We Have Never Been Woke is a work of, by, and for the American professional class. According to its author, Musa al-Gharbi, this is a social class defined by its manipulations of symbols and its distinctive symbolic culture.
During the Great Awokening of 2011 to the present, America’s elite seemed to descend into wanton self-flagellation. Millions purchased copies of books telling them that they were racists. Employers across the country shuffled their employees into training sessions to work on their “bias” and “privilege.” Activists sought to transform their workplaces, institutions, even all of society through a project for equality. Yet in al-Gharbi’s view, the Great Awokening was not an equality project at all, but instead, a project to empower and legitimate the professional class itself. Per the book’s title, that class—“we”—have never been woke.
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