Woke corporations should not worry you. Woke individuals should.
Companies such as McDonald’s and Shell endorse and enforce a message of “wokeness” only because they believe it will protect their bottom lines from the wrath of racial and social justice activists. This halfhearted, self-serving participation in “woke” culture ensures their efforts will never become extreme or militant. They cannot rock the boat too much, or it will defeat the purpose.
Individual academics, authors, activists, journalists, and people you may even know personally, on the other hand, are not constrained by shareholders or similar fiduciary responsibilities. They can be far more radical and, unlike faceless corporations, they are the ones who can change minds and influence entire generations. This is not in of itself a bad thing, obviously, but it can be toxic depending on just how far these people are willing to go to promote their version of “woke.”
For now, corporate America’s ham-handed messages of “inclusivity,” “love,” and “justice” have inspired little more than scorn. The public is smart enough to recognize a business-driven pander when it sees one. Sometimes, it is impossible not to see it.
Burger King drew mockery on June 26 after it rebranded itself in Mexico as “Burger Queer” in honor of Pride month.
Earlier, on June 6, the fruit snack Gushers said in a tweet that was met with similar ridicule, “Gushers wouldn’t be Gushers without the Black community and your voices. We’re working with [Fruit By the Foot] on creating space to amplify that. We see you. We stand with you.”
Even earlier than that, in 2017, Pepsi became the object of scorn when it released an ad showing Kendall Jenner solemnly hand a soft drink to a riot cop during a tense standoff between law enforcement and demonstrators, thus discovering the cure for racism (or whatever it was she was protesting). That same year, Brawny paper towels became a bit of a punchline after it removed its macho lumberjack mascot and replaced him with flannel-clad women, suggesting either that it takes several women to do the job of one man or that women are better suited for cleaning.
But what happens when a far more radical “woke” message is adopted and deployed by an individual with far more cunning and grace than any bumbling paper towel company? What happens when a seemingly credible and charismatic individual takes the message of racial and social justice too far, straying headfirst into something resembling racialism?
Then you get Robin DiAngelo, whose grotesque 2018 manifesto, White Fragility, shot to the top of best-sellers this year following the wrongful death of George Floyd, transforming her into a top-tier celebrity practically overnight. Unlike Gushers or Shell, people are taking this suddenly very popular author seriously, and that is why you should be worried. First, DiAngelo’s professed beliefs are far more radical than any social justice message produced in a corporate meeting. Her message is simple: It is quite literally impossible for white people not to be racist. Second, unlike Gushers or Burger King, DiAngelo is not obviously seeking to ingratiate herself with “woke” culture for personal profit (though there is a strong argument to be made that she is doing exactly that). She is careful enough to avoid appearing overeager, in contrast to corporate America’s laughably self-serving embrace of the “woke.” Unfortunately, this is helping DiAngelo capture hearts and minds with her nonsense. Few, if any, seem to realize that they are tripping over themselves to elevate a former corporate consultant whose participation in the “woke” debate has profited her professional career enormously.
Journalist Matt Taibbi has, by far, the sharpest and keenest take on her rise: “DiAngelo isn’t the first person to make a buck pushing tricked-up pseudo-intellectual horseshit as corporate wisdom,” he writes, “but she might be the first to do it selling Hitlerian race theory.”
Indeed. Slick-talking salesmen profiting on the anxieties of others is nothing new. But profiting specifically on the back of a dangerously bigoted, hyper-racialist form of social justice? That is quite new. It is also extremely toxic, especially because DiAngelo’s book has wormed its way already into the mainstream.
The great awokening of corporate America is as obviously self-serving as it is heavy-handed. Most people are clever enough to see through the ruse, to their amusement or anger. And even if a billion-dollar business were to promote a form of wokeism as dangerous as DiAngelo’s, the threat would be relatively mild because no one takes their cues about how to act or treat others from McDonald’s.
But it is the individual activists, the DiAngelos of the world, that you need to watch out for, precisely because they tend to be more convincing and less restrained than even a soulless corporation.
