You’ve probably heard the word "woke" used as a punchline, a political weapon, or a badge of honor. It’s everywhere. It’s in our coffee shop debates and our legislative sessions. But here is the thing: a lot of people are starting to realize that the way we talk about it is fundamentally broken. When Alana Lentin released her book We Were Never Woke, she wasn't just trying to be edgy. She was making a deeply researched, academic, and socio-political case that what we call "wokeness" today is actually a strategic distraction.
We think we're in the middle of a brand-new cultural revolution. We aren't.
Actually, the term has been hijacked. Lentin, a Professor of Cultural and Social Analysis at Western Sydney University, argues that the contemporary obsession with "wokeness"—both from those who claim to be it and those who rail against it—serves to protect the status quo rather than dismantle it. It’s a bold claim. It suggests that the "culture wars" are a sort of theatre. While we argue about pronouns or statues, the underlying structures of power remain exactly where they’ve always been.
The Myth of the Great Awakening
Most people assume "wokeness" is this recent phenomenon that spilled out of Tumblr or Twitter and into the HR departments of Fortune 500 companies. That’s a mistake. The history is much longer. It started in Black American culture, specifically within the blues tradition and the Civil Rights movement, as a literal call to stay "woke" to the very real dangers of racial violence.
But then, something shifted.
The state and the media took a term meant for survival and turned it into a "liberal" lifestyle brand. Lentin’s core thesis in We Were Never Woke is that the liberal state is incredibly good at absorbing dissent. It takes radical ideas, buffs out the sharp edges, and sells them back to us as "diversity and inclusion" initiatives. This process doesn't actually help the people at the bottom. It just makes the people at the top feel more moral about staying there.
Honestly, it’s a brilliant survival mechanism for power. If you can make justice feel like a matter of personal "awareness" rather than systemic change, you never have to change the system. You just have to change the training manual.
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Why the Right and Left Both Get It Wrong
The Right uses "woke" as a catch-all for anything they dislike about modern culture. It’s a boogeyman. On the other side, the "Liberal Left" often uses it to signal their own virtue. Lentin argues both sides are participating in a performance.
- The "Anti-Woke" crowd needs the phantom of wokeness to justify a return to traditionalist hierarchies.
- The "Liberal Woke" crowd needs the performance to avoid doing the harder work of wealth redistribution or structural reform.
It’s a stalemate. A loud, exhausting, never-ending stalemate.
Lentin points out that by focusing on "identity politics" as a purely discursive or linguistic battle, we lose sight of material reality. For example, a company might update its logo for Pride month while simultaneously lobbying against a living wage. They are "woke" in the superficial sense, but their impact on the world remains conservative. This is why the phrase We Were Never Woke hits so hard—it suggests that the radical potential of the term was killed before it ever became mainstream.
The Trap of Liberal Anti-Racism
There’s this idea that if we just educate everyone enough, racism will vanish. Lentin is skeptical. In fact, she’s more than skeptical; she’s critical. She argues that "liberal anti-racism" is often just a way for the state to manage populations. It turns a political struggle into an educational one.
Think about it.
If racism is just a "lack of awareness," then the solution is more workshops. But if racism is a tool used to organize labor and resources, workshops won't touch it. Lentin's work draws heavily on scholars like Cedric Robinson, who spoke about "racial capitalism." The idea is that you can't have our current economic system without racial hierarchies. If that’s true, then a "woke" version of capitalism is an oxymoron. It's a contradiction in terms.
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The Discursive Shield
Lentin uses the concept of the "discursive shield." This is basically when powerful institutions use the language of social justice to protect themselves from actual accountability. When a university or a government department adopts "woke" language, it creates a shield. If you criticize them, they can point to their diversity statement and say, "How can we be the problem? We use the right words!"
It makes it very difficult to organize against them. You're fighting a cloud.
What Real Change Actually Looks Like
If we accept that we were never woke—or at least, that the mainstream version of it is a sham—where does that leave us?
It leaves us with the need for a "politics of the material." This isn't about being "anti-woke" in the way some pundits use the term. It’s about being beyond it. It’s about moving past symbols and getting into the grit of how society is organized. Lentin doesn't offer a simple 5-step plan because there isn't one. The work involves a deep, often uncomfortable re-evaluation of how we relate to the state.
We have to stop asking the state to "recognize" us and start asking how the state "categorizes" us to keep us in line.
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- Look at the money: Follow where resources go, not just what the mission statement says.
- Question the "clash of civilizations" narrative: Most culture wars are manufactured to prevent class solidarity.
- Reject superficial representation: Having a diverse board of directors doesn't mean much if the company's business model relies on exploitation.
- Focus on local, tangible action: Building community networks often does more than a thousand viral tweets.
The Problem with "Political Correctness" Debates
The debate over political correctness is a distraction from the debate over political power. Lentin is very clear about this. When we spend three weeks arguing about a comedian’s set, we aren't talking about the housing crisis or the expansion of the surveillance state. This is exactly what the people in power want. They want us focused on the "micro" so we don't look at the "macro."
It's a shell game.
Lentin's analysis reminds us that true radicalism isn't about being "correct"; it's about being effective. It’s about challenging the very foundations of the liberal democratic state, which she argues was built on colonial foundations. If the foundation is colonial, then simply "diversifying" the house won't stop it from being a colonial structure.
Moving Forward: Actionable Insights
Understanding that the "woke" label has been weaponized is the first step toward a more honest politics. We need to move away from the performative and toward the substantive. Here is how you can actually apply the insights from Lentin’s work to your own life and activism:
Stop engaging in the "Culture War" bait.
Next time you see a viral outrage story about a "woke" brand or an "anti-woke" politician, ask yourself: What material reality is this story hiding? Usually, it's covering up a policy change, a budget cut, or a corporate scandal. Don't take the bait.
Prioritize Material Solidarity.
Support movements that focus on tangible things: housing rights, labor unions, healthcare access, and environmental protections. These are things that improve lives regardless of how "aware" someone is. Identity matters, but identity without resources is a trap.
Audit your own "Diversity" efforts.
If you are in a position of power at a company or organization, look at your DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs. Are they just teaching people new words, or are they shifting power? Are you hiring more diverse people into low-wage roles while the executive suite stays the same? Real equity involves a loss of power for those who currently hold it.
Read deeply, not just widely.
The "woke" discourse thrives on 280-character snippets. Real theory, like Lentin's, requires time. Dig into the history of Black radical thought, Indigenous sovereignty, and class struggle. You'll find that the "wokeness" portrayed on TV is a pale imitation of the actual intellectual traditions it claims to represent.
The realization that we were never woke isn't a reason to give up. It's a reason to get serious. It's an invitation to stop playing a game that was designed for us to lose and to start building something that actually has the power to change the world.