Overview

Society has never been more egalitarian - in theory. Prejudice is taboo, and diversity is strongly valued. At the same time, social and economic inequality have exploded. In We Have Never Been Woke, Musa al-Gharbi argues that these trends are closely related, each tied to the rise of a new elite - the symbolic capitalists. In education, media, nonprofits, and beyond, members of this elite work primarily with words, ideas, images, and data, and are very likely to identify as allies of antiracist, feminist, LGBTQ, and other progressive causes. Their dominant ideology is 'wokeness' and, while their commitment to equality is sincere, they actively benefit from and perpetuate the inequalities they decry. Indeed, their egalitarian credentials help them gain more power and status, often at the expense of the marginalised and disadvantaged. We Have Never Been Woke details how the language of social justice is increasingly used to justify this elite - and to portray the losers in the knowledge economy as deserving their lot because they think or say the 'wrong' things about race, gender, and sexuality. Al-Gharbi's point is not to accuse symbolic capitalists of hypocrisy or cynicism. Rather, he examines how their genuine beliefs prevent them from recognising how they contribute to social problems - or how their actions regularly provoke backlash against the social justice causes they champion. A powerful critique, We Have Never Been Woke reveals that only by challenging this elite's self-serving narratives can we hope to address social and economic inequality effectively. '[We Have Never Been Woke] announces [al-Gharbi] as a rising intellectual star.' David Brooks, New York Times 'A sharp, well-researched critique aimed at politically active readers who want to better understand why people believe what they believe.' Library Journal

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Reviews

""[We Have Never Been Woke] announces [al-Gharbi] as a rising intellectual star.""---David Brooks, New York Times ""A book I’ve been waiting for someone to write for a long time…a damn good book.""---Jesse Singal, Blocked and Reported ""A sharp, well-researched critique aimed at politically active readers who want to better understand why people believe what they believe."" * Library Journal * ""[al-Gharbi is] the Alexis de Tocqueville of this moment.""---Frank Schaeffer, In Conversation...with Frank Schaeffer ""While many people will no doubt disagree with al-Gharbi’s account, it is one of the most historically rigorous and empirically grounded investigations of “wokeness” we have.... Encyclopedic in breath, and painstakingly in-depth, We Have Never Been Woke establishes al-Gharbi as one of the most insightful and provocative sociologists of his generation.""---Adam Szetela, Washington Post ""illuminating.... For anyone genuinely curious about why working-class, culturally conservative Americans, many of them evangelical Christians, remain so loyal to Trump, We Have Never Been Woke is required reading. In a book that’s both granular in its detail and panoramic in its perspective, al-Gharbi builds a tightly argued case for how the “Great Awokening” is neither particularly novel nor particularly helpful to the marginalized and disenfranchised of American society.""---Carrie McKean, Christianity Today ""sprawling, ambitious, and perceptive...We Have Never Been Woke...raises too many provocative questions and gores too many oxen across the political spectrum to let anybody feel very complacent. It’s a highly erudite book, idiosyncratically straddling the line between an academic publication and a broader interest page-turner, that, at its sharpest, transcends all of the citations and footnotes to achieve a pungent first-person sociological and psychological clarity.""---Jesse Adams, Washington Examiner ""One can only admire al-Gharbi’s fearlessness…. Probably to his credit, al-Gharbi puts the best possible face on a reality that is variously amusing, infuriating, and even occasionally relieving…. By the end of the book, it is hard to think of a faux-sacred cow al-Gharbi has failed to expose…. The core of We Have Never Been Woke is persuasive, and it’s hard not to see his thesis in operation in all kinds of fields, once you look at the world his way.""---Aaron Weinacht, Front Porch Republic ""In six compelling and comprehensive chapters, Al-Gharbi lays out his case… Al-Gharbi brings to bear the sociological data that illustrate the actual harm upon our societies by the elite claims to victimhood which underlie a culture of ‘wokeness.'""---Guy Lancaster, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books ""Musa al-Gharbi presents a thorough and provocative critique of the contemporary woke movement and its cultural contradictions.... Following Bourdieu, the author brilliantly portrays symbolic capitalists.... Al-Gharbi urges us to reconsider what true progressivism should look like and how to build a more inclusive movement that addresses the material concerns of all people, rather than focusing solely on the symbolic victories of a privileged few.""---Pedro Ángel Palou, El Heraldo de México

""[We Have Never Been Woke] announces [al-Gharbi] as a rising intellectual star.""---David Brooks, New York Times ""A sharp, well-researched critique aimed at politically active readers who want to better understand why people believe what they believe."" * Library Journal *

""A sharp, well-researched critique aimed at politically active readers who want to better understand why people believe what they believe."" * Library Journal *

Author Information

Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist and assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. He is a columnist for The Guardian and his writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Atlantic, among other publications.

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