France denounces American 'woke' culture, president says it's 'racializing,' 'dividing'
WASHINGTON (TND) — French President Emmanuel Macron, recently told Elle Magazine that "woke" culture, which he says is imported from the U.S., is "racializing" his country, and he denounced the ideology, with other prominent French figures supportive of his perspective.
In his interview, Macron says that the "woke" ideology is causing more division among minorities in his country.
Macron is being criticized by French progressives, but other prominent members of his government have also openly rejected "woke" ideology, such as French delegate minister for gender equality and diversity, Elisabeth Moreno, a Black woman.
The ‘woke’ culture is something very dangerous, and we shouldn’t bring it to France," Moreno said in an interview with Bloomberg this year.
"Woke" means to be "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)," according to Merriam-Webster.
However, the term has since taken on a different connotation, according to Fox News, which says, "...the meaning of woke evolved again with the rise of "cancel culture" -- as the two terms saw increased use, they became intertwined in the public consciousness. Often, someone gets canceled after they say something insensitive – something not woke." The meaning of the term has rapidly evolved over recent years, according to Deseret News.
Jean-Guillaume de Tocqueville, a descendant of 19th-century liberal philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, hosted the annual "Tocqueville Conversations" last month at the stone castle in Normandy, where his ancestor wrote the book "Democracy in America."
During the conversations about "American woke ideology," Tocqueville and other leading "politicians, intellectuals and civil society actors from both sides of the Atlantic," blamed "woke" culture for the decline of free speech and expression in the United States.
"Our mantra is that we should talk even if we strongly disagree. Nothing prevents you from talking and exchanging and dialoguing," Tocqueville told Zenger News. He then blamed The French Revolution on censorship and the inability of those with dissenting voices to express their thoughts.
"The French Revolution was an event that led to a bloody civil war because the people who were not in agreement with the new ideas, the really revolutionary ideas, were just killed and beheaded. It was not a good way to debate," said Tocqueville.
Moreno also spoke out against silencing dissenting voices and "cancel culture" during her interview, saying that it can "kick out people from ongoing debates because they think otherwise."
One of France's leading magazines, Le Spectacle Du Monde, published a piece that accused American universities of extremism and censorship in their communities, citing Yale University as an example, who openly policed their student's Halloween costumes, telling students to reconsider costumes that may appear "racially insensitive," per Fox News.
The piece was titled "The Suicide of America," in which it questioned whether or not the "American empire was collapsing," due to a "woke dictatorship" on which it blames the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
