Abstract

At its core, 'We Have Never Been Woke' seeks to explain the following tension: the Americans who are most likely to identify themselves as socialists, feminists, antiracists, etc. also happen to be among the primary beneficiaries of racialized, gendered and other forms of systematic inequalities -- and not passive beneficiaries. Instead, they (we) actively perpetuate and exploit inequalities. However, it is difficult for them (us) to ‘see’ how they (we) contribute to the problem -- precisely because of their (our) deeply felt commitments to social justice. So they (we) expropriate blame to others… often people who benefit far less from the system, and exert far less influence over it, than they themselves (we ourselves) do. The book will argue that the 'crisis of expertise,' growing inequality, the rise of Trump and contemporary tensions around 'identity politics' are all fronts of a deeper socio-economic and cultural conflict between the 'winners' in the knowledge economy and the people who feel displaced or marginalized therein. It will highlight how wokeness is often deployed as a weapon in this conflict, often at the expense of those who are actually marginalized and disadvantaged. In the process, it will demonstrate at length how symbolic analysts’ preferred narratives about social problems often inhibit our ability to accurately understand and adequately address those problems. It is a text, then, that will lie at the intersection of science and technology studies and contemporary sociological research on elites and on inequality. A brief preview is available via the external link below.