A video put out by a Facebook page called "Woke Folks" asks, "How do you explain privilege simply to those who don't see it?" The video was posted on October 12 and already has 52 million views. And it's the most jarringly lame "woke" video I've seen in a while.
In the video, an event organizer has some students gather in a field for a footrace where the prize is a $100 bill, and before the race starts, he announces, "Take two steps forward if your parents are still married." "Take two steps forward if you had access to a private education." And so on. Hey, it's not fair! They're getting a head start!
OK, is there a single person in the target audience who doesn't understand that some people are born with advantages over others, that they did not earn? The controversy between the right and the left is not about whether such advantages exist, but about what the correct response should be. Progressives are more inclined to support preferential treatment for disadvantaged groups, such as scholarships for women and minorities. Conservatives may be more inclined to oppose preferential treatment, on the grounds that it perpetuates stereotypes that those groups need assistance, or that it's unfair to the non-beneficiaries who get excluded. But either way, nobody's arguing about whether some people have advantages.
Meanwhile, as the organizer continues with directions like, "Take two steps forward if you had access to a free tutor growing up," the camera lingers on the sad expressions of the students of color still waiting at the starting line. We're supposed to think they're reflecting on the racism of life, but I think they might just be embarrassed for this white guy who thinks he's making an interesting point.
Unfortunately, we don't get to see the reaction shots from the students of color when the organizer says, "If this was a fair race and everybody was back on that line, I guarantee you some of these black dudes would smoke all of you." Nobody in the video batted an eye at that line, and neither apparently did anyone in the editing room.
The video page on Facebook has been inundated with comments from users pointing out these and other issues. I couldn't find an instance of "Woke Folks" responding to any of the critics, but they didn't delete the critical comments either. Maybe they don't have time, maybe they welcome critical feedback, or maybe they realize that Facebook's algorithms deliberately favor content that gets a lot of feedback (even critical feedback complaining that everything in the video is wrong). If you want visibility, it's better to be controversial than right.
From the aerial shot at the end, I couldn't tell the ethnicity of the person who actually won the race, but if the organizer really handed the $100 bill to someone who started out several steps ahead of everyone, then by his own logic he's making inequality worse. Way to be woke.
