Inverted Totems: On the Significance of “Woke” in the Culture Wars

Abstract

Early in the 21st century, the term woke became ubiquitous within the context of the culture wars. However, the meaning of the term has been notoriously difficult to pin down, and its use as a descriptor of the most bewildering range of phenomena has led many commentators to declare the word meaningless. My claim is that instead of focusing on what woke means, we should focus on what it does. And in order to demonstrate what woke does, I situate it within a novel typology of totems. As a totem, woke serves to create and constitute the self-awareness of an otherwise indefinite social identity. But it does so as neither a traditional totem (i.e., by representing the group’s own sacred values and beliefs) nor an anti-totem (i.e., by representing an alien group with values and beliefs offensive to one’s own). Instead, woke is an inverted totem, a symbol embodying all that one’s social group is not, thereby representing one’s group negatively. I then argue that in spite of the fact that it is the political right that uses woke most vociferously within the culture wars, neither the Republican Party nor any other ideologically conservative institution is the social group symbolized by woke.