Bill Burr is somewhat right about “woke” culture
Through his recent press tour for his stand-up special and now Glengarry Glen Ross, Bill Burr has been pushing back at public perception. He’s talked openly about how right-wing media reacts to him, particularly with Ben Shapiro, and now he’s somewhat right about woke culture.
Burr was on Late Night with Seth Meyers where the actor spoke with host Seth Meyers about the origins of the terminology for “woke.” He explained his belief that white liberals took the word and gave it a definition that the right could use and use against people and that they took the concept of “woke” from Black people. He then turned the conversation into one about pronouns and that’s where Burr strayed from being right.
“You know what’s funny is white liberals are the ones that gave the definition of “woke” to whites on the right,” Burr said. “And so nobody – no white people really understand, it seems, what the word really meant when they took it from Black people. So people on the right just think it means an insufferable, self-involved, liberal douche. And they’re not wrong if they’re talking about a white person. Running around crying about their pronouns as the sun is, like, lighting the planet on fire.”
When Burr begins to talk about pronouns is when he takes a detour from the truth. The conversation around pronouns was forced as the right continually attacked trans and non-binary individuals. So it wasn’t the cause of the disconnect between what woke is and isn’t but was, instead, caused by the misunderstanding.
Burr is right in the sense that the word has lost its original meaning. As comedian Skyler Higley writes “Yes Bill Burr is saying what we’ve been saying forever but now these mainstream white people are hearing it and listening.”
The meaning of “woke” is nothing now but this isn’t on those who stand up for their pronouns
Blaming people who are forced to defend their own gender identity daily is not the answer. I understand that Burr was making some kind of joke or trying to put the world into perspective but doing so by punching done on the trans and non-binary communities isn’t the move. Is the point he was making that those who pushed back at the right for not using the right pronouns are why we don’t understand what “woke” means?
I argue that the trans and non-binary communities are the ones who have suffered at the hands of the white straight community on both sides of the political spectrum but I digress. The point here is that Burr on one hand is correct. Who he’s blaming specifically for the loss of meaning when it comes to things that are defined as “woke” is a different story.
The trans and non-binary communities defending their pronouns and the right to push back at the right and MAGA fans is not why we don’t know what “woke” means anymore. But Burr would rather punch down in that moment than continue to make a correct point.
(featured image: NBC)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
