2 - Being Woke to Anti-Intellectualism: Indigenous Resistance and Futures

Summary

Introduction

Anti- intellectualism (the opposition or hostility to intellectuals or to intellectual pursuits) is a practice and a stance that continues to plague so- called Australian society. During the years of John Howard's Liberal conservative government (1996– 2007), the so- called ‘history wars’ reflected and defined such anti- intellectualism (Manne, 2009). This stance against Indigenous struggles used oppressive ideologies and sought to strengthen a colonial settler mindset via education and public discourse. The history wars intensified and legitimated the underlying racism that has long structured the national, bringing it openly into mainstream discourse once more (Attwood and Markus, 2007). For scholars of Indigenous studies in Australia, this anti- intellectual project poses significant impediments. Mainstream and social media re- readings or misrepresentations of identity politics have picked apart, debated and interrogated our cultural and other identities (Carlson, 2016). This turning point has had a significant regressive impact on anti- racist and decolonial literacies in all spaces of national public engagement. Despite changes in government, anti- intellectualism and the accompanying racism have not subsided, but rather lent themselves to the co- optation, distortion and redeployment by conservatives of terms originating from the left, such as ‘political correctness’ or ‘PC’ and, attacks on critical race theory (CRT). Most recently, they have been encapsulated by the populist mantra of ‘anti- woke’ culture. The anti- intellectualism of these projects works to distract from and dismiss collective movements that mobilize around demands for change.

Traced to Black American blues singer Huddie William Ledbetter – known as Lead Belly – the term ‘woke’ appears in a brief discussion that follows their Smithsonian recording of the song ‘Scottsboro Boys’ in 1938, which tells the story of nine Black teenagers accused of sexually assaulting two white women (Lead Belly, 1936). The warning to ‘be careful … stay woke’ is a clear directive to Black people regarding the dangers of white supremacy.

The onset of anti- woke culture – that is, opposition to anything perceived as ‘woke’ – has spread rapidly across campuses and public spaces in the United States, Australia, Canada and Europe (Rhodes, 2021 ; Pilkington, 2021).