmr_2020.pdf. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Johnson EP (2003) Appropriating blackness: performance and the politics of authenticity. Duke University Press, Durham
Kaba M (2020) Yes, we mean literally abolish the police. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Lawson S (2019) Evidence mounts of social media’s negative impacts for democracy’. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/seanlawson/2019/11/07/evidence-mounts-of-social-medias-negative-impacts-for-democracy/?sh=5e0eb07114b8. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Merriam-Webster (n.d.a) Cancel culture. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cancel%20culture. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
Merriam-Webster (n.d.b) Blackness. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blackness. Accessed 29 Apr 2021
Milazzo M (2017) On white ignorance, white shame, and other pitfalls in critical philosophy of race. J Appl Philoso 34(4):557–572
Miller JR (2020) BLM site removes page on ‘nuclear family structure’ amid NFL vet’s criticism. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2020/09/24/blm-removes-website-language-blasting-nuclear-family-structure/. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Mirzaei A (2019) Where ‘woke’ came from and why marketers should think twice before jumping on the social activism bandwagon. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/where-woke-came-from-and-why-marketers-should-think-twice-before-jumping-on-the-social-activism-bandwagon-122713#:7E:text=Woke%20history26text=In%20literal%20terms%2C%20being%20woke,being%20awake%20and%20not%20asleep.26text=The%20Oxford%20dictionary%20expanded%20its,in%20society%2C%20especially%20racism%E2%80%9D. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
Morris AD (1999) A retrospective on the civil rights movement: political and intellectual landmarks. Ann Rev Sociol 25(1):517–539
Negy C (2020) White shaming: bullying based on prejudice, virtue-signaling, and ignorance. Kendall Hunt, Dubuque, IA
Newton M (2020) Is prescribing white shame possible? Pluralist 15(1):46–53
NMAAHC (2021) Whiteness. https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
NPR (2006) ‘White Guilt’ and the end of the civil rights era, NPR. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5385701
Onwuachi-Willig A (2016) Race and racial identity are social constructs. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/16/how-fluid-is-racial-identity/race-and-racial-identity-are-social-constructs. Accessed 27 Apr 2021
PBS (2022) Milestones of the civil rights movement. American Experience. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eyesontheprize-milestones-civil-rights-movement/#:7E:text=The%20landmark%201964%20act%20barred,to%20help%20enforce%20the%20law. Accessed 10 Feb 2022
Rahman K (2020) Black Lives Matter Chicago organizer defends looting: “that’s reparations”.’ Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/black-lives-matter-chicago-defends-looting-reparations-1524502. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Ray R (2020) What does ‘defund the police’ mean and does it have merit?. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/19/what-does-defund-the-police-mean-and-does-it-have-merit/. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Sadler K (2021) Top 10 recent examples of cancel culture. Washington Times. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/feb/16/top-10-recent-examples-cancel-culture/. Accessed 30 Apr 2021
Sotomayor M, Memoli M (2020) Biden apologizes for saying African Americans ‘ain’t black’ if they back Trump re-election. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/biden-tells-african-americans-you-ain-t-black-if-they-n1212911. Accessed 29 Apr 2021
Steinmetz K (2017) The Oxford English dictionary just added ‘woke’. TIME. https://time.com/4830959/oxford-english-dictionary-woke/. Accessed 10 Apr 2021
White IK, Laird CN (2020) Why are blacks democrats?. https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/why-are-blacks-democrats. Accessed 29 Apr 2021
United States Census Bureau (2021) About race. https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html. Accessed 29 Apr 2021
Acknowledgements
Not applicable.
Funding
This article did not benefit from any research funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
I am the sole author of this article.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Informed consent
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Conflict of interest
I hereby declare that I have no potential conflict of interest pertaining to this submission to SN Social Sciences.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Fon, N. The ‘Woke’ way or the highway: American democracy in the age of ‘Wokism’ and ‘Cancel Culture’. SN Soc Sci 4, 90 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00886-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00886-w