‘Woke’ Is Not a Race, Sex, or Sexual Preference Category

by Thomas James, a blob of protoplasm residing in Minnesota

As everybody knows or should know by now, WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia for possessing a small amount of medical marijuana. She was convicted and received a harsh, years-long prison sentence. What many people do not know is that schoolteacher Marc Fogel also was arrested in Russia for possessing medical marijuana. He, too, received a harsh, years-long prison sentence for it.

Government and media players have been paying considerably less attention to Fogel’s plight than to Griner’s. To explain the differential treatment, a lot of people are saying that Fogel is “not woke enough.” See, for example, this or this.

Who is Marc Fogel?

Marc Fogel is an American schoolteacher who has taught history to students in countries other than the United States. It appears that he was teaching in Russia when he was arrested in August 2021 for trying to enter the country with medical marijuana. He has been sentenced to 14 years in a Russian prison for it.

Despite the repeated claim that he is “not woke enough” for people in positions of power to care about, very little (if any) information about his ideology or beliefs has been reported. Asked “What makes you think he is woke or not woke? What do you know about him?” Rep. Guy Reschenthaler replied that he did not know Mr. Fogel’s political affiliation. Despite his lack of knowledge about Fogel’s views, Reschenthaler decried the White House for giving people preferential treatment on the basis of whether or not “they subscribe to the administration’s preferred ideology.”

To my knowledge, nobody who has said that Mr. Fogel is not perceived as being “woke” enough has backed up the claim with any evidence or examples. When I ask people I know to explain why they think wokeness, or the lack thereof, explains the differential treatment of Griner and Fogel, they tell me that it is clear as day: Griner is a Black lesbian female, while Fogel is a White heterosexual (or cis, depending on whom you ask) male. Apparently they believe that is all I should need to know.

It isn’t.

What does ‘woke’ mean?

According to Merriam-Webster, woke is an adjective that is used to denote the quality or state of being aware of “important societal facts and issues,” especially racial and social justice issues. The Wikipedia entry is to similar effect, defining it as being “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.”

The origin of the term has been traced back to the 1930s, when it was used by Black musician Leadbelly to refer to an awareness of issues affecting African Americans. In the present millennium, its meaning has been expanded to include awareness of issues affecting other selected demographic groups, i.e., women, non-heterosexuals, and people with nontraditional gender identities.

To my knowledge, there is not any reason to believe that Mr. Fogel is insensitive to issues facing people in any of these demographic groups.

Demographic groups are not ideologies

It is incredible that it is necessary to point this out, but ideas are not physical. Nor are they genetically predetermined. There can be — and are — Black Republicans and White Democrats; female conservatives and male liberals. There are “cis” atheists and there are church-going folks in the LGBTQ+ community.

If you mean to say that you think Marc Fogel’s case has not been given as much attention as Brittney Griner’s because of his race, sex, gender and/or sexual orientation, then say that. Don’t go around ascribing ideas, beliefs and loyalties to people on the basis of their skin color, national origin, and so on. That is how human civilizations come to have concentration and internment camps.

Hopefully, we have not yet arrived at a point where it is also necessary to explain why those are not good things.