Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has denounced the current left-wing attack on black conservatives and a focus on being “woke,” saying the concept is harmful and as detrimental as white supremacy.
“Woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy,” the South Carolina senator said Monday evening in an appearance on “Fox News Primetime.”
Host Trey Gowdy called out and condemned MSNBC host Joy Reid for her attacks on Scott because of his support for conservative policies.
Gowdy, a former Republican congressman who is also from South Carolina, was reacting to a recent segment from Reid in which she made a comment about Scott as being “token” and a prop to show that Republicans have a “patina of diversity.”
“Tim Scott is too good a man to respond to this. I am not,” said Gowdy.
“Tim Scott was one of three U.S. senators chosen to work on the tax reform legislation, because he made himself an expert on the issue, not because he’s black.”
While Scott and other conservatives believe being “woke” by judging people on social justice trends is dangerous and divisive, many on the left celebrate being “woke” as a moral obligation.
In 2017, a group of prominent female activists, including Reid, gave an interview to Essence Magazine on what “woke” means to them. Reid said people who are “woke” have to take opportunities to fix any perceived injustice they see around them.
“The thing is to do that, knowing that you can fix it whatever your level or platform is, because there’s always an opportunity for you to do just a little something to support [those who are disenfranchised],” Reid told Essence.
Shonda Rhimes a television producer, screenwriter, and author who is best known as the executive producer of the medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” said being woke “means that you recognize that the world is not a simple place, that everything is not all equal, that justice has not happened yet for everyone, and that there is a lot of work to be done.”
Linda Sarsour, a controversial Palestinian-American activist, said that “woke” means being “outraged” all the time.
“For me, it is just being outraged all the time and being able to stay human and feel outraged about the injustice that is happening around me,” said Sarsour.
Meanwhile, former president Barack Obama, in a 2019 interview, criticized the idea of being “woke” as judgmental and not truly being able to bring about change.
“[There is] this idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws,” Obama said.
“There is this sense sometimes, of the way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people and that’s enough. Like if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or use the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because man you see how woke I was. I called you out,” added Obama.
