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THE VIEW FROM HERE - Wokeism, at it core, is the perpetual playing of the race card over and over and over ad nauseam. Over 85% of Americans follow Martin Luther King to judge each individual by character and not by skin color, race, religion, sexual orientation. Wokeism is the opposite: for it only your group matters. If you’re White or Jewish, you’re a privilege oppressor, but if you are a minority, you’re all virtuous. If a minority does something bad, it’s the fault of the Whites and Jews for slavery and continued oppression.
In How Many Ways Does Kamala Harris Have to Tell Wokers to Stop with the Race Card Already?
The first night of the Democrat National Convention (DNC) set the theme: individual freedom. Wokeism rejects individual freedom-liberty as ploys by racist Whites to oppress Blacks. Instead, Wokers want to know our skin color in order to classify us as an oppressor or oppressee. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) established the core of wokeism. If a child’s group, e.g., Black, does poorer in school that White children, then school segregation is bad. The inalienable right to liberty played zero role in the Brown decision. It was 100% based on comparing how Blacks as a group did compared to Whites as a group.
Were Our Ears Deceiving Us At the DNC?
Was the woke DNC saying if you do not like something, “don’t whine, do something.” In case wokers were not getting the message, Hillary did not mention Deplorables, but more importantly, Kamala Harris individualized the theme by relating what her mother (Shyamala Gopalan) told her and by what her mother did. At age 19, alone, by herself with no other family member, Kamala’s mother Shyamala left India and came to America where she could reap the rewards of her individual efforts and – this is most vital – where she could make a contribution to help mankind. Kamala’s mother was not the typical Horatio Alger who struggled to become rich, but rather struggled to make a contribution as a cancer researcher. Shyamala's Dissertation was the Isolation and Purification of a Trypsin Inhibitor from Whole Wheat Flour. Shyamala was not stupid, nor is her daughter.
Tim Walz had the memorable tag line for those who would interfere with our individual liberties: “Mind your own damn business!” Do not interfere with our individual inalienable rights to decide our own health care, whom to love, and how to raise our families.
After Thursday evening, it was clear that Kamala was the Non-Woke Pro Individual Liberty candidate. In case the wokers missed the message, and they did, Kamala said that all Americans are privileged by virtue of living in America. Kamala drove a dagger into the heart of the racist meme that only Whites and Jews are privileged. A subtle part of her theme was that the individual was not to be praised for making it, but America was to be celebrated for allowing individuals of any background to attain their dreams. If there is any virtue in being the first Gay, Asian, Black, transexual, etc to hold an elected office, then thanks goes to America.
The Deaf Woke Media
After four nights of Kamala’s convention, the Woke media missed the point. They were still in love with racist Wokeism which Kamala Harris rejected. Her message was: STFU about my being the first Black woman to be nominated to be President. Pay attention to my individual qualities, pay attention to my proposed agenda, pay attention to my character, and please stop playing the race card.
Wokers Want Everyone to Play the Race Card
Nancy Pelosi’s Identity Politics was set up so that each group could play its own race card. Gays could cry about the hardships of being Gay. Yes, it was hard; I know I grew up Gay in 1950's America, but I totally and irrevocably reject the Woke idea to become a perpetual complaining machine. Same with being Jewish. Yeah, I know there are anti-Semites. So is that anything new? Those who want to shove us Gays under the Woke banner are nothing more than Poverty Pimps hustling for a quick buck. Just as Kamala’s convention made individual liberties America’s hallmark, Justice Kennedy in Lawrence vs. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) placed Gay Rights solely on individual liberty (which Brown v. Board of Education should have used to end segregation.)
Nonetheless, the Woke media was obsessed that Kamala was the first Black woman nominee. Others kvelled over her multitude of firsts: Black, female, Asian – all of which are totally irrelevant. What’s the substantive difference between Donald Trump’s rambling thoughts about Kamala Harris’ Blackness at the National Association of Black Journals (NABJ) and Woke media’s fixation on her Blackness? Race is totally irrelevant. Individual character is all that matters.
Kamala’s Impending Challenge
The 2024 DNC was Kamala’s convention and her message of individual liberty in a America where all people are privileged is her theme. While it was a group effort to change the Dems’ course away from Joe Biden’s incessant wokeism, it is up to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to lead America in this new direction. Both will soon be tested. They face the lethal threat of the Obama Doctrine to which Hamas Joe is 100% committed. Hamas Joe is still President and his near daily anti-Jewish Blood Libels are pure Wokeism.
The reality facing Harris and Walz is that Israel has done far more to protect the Gazans than Joe Biden, who has prolonged the war based on the Woker meme that Jews are oppressors. As military experts in urban warfare agree, Israel has done more to protect the Gazan civilians than any other country. Due to the Obama Doctrine, by May 2021, 580,000 Syrians had died and by March 2024, approximately 617,910 Syrians had died. “The most violent year of the conflict was 2014, when around 110,000 people were killed.” See Wikipedia Remember Obama’s red line that Bashar al-Assad could not cross and then he crossed it? While Assad is still killing civilians, Hamas Joe is silent, but he constantly interferes with Israel’s attempt to protect Gazan civilians and eradicate Hamas. Hamas Joe persists in his lies about Israel and especially with his personal defamation of Netanyahu. By so doing, Biden emboldens Hamas so that America is now in the ludicrous situation of holding cease-fire talks, which Hamas refuses to attend. It seems that Hamas Joe is negotiating on behalf of Hamas. So, why should Yahya Sinwar participate? The Houthis blow up a Greek oil tanker in the Red Sea and Biden does nothing.
Now, Kamala Harris must face down the absurd Woke position that Israel is bad because Wokeism classifies us Jews as Oppressors, but Hamas and its allies are the good guys due to the Woke Doctrine of Intersectionality. The main cause of both Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’ Oct 7th pogrom and the subsequent destruction in Ukraine and of Gaza rests with Biden’s adherence to the Obama Doctrine of appeasement, appeasement, appeasement. Until recently, Biden has used his efforts to restrain Ukraine and Israel from taking offensive action. Israel’s right to self-defense means that it may not strike at the real enemy. However, Ukraine has now attacked Russia and Israel assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Hanniyeh in Iran. Kamala Harris knows that most Americans hate Wokeism, but more than that, we hate losing a war, be it in Ukraine or the Middle East. Unless Ukraine and Israel prevail, America will give the job to Trump.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected].)