Across the globe, and especially in nations with colonial pasts, “anti-woke” has become a convenient rallying cry. At first, it appeared to be a pushback against identity politics or so-called political correctness. But the movement has evolved. It now functions as a direct resistance to historical truth, cultural accountability, and, crucially, reconciliation.
Reconciliation between settler and Indigenous peoples, between dominant and marginalized communities, requires four things: awareness of the past, acknowledgment of harm, atonement for causes, and action to change behaviour. “Woke,” a term that originated in Black American vernacular as a call to “stay woke” to systemic racism, has deep historical roots. It was first popularized in print by writer William Melvin Kelley in his 1962 New York Times essay, “If You’re Woke You Dig It.” His use of the term highlighted the cultural consciousness within Black communities and the importance of staying aware of racial injustice. It was never about division. It was about vigilance. In recent years, however, “woke” has been co-opted and weaponized by critics seeking to mock or delegitimize movements for equity and justice.
Anti-woke rhetoric now drives everything from political campaigns to book bans. In Canada, conservative politicians have derided land acknowledgments and efforts to teach the full scope of residential school abuses as “woke nonsense” (CBC News, 2023). These are not isolated objections; they are part of a broader campaign to suppress uncomfortable truths.
To be “anti-woke” is to be anti-reckoning. It is to deny the ways history continues to shape society today, whether through racial disparities in wealth, incarceration, education, or health. For example, Indigenous Peoples in Canada have a life expectancy approximately 7 to 9 years shorter than non-Indigenous populations, a gap driven by systemic inequities, lack of access to care, and intergenerational trauma (Statistics Canada, 2023). These disparities are not accidental, they are the result of longstanding policies and practices that continue to disadvantage Indigenous communities.
Reconciliation is not about guilt, it’s about responsibility. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada stated, “Reconciliation is about establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples” (TRC, 2015). How can respect grow where truth is denied?
The anti-woke movement doesn’t just resist change, it resists visibility. It tells Indigenous, Black, 2SLGBTQ+, and those newly arrived, to “be quiet,” to stop making others uncomfortable with their histories, their realities, or their needs. But reconciliation is inherently uncomfortable. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It is a risky undertaking, but in the end it is worthwhile” (Tutu, 1999).
The comfort that anti-woke politics promise comes at the cost of silence. It shuts down the very conversations that healing requires. It refuses to admit what has happened and, in doing so, prevents us from building something better. But it doesn’t just harm those whose histories are being erased—it harms all of us. This is a shared history, and the soul of Canada has been stained by its actions. Anti-woke rhetoric doesn’t just stall reconciliation—it prevents Canada from healing, too.
Anti-woke is anti-reconciliation because it chooses denial over dialogue, erasure over empathy, and stagnation over justice. If we are serious about healing and moving forward, we must resist this backlash and stay committed to truth, even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts.