We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite

How a new “woke” elite uses the language of social justice to gain more power and status—without helping the
marginalized and disadvantaged
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 marginalized 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 recognizing 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.