Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews

by David L. Bernstein

But seeing that same fervor arise during what I understood as a political program confused me, until I realized that the call to be woke was, in fact, a profession of faith. To be woke was to see the light of racial domination and all that it entailed. I felt like I was witnessing a religious revival in service of a new spiritual, political and social movement.43 Woke ideology sees itself not merely as a social movement to end racism but as a complete worldview that supersedes the existing white supremacist order. The ideology has its own internal logic, its own vocabulary, its own history, philosophy, and conception of morality and law. And, like all religions, woke ideology embodies a dogma that rebukes all challenges. From what I saw, woke ideology insists that only Black people have the right to enunciate Black experiences and claims against society, and that everyone else must abide by their pronouncements. To get in the good graces of the Black activists, it seemed, everyone would have to adopt these pieties. It turns out that many Progressives were eager to be in their good graces.