Redefining the media narrative: are students woke?

The media has spun their story about students, but how accurate is it?

Jay Barber
24th April 2023
Image Credit: FREESVG
The term ‘woke’ has its roots in African American Vernacular English, originally phrased as having ‘woke up’ and become “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” In recent years, the term has been expanded to encompass awareness of other social issues, such as sexism and homophobia, as well as being weaponised against those with left-wing beliefs.

The use of ‘woke’ as a derogatory term implies that those with left-wing views are self-righteous, overly sensitive and pedantic. The idea of ‘woke nonsense’ is the partner in crime of the so-called ‘snowflake’ mindset. Certain branches of media love to echo this narrative – everyone is just too sensitive these days, with inflated egos and a desire to be special.

It is absolutely no surprise that students get this label thrown at us, time and time again, and most often in the pejorative sense. At the time of writing, the phrase ‘woke students’ turns up almost 38 million results in 0.38 seconds. The title headlines are revealing, to say the least – the Daily Mail tells their readers that half of universities “peddle their woke agenda to students”. There’s even a league table for ‘wokeness’ at Universities compiled by Dr Richard Norrie – I name him not to raise his status, but to show that a doctorate doesn’t guarantee intelligence. The supposedly ‘damning’ report calculates a score based on the presence of trigger warnings, anti-racism training, commitments to decolonisation, and more – according to this ranking system, Newcastle University takes 5th place for ‘wokest’ university. One conservative peer, Lord Wei of Shoreditch, has gone so far as to suggest that there should be financial incentives for students and graduates who are ‘less woke’.

We’re infantilised and invalidated in one fell sweep

The claim that students are being brainwashed by universities into a ‘woke agenda’ is, in my opinion, downright insulting. It suggests that we don’t have minds of our own by 18 years old, despite all the effort we’ve put into getting to university in the first place, and pushes the idea that students wouldn’t care about any of the many social issues present in day-to-day life if we were not told to do so by our institution. We’re infantilised and invalidated in one fell sweep. It ignores the many young activists who put time and effort into addressing social injustices from their own desire to do so – after all, I don’t know many student activists who were inspired to champion a cause because of how well it was addressed in school.

Student activism has and always will exist, regardless of the current moral panic that woke-ism in the UK is poisoning Gen Z brains for the first time in recorded history. As times change, those in charge are often reluctant to admit that they’re clinging onto the past, emboldened and blinded by their privilege – when the world works in your favour, why would you want it to change? Instead of listening to underrepresented groups on issues such as acceptable terminology and the importance of inclusivity, those who seek to create change are branded as sensitive and accused of creating unnecessary problems.

The idea of the woke student means that a lot of us, thankfully, don’t stand by and allow bigotry to go unchallenged. On a large scale, more students recognise flaws in the curriculum and seek to see this change. We engage in activism – here at Newcastle, we have a range of volunteering groups and societies who make change at a grassroots level. On a personal level, we’re more aware of the need for trigger warnings. While an old, white man in Westminster might say we’re being pathetic for wanting content warnings, I’d like to think that we’re simply extending empathy and understanding to our friends and classmates.

In all honesty, I hope that students continue to do the things that get us labelled as woke. We’re actively trying to make the world a more equal place – which is more than can be said for a lot of anti-woke politicians. The funniest part of the debate, to me, is that those who harass student activists are doing exactly what they hate to see… they’re getting offended that an alternative opinion is being expressed, and I’d bet that a lot of the anger is simply because they’ve realised they’re awful at arguing against the facts.

At the end of the day, I think a lot of students are woke – and there’s no doubt it my mind, I’d rather be a woke snowflake than a bigot.

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