Ric Carey, Richard Barnes, Prof Andrew Moran and Rosemary Gill respond to attempts by the Tory party to weaponise the term ‘woke’
Nesrine Malik (Scared to be ‘woke’? It’s time for progressives to take a stand in the culture wars, 21 February) sets out the bemusing battlefield surrounding the concept of being “woke” and how it has been weaponised by the right wing of Conservative repression. Part of the issue is clearly the way different groups and factions define the meaning of woke. She correctly deduces that Labour needs to own it.
We have already been pointed in the necessary direction by a man speaking in the saddest of situations. Dave Merritt, the father of the young lawyer Jack Merritt, who was killed in the London Bridge terror attack in 2019, gave a moving speech after his son’s inquest. He described how proud his son would have been to be called woke. He defined its meaning very simply as “the opposite of ignorant”.
Ric Carey
Southsea, Hampshire
