The word “wokism” has flourished in the mouths of politicians lately, this English term is not easy to define and does not have the same meaning on the right and left of the board.
Jean-Michel Blanquer launches his think tank against “wokes”, Edouard Philippe warns against “wokism that can fall on you” … Difficult to escape in recent months the term “woke” in the political debate. However, only 14% of French people say they have ever heard of this concept according to an Ifop survey for The Express – and again, 8% without knowing what it is.
· Where does the term “woke” come from?
“Wokism” is a derivative of the English expression “to be woke”. It is the past participle of the verb wake which means to awaken. Literally, “woke” therefore means “to be awake”. The term begins to be used in African-American slang of the 1960s, note West France.
In a speech in June 1965, Martin Luther King urged students to stay “awake” and “be an engaged generation,” said Pap NDiaye, a social history scholar in the United States, at World.
The term then seems to disappear from the radar until 2008, when the American singer Erykah Badu sings “I stay woke” (“I stay awake”) 44 times in her song. Master Teacher, popularizing the expression among American youth.
The term strikes enough people to be taken up by the American movement Black Lives Matter, born in 2013 after the death of Trayvon Martin, and to spread widely across the Atlantic.
· But what does that mean?
“In a social justice context, this phrase defines someone who is aware of the injustices that may take place around them. This phrase is often used in opposition to ‘being asleep’ or not being educated about. socio-economic issues and on racial issues “, writes Radio-Canada.
If its primary meaning is judged positively, it has since drifted. “If the term ‘woke’ can always have this dimension of fighting against inequalities, the term ‘wokism’ brings together very different things such as inclusive writing, gender studies, the questioning of certain historical figures … , estimates Albin Wagener, teacher-researcher at Rennes-2 in speech and communication, interviewed by BFMTV.com.
“When we speak of wokism today, it is an insult from the conservative camp which targets the left”, continues the specialist.
· Who speaks of “wokism” in France?
Very little used in France before 2020, the term has gained notoriety in recent months by the use made of it by political leaders.
Sign that this term has found its place in the political world: the launch by Jean-Michel Blanquer of his Laboratory for the Republic to fight against “wokism”, a “doctrine” from which “France and its youth must escape”, he judges.
If the left can take hold of the notion, it is mainly used by “people with a right-wing tropism and shreds of a certain secular left who have a very pure conception of secularism and a great fear of Islam. “, emphasizes sociologist Michel Wievorka to BFMTV.com.
Laurent Dubreuil, professor at Cornell University and author of The dictatorship of identities, does not share this observation.
“The term is both used by radical left activists who speak in particular a lot of black identity. It should also be noted that Sandrine Rousseau was the only politician to claim it. On the other side of the political spectrum, far-right activists use it to denounce this movement … while claiming to themselves have a white identity, “he analyzes.
· Why is this term debated in France?
The term is the subject of heated debate in the political and intellectual sphere. On the right, we compare “wokism” to “a new moral culture, in which the status of victim becomes a social resource”, according to a Fondapol rating, the think tank headed by Dominique Reynié, former head of the LR list for the regional in 2015. “Wokism” would then go against French universalism.
The examples are legion for the proponents of this analysis: debunking of statues, new names of streets, cancellation of conferences …
“The principle of representative democracy is the majority. (…) Today, we run the risk of a dictatorship of minorities. The new ideology is to fracture people along sexual, racial and ethnic lines. limit the fields of possibilities. (…) On the contrary, we wanted the wide world, ”says journalist Brice Couturier in his book Ok millenials.
This diagnosis leaves sociologist Michel Wievorka, a time close to François Hollande and Yannick Jadot, doubtful. “It’s difficult to import an American concept of this type into French society. In the United States, the black question is in the country’s DNA. They were built on the slave trade, the Civil War. Our The situation in France is very different because we have a history linked to colonization “.
More broadly, the academic believes that this notion contributes to the “establishment of a semantic system”, which seeks to disqualify certain speeches. “The term ‘wokism’ is used today by people who lead a crusade against those who are victimized. But we would not be talking about the Holocaust today in France if Jewish victims had not said that it was necessary to tell it. The story must be criticized, “points out the co-author of Jews, Muslims and the Republic. “This is how she goes. “
“We do not do justice to its complexity of history if we want it to be only approached from the point of view of the dominant”, he still analyzes. “Yes, we have to talk about racism, decolonization, inequalities.”
· Will the word establish itself permanently in the political vocabulary?
Difficult to answer this question. “If we consider that ‘wokism’ is the descendant of expressions like ‘politically correct’ or ‘Islamo-leftism’, we can say that fashion will pass and that we will soon use another word. it designates will not disappear. Unbolt statues and change street names, we have been doing it since Ancient Rome “, deciphers the academic Albin Wagener.
Semiologist Elodie Mielczareck does not share this analysis. “When a new word appears, it is because it corresponds to a need to name something. In that sense, the word will last. And then the soft power American is still present, and will continue to be, in particular through the platforms that we consume every day “, judges the expert in communication.