WeeklySA_AdminEXPERIENCE: While staying “woke” is a call to remain vigilant in addressing unresolved injustice, it has been co-opted as a pejorative by non-Black pastors in recent years
By Jocelyn Jackson Williams
I have felt like I am in a Christian twilight zone for years now: a dimension where basic precepts of the faith such as love, care, and support are not acknowledged or demonstrated in conjunction with the particular injustices that Black folks face.
I understand that this is nothing new. The Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, spoke to this issue in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. The call in Dr King’s open letter was to appeal to his white colleagues in the faith that they would see, acknowledge and empathise with the realities of injustice that Black people face in this country.
It has been over 50 years since he wrote that letter and yet here we are just as distanced in the body of Christ. I am deeply grieved by the fact that there are many people who are in name my brother or sister in Christ, but in spirit think or behave more like my enemy.
One of the most cringeworthy examples of this divide in recent years is the usage of the word “woke” as a pejorative by non-Black pastors. The word “woke” was created by and intended for Black people. Within the community, the purpose of staying woke is rooted in unresolved grief. When someone struggles with an injustice that has no immediate resolution, the temptation exists to numb yourself so you don’t have to feel the effects of the pain and disappointment. Staying “woke” is a call to remain vigilant in addressing what is still unresolved.
And yet, the term “woke” has been re-appropriated by a particular socio-political sect within the church. The misuse of the term convolutes its connection to the Black community. One preacher uses it to refer to children being subjected to an immoral society. Another pastor uses it to refer to the ills of “cancel culture,” when you do not support the ideology of said immoral society.
But I do not hear them using it, as originally intended, as a cry for reform of any system that perpetuates injustice. Every time a white pastor uses the word woke, he or she is contributing to a framework that invalidates realities of our everyday life and propagates a system within the church that allows white evangelicals to determine what the Black experience actually is. There is no one conclusive definition of the word since its recent colonisation. But if you can control the language, you can control the narrative. So many people try.
A little over a year ago, a conservative Christian wrote a book in which she spent an entire chapter attempting to define the word “woke”, but struggling to do so. While on the interview circuit, she found herself confused when trying to articulate her re-appropriation. Her blunder was not an anomaly; it was indicative of the subterfuge some people engage in to distance themselves from the call of justice.
Common in the evangelical church is to turn a blind eye to, if not altogether deny, the existence of racism. To do so is to align yourself more closely to the goals of white supremacy than to the gospel of Christ. In his book, “Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice,” Dr Eric Mason aims to realign to the origin and purposes of being “woke” to:
• “to understand that the issue of justice is not a Black issue, it’s a kingdom issue”;
• “to grieve and lament what we have lost and…remember our gospel imperative to promote justice and mercy”;
• “to move beyond polite, safe conversations about reconciliation and begin to set things right for our soon-coming King”.
We are circling around the same block that Dr King wrote about in his letter. I offer the opportunity for every white Pastor who uses the term “woke” outside of its true meaning to charter a new path. Engage in the work of fellowship with your Black brothers and sisters in Christ to be curious enough about our lives to fully understand what it is when we say there is need for justice.
Instead of using your weekly platform to deny us, use your heart, mind, and soul to address the same concerns that Dr King brought to light in his Birmingham letter which were the same concerns that Jesus shared with religious leaders: that we would be about the business of loving, supporting, and strengthening one another. There is an arena outside of this twilight zone where we can exist together. Let’s find it and go there instead.
* The post “Why White Pastors (And People) Should Never Use the Word, ‘Woke’ appeared first on The Sacramento Observer and then Word-In-Black
South Africa’s Youth Drowning In Despair
SPECTRE: While leaders sit idle, risking a social uprising, South Africa contends with an unemployment rate that could rival the most tragic of Shakespearean dramas…
By Themba Khumalo
In a report by Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey, a chilling revelation emerges: the official unemployment rate has risen by 0.6 percentage points, climbing from 32.9% in the first quarter of 2024 to 33.5% in the second.
This statistic cements South Africa’s reputation as a country grappling with the highest unemployment rate in the world. However, genuine terror emerges as the report elaborates on the expanded definition of unemployment, capturing the disillusioned souls who have lost all hope and stopped trying. The ranks of those who have surrendered to despair in their job search have ballooned by 147 000, marking a 4.8% increase.
The expanded rate in Q2 2024 has risen by 0.7 percentage points, reaching a nightmarish 42.6%. The ranks of the unemployed have swelled ominously. An additional 158 000 individuals have joined the ranks of despair, bringing the total to a haunting 8.4 million in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the first.
A cursory examination of the 2024 landscape reveals a bleak picture: Stats SA’s data indicates a shocking uptick in unemployment, with an increase of around 500 000, soaring from 7.9 million at the end of 2023 to an alarming 8.4 million by the second quarter of 2024.
The condition of the nation’s youth is utterly tragic, as they are forced to endure the harsh realities of this crisis. The statistics from the second quarter of 2024 are nothing short of appalling, revealing a youth unemployment rate of 60.8% for individuals aged 15-24.
The slightly older group of 25-34 is hardly in a better position, facing an unemployment rate of 41.7%. These distressing figures lay bare the monumental hurdles that young people encounter in their job search, further entrenching the socioeconomic struggles that South Africa is grappling with.
Should the powers-that-be —in government and the business world— continue to drag their feet on providing training and job opportunities for young people, we are flirting with disaster. A powder keg of discontent is brewing, and the potential for social upheaval is more real than ever. We are staring into the abyss of a societal breakdown that could redefine our nation.
The youth are the ones truly suffering in this unemployment catastrophe, desperately trying to claw their way into a job market that seems to have slammed shut. As the unemployment figures for young South Africans keep climbing, the social fallout is becoming impossible to overlook. Experts are sounding the alarm: if we continue to sit on our hands, we could be staring down the barrel of widespread social upheaval.
With more than half of our young population unable to secure employment, despair is setting in like a thick fog. If this trend continues, South Africa is on a collision course with chaos, where the pent-up frustrations of the jobless youth could erupt into a full-blown crisis.
In countries where youth unemployment skyrocketed past 50%, the streets have erupted in chaos. Disillusioned young people, fed up with the barren job market, draconian austerity measures, and a political landscape they deem utterly corrupt, have seized public spaces and unleashed protests that range from raucous to downright violent.
South Africa is in the throes of a crisis, with youth unemployment soaring to a jaw-dropping 60%. This warning is not just a gentle reminder; it’s like a piercing siren, foretelling the imminent disaster that will befall us if we fail to take immediate action!
* TK is the publishing editor of online publication The Telegram
