Our Shallow Wokeness

I received an invite on Facebook to the “April 20th Walkout for Gun Control” weeks ago. None of my friends had clicked “going,” because we were unsure as to how involved the student body would be in the event. I clicked the star to show that I was “interested.” As the date approached, after assembly announcements and countless emails, over 50 of my “friends” had a green checkmark next to their profile picture. Eventually, I switched my “interested” status to “going.”

This was not the first case in which I’ve looked to the majority before making my decision.  Especially regarding political issues on campus, I’ve always been ashamed of succumbing to the peer pressure of giving standing ovations and hoots to virtually any “woke” idea expressed in assembly, in a classroom, or within daily conversation.

However, it’s appalling to see many at Exeter driven into marches, protests or other forms of activism without any substantial knowledge on the topic. By no means am I claiming that there are no students on campus who are not informed about the causes they are supporting; however, the vocal nature of the few passionate students has created a pattern of sheep mentality on campus. When students begin clubs, movements or activities with a liberal ring, a huddle of people quickly support such ideas without knowing anything about what they are supporting.

Similarly put, the “walkout” last Friday unveiled the previously concealed problem of a sheep-like liberal culture on campus. At the ring of the bells, students mindlessly trailed out of classes and assembled on the Academic quad. Despite moving speeches with significant points, many students were clearly disinterested or unsure as to why they were there.

Similarly put, the “walkout” last Friday unveiled the previously concealed problem of a sheep-like liberal culture on campus. At the ring of the bells, students mindlessly trailed out of classes and assembled on the Academic quad. Despite moving speeches with significant points, many students were clearly disinterested or unsure as to why they were there.

The walkout was meant to be a protest led by passionate, informed students. What happened?

Many have been blaming the school’s sanctioning of the walkout, but I had initially appreciated that the administration had approved the movement. After all, I was hearing stories from friends at public school about being physically detained from leaving or threatened with suspensions. Of course it’s a good thing that students have the right to do what they want without consequences, I had assumed.

However, at and after the organized walkout, I quickly realized that the school’s sanction resulted in uninterested students being pressured into attending the event and pretending to be knowledgeable. Some students pointed out that by having the school sanction this event defeated the purpose of a walkout — civil disobedience.

More importantly, however, Friday morning exposed to me the shallow political culture on campus.

A disturbing number of times, people asked me, “Would I get a dickie?” or “What is the walkout even for?” Yet, these very people picked up their bags and walked out with the rest of the class. Furthermore, when the names of gun violence victims were being called out, I saw people looking around at whether others had raised their fists before hesitantly following suit.

Dissatisfied students spontaneously began a more genuine walkout lasting until 2:50 like other rallies around the country, accepting dickies and missing classes to champion the cause. Sure, the group may have been smaller and more disorganized, but, they had two key elements that the herd from earlier on in the morning had lacked: passion and knowledge. The energy at this gathering quickly let me understand the problem with forcing activism at a school; there was no energy at the B-Format walkout since a large proportion of students did not know about or care for about gun control.

Last Friday’s events unveiled how our shallow activism is toxic to campus culture. When people feign interest or blindly follow others’ actions, the result was a very dangerous illusion that all of us Exonians are politically involved or, as we like to call it,  “woke.” Instead of taking genuine interest and action, as a campus we did nothing except continue to lounge in our privileged seats, basking in intellectual and liberal elitism without addressing these insidious issues. Not only is this an issue on our campus, it is known to be  “trendy” in general to attend marches. On the days of the March for Our Lives rallies, colorful photos of witty posters flooded my Instagram feed. Captions rallying up the “future leaders of the democracy” were responded to with comments such as “YES QUEEN.” But how many of these “activists” have done serious research about their causes? Do they even know what in particular they are marching for? Ever since protesting and being “woke” has ingrained itself in popular culture, the desire to truly inform oneself has been decaying across campus.

Often times, I also feel guilty of what I’ve noticed. After all, it’s so, so easy to get swept up into the false feelings of empowerment and moral superiority. Such elitism, however, feeds into the phenomenon of a Harkness classroom turning into an echo-chamber, especially during political discussions.

I suppose my advice is this: if you don’t genuinely believe in a cause, don’t participate in the activism! On the other hand, if you simply think you don’t know enough about a particular movement, do research and listen to different viewpoints before coming to a conclusion. Only if an action aligns with your newfound, educated belief, follow through. To imagine a campus filled with fruitful, diverse discussions with independent but open-minded students is exciting However, such thinking is futile if we don’t first step down from our pedestals and acknowledge the problems that bar us from becoming a truly politically involved student body.