Wokeness begins with concern for marginalised persons, but it ends up reducing each person to the prism of her marginalisation, says the book. The idea of intersectionality was once a useful reminder that all of us have more than one identity. But now, it leads to a narrow focus on the parts that are most marginalised and multiplies them into a ‘forest of trauma’. Wokes are so caught up in inequalities of power and culture wars that they have forgotten how to struggle together for justice.
Wokism reduces our complex identities to the narrow axes of race, gender (or caste or sexual orientation) alone, and fixates on the idea that only those exactly like us can be our comrades. It’s assumed that our social position determines our claim to knowledge – only a woman can know this, only a person with disabilities understands this, and so on. But victimhood alone confers no virtue, says the book. Valorisation of one’s trauma leads to self-expression, but not social change. One must fight the social fictions of race and gender with common ideals, not identities.
Know Thyself 