{"id":113653,"date":"2024-11-17T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/home2\/my-turn-proud-to-be-woke\/"},"modified":"2024-11-17T21:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T06:30:00","slug":"my-turn-proud-to-be-woke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/my-turn-proud-to-be-woke\/","title":{"rendered":"My Turn: Proud to be ‘woke’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wokeness: the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination: “will this new era of wokeness really change things?” (Oxford Language)<\/em><\/p>\n

I am proud to be “woke.”<\/p>\n

This word, lifted from Black culture, is meant to be derogatory. It has become an anthem of the MAGA world.<\/p>\n

As an Alaska Native descendant, I hope my grandchildren are taught about the evils of racism and how Native Americans had their lands taken from them. I want them and all Alaskans to learn about how boarding schools ripped children from their parents and stripped them of their language and culture.<\/p>\n

All Americans should be taught how Blacks rose from slavery only to be subjected to Jim Crow laws, and became second-class citizens in separate but unequal schools, housing, employment and voting rights.<\/p>\n

What’s wrong with educating our children about how Japanese Americans were locked in internment camps during World War Two? Or how in a land of immigrants European Jews hoping to flee from Hitler’s mass extermination were denied entry to the U.S.<\/p>\n

Despite the horrors these citizens were subjected to, Native Americans, Blacks and Japanese Americans played key roles in the military during WWII.<\/p>\n

Learning about the racial history of the U.S. makes White American children feel ashamed, a complaint repeatedly voiced by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Florida’s legislature subsequently passed House Bill 7 which restricts what can be taught to students about certain topics, including race.<\/p>\n

Materials for grades K-6 had read civil rights icon Rosa Parks “was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin.”<\/p>\n

Studies Weekly, a publisher that provides educational periodicals for Florida’s K-6 grades, revised one of their lesson plans for the 2022-2023 school year to take out race as the reason Parks was told to change her bus seat and why she was subsequently arrested.<\/p>\n

In response to public and political reaction, the race reference was restored, but I anticipate there will be more attempts to rewrite history as wokeism is a key issue in the MAGA world.<\/p>\n

My “wokeism” extends beyond history, as I have long been a feminist and have several family members who are trans and I wish them best in their new lives.<\/p>\n

I am proud to be “woke.”<\/p>\n

• Rodger Painter is a Juneau resident who can trace his Alaska roots to 1798 when an Alutiiq woman married a Russian trader. He is a former journalist, legislative aide and was active in Alaska seafood politics for decades.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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