What The N-Word, DEI, Woke-ness, and Cancel Culture ALL Have in Common

 

March 6, 2023

    There's an itch that I've been trying to scratch for quite some time now. I was born in 1981 and grew up in Jersey City, NJ. I have lived through the HIV-AIDS epidemic, the terrorism of the "War on Drugs", mass incarceration, a few recessions, re-districting and redlining, gun violence, mass shootings, police-involved murders, COVID-19, a riot at our nation's capital - and YET I fear that there's a social condition that's worse - Cancel Culture and Woke-ness. On first blush, this sounds like a false equivocation, but hang in there...I never disappoint.

The term "cancel culture" was introduced into the American lexicon a few years ago to describe the mechanism by which an individual or organization can be disenfranchised as a result of making an offensive remark, statement, work of art, or commercial product. Individuals and organizations that have been "canceled" have been terminated from employment or contracts, socially ostracized, and otherwise scorned. 

The term "woke-ness" was also introduced recently into our consciousness(or nightmares) to describe the intellectual, social, and emotional indignation an individual or an organization expresses when xenophobic, sexist, or homophobic offenses arise.

Add the following terms to my list of intellectual curiosities: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion(DEI) and the "n-word".

The intellectual "itch" I've been trying to scratch lives in the exploration of the a.) Authorship of these terms, b.) The Policing of these terms c.) The beneficiaries of these terms. d.) The victims of these terms.

Authorship - I don't want to imply that the authors aren't Black people, but I'm definitely saying that the authors aren't Black people. I've been Black for 42 years with parents who grew up in the Jim Crow Era, just two generations removed from sharecroppers. As a child, my parents never called me the "n-word"; but white people did. Even when I heard adults of color use racially derogatory terms, it grew as a source of sociological ownership in response to the racial oppression they experienced from white culture. As I grew up, I came to realize that though it lives as a term of endearment in many Black communities, that the word does not belong to us.

I also reflected on my childhood and the resonance of the terms "DEI" and "woke-ness". These weren't terms my community EVER used when I was a child. When my family schooled us as children about the harrows and snares of disobeying the societal rules created by dominant white culture, they didn't call it "DEI"; we called it "Surviving White People". My life as an African in America has never been about the need to diversify an unwilling environment, or to make an inequitable system more just, or demand that a hostile environment become more inclusive. The truth is that the white demand for Black bodies, talent, and intellect forced historically white communities to change their tune - but Black folks never requested the song. Jackie Robinson wasn't a story about integrating baseball; it was a story about white baseball teams gaining a competitive advantage through integration. That's capitalism not progress.

I also fail to recall being "Woke" as a child; it was called racial pride and knowing our history. As a child I vividly remember visiting the Schomburg Museum with my family and learning about young Arturo's incident in 3rd grade where a white teacher told him that "Black people don't have history". It spurred him on to not only know his history, but to create it and curate it. The fact that I know my history and insist on its accuracy when you misquote, misappropriate, and abuse it - should ONLY offend you, IF you intended to be offensive to me.

Question for the Crowd - If Black folks didn't invent the terms "DEI" and "Woke-ness"...then WHO DID?

Beneficiaries - I'm not suggesting that Black folks aren't the beneficiaries of  "cancel culture", but I'm definitely saying that we're NOT the beneficiaries of "cancel culture". Do you know what Black people call a day where we are called racial, sexist, and homophobic slurs? Monday. Do you know what we do on Tuesday as a response to Monday? We go back to work, school, or any other toxic environment where the -ism originated. We have never possessed the agency, social capital, or political power to "cancel" anyone.

And think about it - if Africans truly possessed the ability to "cancel" culture, wouldn't the Middle Passage, Trans-Atlantic Trade, institutionalized slavery, the Jim Crow Era, and the prison industrial complex ALL have been more opportune?

Question for the Crowd - If Black folks can't cancel folks...then WHO CAN?

Victims - Who, then are the victims of Wokism, the monetization and politization of the DEI Industrial Complex, and Cancel Culture? That's for you to decide. What I DO KNOW is that DEI and "Wokeness" have become more socially acceptable political dog whistles to "sound the hounds" of anti-Blackness. When Black people are hired, elevated, admitted, outspoken, or exonerated - so "toots" the dog whistle. I deeply believe that all humans are impacted by injustice, but Africans in America, especially women, seem to fall first.

At this point in my life and career, I am most certain that I do not speak for ALL Africans in America, nor do I care to. What I can tell you...ask you...humbly beseech of you brethren is to disassociate my name from your dog whistles. If you truly want Black people to "belong" in your schools, workplaces, and communities then please confront the terms that don't belong to us. We don't need DEI; you do. We don't need to be "woke", but you might need to wake up. I do believe that the gravest consequence of "Cancel Culture" is for Black people to cancel their subscriptions to helping the world cure an ill that we didn't cause. 

The N-Word: Doesn't belong to me.

DEI: - Doesn't belong to me.

Woke-ness: Doesn't belong to me.

Cancel Culture: Doesn't belong to me.

My parents named me Lawrence Q. Alexander II and I prefer that.

You can make your own choices, but I've made mine. I will live as a Black man without apology, fear, and most recently - the dog whistle.

Friends - we are beyond civil discourse. It is time to get serious about social and systemic change or sober about the consequences of our failure to do so.

Your Friend in the Fight....but by the pool.

- L.A.