Reader’s letter: Reaction to John Nash’s July piece

“The Times They Are a-Changin’” – I do hope so!

Motivated to write this response to an opinion piece in July’s Village Tweet (page 30) to offer an alternative view. John Nash seems very firmly rooted in the past and nostalgically looks back to when casual racism and sexism was acceptable and ‘meant no harm’. The equivalent view today would be the dismissal of causing offence as ‘just banter’; that hasn’t changed.

The term ‘woke’ means ‘awake to social injustice, particularly racism’. I can’t see a problem there and find no offence in being called ‘woke’, rather the opposite. I wear the badge with pride. The term originated in America as black citizens became more and more aware of, and less willing to put up with, unfair and discriminatory treatment. Again, hard to see anything to disagree with there.

It has now been adopted as a derogatory term by some to describe anyone who believes in social justice, fairness and equality – in race, gender, sexuality, age, disability, religion, etc. Sometimes described as a ‘culture war’ between right and left wing factions, this is artificially invented and stirred up by the tabloid press and on-line equivalent, to encourage discontent and division in society. People who acquire their news and vision of the world from a narrow range of sources then start believing the preposterous propaganda they read about ‘not being allowed to say…’ and getting in a bit of a twitch about these imaged impositions on their lives. No one really minds being called ‘love’ or ‘mate’, particularly by an older person, when used kindly. But when ‘dear’ or ‘love’ is used as a put-down to exert superiority or power it become a different thing and can be considered sexist. Few people mind a door being held open, or a seat offered on public transport by any gender or sex, that’s just polite not patronising.

Where all this leads is that the largely imagined ‘woke warriors’ become the enemy, the focus of debate and the reason why society is going to hell in a handcart. The ‘elite’ are dismissed as enemies of the people – the elite being in this context educated people like academics, teachers, doctors, lawyers and the expensively educated and privately wealthy people like Farage and Johnson are bizarrely seen as ‘men of the people’ and get away with quite extraordinary bad behaviour. That’s the rather inappropriately named Populism – not really very popular at all, but made more and more influential by a biased press as it suits their monetary and political interests to promote it. Turning ‘ordinary people’ against education is a clever move. Why would the people who currently hold the wealth and power want to share it with more people who can think for themselves and challenge the status quo?

In summary, if you stick to the guideline ‘Just be kind’ you can’t go far wrong. If you mistakenly cause offence by using outdated language or attitudes you will probably be forgiven. If you intend to cause offence by attempting to put someone down, particularly those in a less powerful or privileged position than yourself, then that is offensive and deserves to be challenged.

“Simples,” as the Meerkats would say! Jane – a sixty-something Woke Warrior

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR GAMMON

Village Tweet Spot the Difference

This knight is on his way to the Loxwood Joust (6th, 7th, 13th & 14th August). Can you spot the 11 differences?

Solution on page 39