We were sitting in a Sarasota NAACP meeting last week when we were informed that it had just been announced that the Advanced Placement course in African American studies was barred in Florida public schools by Ron DeSantis. The letter banning the elective AP course did not cite which law the course violated or what curriculum was objectionable. Yet, it prohibits instruction that could make students feel responsible or guilty for the past actions of others. In following with his ongoing racist rant, DeSantis, in his lust for repression, also took on the NHL for their diversity job fair and framed their efforts to bring a more diverse workforce to the NHL as a “woke conceit.”
These actions follow the DeSantis Stop WOKE Act and is part of his war on how racism and other aspects of history can be taught in schools and workplaces. It has taken a few days to digest all of this, and it has once again brought to the surface the concept of “woke” and the man that is heading up the anti-woke campaign in Florida. The image here is one of a racist, white man standing in the way of hiring diversity and educating students about the history and principles of black culture. Based on his thinking, we as a human race have not learned anything from having enslaved and lynched and taken the lives of Blacks, Jews, and other non-conforming men and women in this country.
On the front page of a local newspaper, the only thing missing in the picture of DeSantis and his squad were the white hoods over their heads and burning torches in their hands. Setting fire to the concept of woke is becoming the norm in Florida. God forbid we remember our past and learn from it. We seemed destined to repeat it and once again others will suffer. What a cruel race we can be. As human beings, shouldn’t we feel something about how others have been treated and learn from it?Despite the DeSantis scary concept that guilt is a killer, guilt itself can be a self-conscious emotion involving reflection on oneself and can be a good thing. For this is how one learns. But, not in Florida. Not in the Ron DeSantis world.
Maybe it is time to remind people what woke really means and what it stands for – for that question keeps circling. The word and concept of “being woke” originated back in the early 1900’s. In 1923, the theory of “waking up” became part of Black consciousness and social activism and was a call in Africa for more social and political awareness. A few years later in 1938, the phrase “stay woke” was part of a protest song by US Blues musician, Lead Belly. The song described an incident in 1931 where several Black teenagers were accused of a crime against two white women in Scottsboro, Arkansas. The advice from Lead Belly in the song was for Black people to “best stay woke, keep their eyes open.” Lead Belly used “stay woke” as a call for Black Americans to be aware of racially motivated threats and potential dangers.
In its current context, the true meaning of being “woke” is to be awake or awakened to events, particularly those involving social injustice and it best applies to all of us. It means remembering that some have bravely faced brutal acts forced upon them amidst a cruel backdrop.
One example of this in America’s shocking history is that of enslaved Black women who were placed in roles within antebellum plantation homes as baby nurses, cooks, and all-around domestics. Those held slaves were caretakers of white children and were also forced to wet-nurse white women’s children. This form of exploitation was specific to slave mothers in the antebellum south in the early 1800’s. Shocking photos of Black enslaved women holding white children to their breasts are not rare for this period.
Beyond this, throughout the antebellum south and the Jim Crow era, the image of a large, smiling Black woman was created and called “Mammy.” The mammy caricature showed a large, happy, shiny-faced Black woman. The image portrayed a mammy who was contented to live in the white’s world of exploitation and enslavement. She was a symbol of loyal servitude and somehow this was to be an indication of humanity of the institution of slavery. This imagery was neither realistic nor truthful. And the portrayal that slaves were happy is seen as a myth.
Those images of enslaved women do not reflect the potential of Black women who pioneered beyond the stereotype post slavery and recreated the vision of what Black women could truly be – strong and powerful. For example, Ruby Bridges, as a child in 1960, bravely walked the line to desegregate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. As an adult, her advocacy for racial equality has not faltered.
And in Montgomery, Alabama, a monument stands today to honor a dozen young Black enslaved women who were forced to endure cruel medical experimentation over 170 years ago. The monument called “Mothers,” sculpted by artist Michelle Browder, stands today in honor of these women and is a tribute to Black and civil rights history that is often forgotten. What Browder has accomplished here has started a conversation and recently she purchased the two-story building that sits on the very site where these brutal and inhumane experiments were performed. This building is soon to be a Health and Wellness space for women and will focus on black maternal health.
Not to be forgotten in history is that of the Holocaust and its survivors. Six million innocent Jewish people lost their lives during that time. Those survivors now in their 90’s and 100’s remain advocates for tolerance and compassion. Many lost their entire families to starvation or in concentration camps during WW II. Withholding of food, labor camps, and gas chambers were the brutal reality for the Jewish people during that time. Those who survived have suffered unmeasurable grief, loss, survivors’ guilt, and compelling memories. Yet today these remaining survivors have flourished with lives that are dedicated to remembrance and educating others of the past. They teach of the atrocities of the Holocaust, of the isolation, and the pain and suffering.
The above accounts stand as proof that there are everyday heroes all around us. Some have taken small steps and some large and more noticeable steps.
During this new year, let us lean in on understanding that being woke or awakened by these events in our history is a good thing and that we can learn from them. To understand and appreciate the pain of others is the ultimate human emotion. We are capable and we just need to let it happen and allow ourselves to be a part of something greater than ourselves. Being “woke” is never forgetting those who came before us and whose shoulders we stand upon at this moment. Because of their heroism, we can celebrate freedom and prosperity today.
Good leaders are respected, not feared
