Weaponization of Wokeness: The Theater of Management and Implications for Public Administration

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Staci M. Zavattaro,Domonic Bearfield
• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13484

Research Article:

Race and Gender

Symposium

Weaponization of Wokeness: The Theater of Management and Implications for Public Administration 585

Abstract: Contemporarily, the word “woke” has moved into the popular lexicon, largely to mean aware of and ideally

doing something about systemic racism. After the George Floyd murder, and many other state-sanctioned murders of

Black Americans, protests erupted globally, and public administrators responded either with actionable policy changes

or sometimes symbolic, “woke” statements that did little to alter the system. In this conceptual paper, we explore the

reasons for this via Baudrillard’s phases of the image, showing how the word “woke” has moved from roots in the

Black community to being weaponized today via its disconnection from this reality, thus trending toward its own

hyperreality. In this final phase, the word “woke” has no connection to its former reality, leading to the passage of

legislation that upholds White power structures.

Evidence for Practice

• The word “woke” and its associated symbols have helped create policies that either help or harm

marginalized communities depending upon the associated rhetoric.

• Some political leaders have weaponized the word “woke” to pass policies that harm marginalized

communities and people while upholding White-centered power structures.

• Analyzing the word’s changes through a postmodern lens helps theoretically explain these shifts.

In 2017, the Oxford English Dictionary added

an entry for the word “woke,” defining it as

“Originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now

chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and

injustice; frequently in stay woke” (Steinmetz2017,

para. 3). As detailed by Time magazine, the word

“woke” in the 1920s meant staying awake but in the

1960s came to mean being awakened to social issues

(Steinmetz2017). Contemporarily, the word “woke”

is becoming unmoored from any ties to this reality

that it is used as a signifier to mean anti-American,

anti-social justice, anti-critical race theory. Some

elected officials are on Twitter decrying “wokes”

and criticizing people and policies they think do

not align with their personal viewpoints. Yet “it

is less a coordinated messaging push and more of

an instinctive sense that the label would work as

shorthand to denigrate a progressive worldview—and

it’s a word they’re hearing from their voters, too, as it

buzzes around conservative media” (Smith and Kapur

2021, para. 5).

As more elected officials use the word “woke” as a

rhetorical instrument signaling their disapproval

of socially just policies and practices, it becomes

important to understand the implications for public

administration. In this conceptual article, we use

Baudrillard’s(1994) phases of the image to argue that

the word “woke” in its current form—as a symbolic

call against policies focusing on social justice and

equity, and a push for policies that uphold hegemonic

White power structures—is so far unhinged from

its roots in the Black community that it is creating

its own hyperreality. This is problematic because

lawmakers are weaponizing the word to pass

legislation that furthers others and alienates people

from full participation in the administrative state. For

instance, some states now have voter suppression bills

that will make voting more difficult for stakeholders

of color, anti-transgender bills focusing on athletics,

critical race theory teaching bans, and anti-protesting

Staci M. Zavattaro

University of Central Florida

Rutgers University—Newark

Weaponization of Wokeness: The Theater of Management

and Implications for Public Administration

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 82, Iss. 3, pp. 585–593. © 2022 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13484.

Domonic Bearfield

There is an ongoing debate, situated in the education literature,

regarding Marxism versus postmodernism as it relates to social

justice. We do not have space here to detail the entire thread but

can recommend Atkinson (2000;2002) and Cole and Hill (1995).

As we began writing this paper, there was no policy language

about critical race theory. No burning books in states. The paper

evolved as language and symbols evolved. We do not and cannot

claim this is a total history of all signs and symbols associated

with historical civil rights movements. Our focus in a snapshot of

how the word “woke” moved—and continues to move—from

its roots in the Black community to what is today a symbol-laden

word easily weaponized because it lives in its own hyperreality.

Staci M. Zavattaro, Ph.D. is a professor

of public administration at the University of

Central Florida.

Email: staci.zavattaro@ucf.edu

Domonic Bearfield, Ph.D., is an associate

professor of public administration at

Rutgers University-Newark.

Email: domonic@rutgers.edu