Others use woke washing as a technique to make their model look good with out doing something concrete.
Woke washing is outlined as:
The act of utilizing social justice themes in advertising and marketing campaigns to create a optimistic picture for a corporation with out taking any significant motion. This follow has turn into more and more standard as corporations attempt to capitalize on the rising developments of purpose-driven consumerism. Whereas some corporations might genuinely help social justice causes, others use woke washing as a technique to make their model look good with out doing something concrete.
All through 2020 and 2021, she gained consideration on Twitter and within the media as a critic of Ok-12 faculty closure…Since leaving Levi’s, Sey has been a contributing writer to the Brownstone Institute, a assume tank that opposes numerous measures in opposition to COVID-19, together with masking and vaccine mandates
With that is thoughts, let’s meet Ms. Jennifer Sey. In line with her Wikipedia web page:
Jennifer Anne Sey (born 1969) is an American writer, enterprise government, and retired inventive gymnast… Following her gymnastics profession, Sey entered the enterprise world. She developed a social media following as a result of her views round faculty closings in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wikipedia has this to say about her COVID views:
In February 2022, Sey resigned from Levi’s after practically 23 years on the firm, over disputes with administration. Sey claims the resignation was in regard to her views on faculty closures in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. All through 2020 and 2021, she gained consideration on Twitter and within the media as a critic of Ok-12 faculty closure.
Ms. Sey wrote a ebook describing her transition from Levi’s government to Twitter virologist titled Levi’s Unbuttoned: The Woke Mob Took My Job however Gave Me My Voice. In line with the Amazon description, Ms. Sey “had led the corporate’s initiatives on homosexual rights, girls’s reproductive rights, or gun management.” But:
When she refused to blindly observe the narrative on the federal government response to COVID-19, her beforehand loyal “woke” group turned on her.
This sense of betrayal and abandonment from her liberal group is a frequent theme of Ms. Sey’s and part of her origin story. A method she builds credibility is to painting herself as somebody who stayed true to liberal values, in distinction to those that tried to gradual the virus. One typical interview comprises this alternate:
Q: You had been a Democrat for 30 years. You now say you’re politically homeless. How does that really feel, and the way do you reply to those that say that you just have to be a Republican now since you’re not a Democrat?
A: I believe the Democratic Get together has severely underestimated how many individuals like me there are: lifelong Democrats who watched as their primary rights simply to maneuver freely and ship their children to high school had been taken away for over a 12 months, which appears to me probably the most undemocratic factor I can fathom. I didn’t register as a Republican. I’ve points with either side. The concept in case you discuss to somebody then you definitely robotically maintain all of their beliefs is ludicrous. And that form of defines this second for me.
Q: What do you assume individuals most get improper about you?
A: That I’ve by some means been red-pilled and now I’m this alt-right, QAnon conspiracy theorist. I very logically challenged and questioned insurance policies which have now been confirmed to be extremely dangerous. I stayed true to what I believed the Democratic Get together stood for. I don’t assume I’ve modified.
But, Ms. Sey’s Wikipedia web page additionally says this:
Since leaving Levi’s, Sey has been a contributing writer to the Brownstone Institute, a assume tank that opposes numerous measures in opposition to COVID-19, together with masking and vaccine mandates, and has written columns for the New York Publish concerning the “woke mob” and cancel tradition. In February 2023, Sey in contrast COVID-19 well being precautions to sexual abuse.
The Joyful Warriors of Mothers for Liberty
Certainly, Ms. Sey is pleasant with Mr. Jeffrey Tucker, the founding father of the anti-vaccine misinformation group the Brownstone Institute and sponsor of the Nice Barrington Declaration, which promised that herd immunity would arrive in 3-6 months if 250 million unvaccinated People contracted COVID concurrently within the fall of 2020. Past selling the mass an infection of unvaccinated youth with a virus that killed 1000’s of them, Mr. Tucker has additionally inspired kids to smoke and is an unapologetic advocate for little one labor, as detailed in his essay Let the Youngsters Work.
Ms. Sey seems to be completely high quality with all of this.
In an article titled Leaked Brownstone Institute Emails Reveal Assist for Little one Labor, Underage Smoking Walker Bragman reported:
What the emails do present, nevertheless, is Brownstone founder Jeffrey Tucker and several other Brownstone contributors, together with one of many institute’s 2023 fellows, discussing the deserves of “the great outdated days” when kids smoked tobacco and carried out labor. The group lamented how younger individuals at present don’t share their values and are allegedly coddled and entitled.
In the middle of the dialog, Tucker admitted to supporting “youth” cigarette smoking and labor. At one level, he confessed that he had even supplied his excessive schooler son with cigarettes to get him away from marijuana. Later within the dialog, Tucker wrote that he would “absolutely [repeal] the 1936 ‘little one labor’ regulation,” as a result of “it’s merciless and robs children of an excellent life.”
“I received across the regulation with a job at 12 (tuning church organs),” he wrote. “However as of late, it’s way more troublesome. We condemn the children to a lifetime of desk sitting, solely permitting them remunerative work on the age of 16 simply once they have packed their schedules filled with different ineffective stuff. So you’ve gotten individuals getting into the workforce on the age of 24 by no means having been in a job. They instantly sue their employers for discrimination or no matter”…
In the meantime, self-described “open faculties mother”Jennifer Sey, a former high Levi Strauss government who parted methods with the corporate over disagreements about her on-line advocacy in opposition to faculty closures and masks mandates, which she argued had been inflicting undue hurt to kids, complimented Tucker’s pro-child labor article.
“Jeffrey—I like that you just point out gymnastics as proof of younger individuals liking hazard. It’s true!” Sey wrote. “Sadly not a lot anymore. They need protected areas. Disagreement is violence. I want I hadn’t damaged so many bones and landed on my head so many instances however not less than I’m not a wimp. I can endure bodily and psychic ache stoically.”
“Ah the great outdated days,” she quipped. “Subsequent I’ll be shouting ‘get off my garden!’”
Ms. Sey’s contributions to the Brownstone Institute embody articles corresponding to The Joyful Warriors of Mothers for Liberty, which glorifies the book-banning hate group that targets LGBTQ individuals and other people of coloration. At the moment, Ms. Sey counts proponent of the Nice Substitute idea Tucker Carlson as a good friend and is the founder a clothes line, XX-XY Athletics, which is devoted to opposing transgender athletes.
All this from a girl who claims she “stayed true to what I believed the Democratic Get together stood for”.
Marginalized groups- LGBTI+ individuals, intercourse employees, drug customers & homeless had been disproportionately impacted by Covid laws
Hopefully it won’t be controversial to say that no matter noble actions Ms. Sey might have taken up to now, she is hardly a paragon of progressive thought at present. Certainly, she made a video titled Wokeism Is a Costume Elites Put on to Fake They Care About Social Justice. But, underneath very particular circumstances in the course of the pandemic, Ms. Sey, who’s an elite, was wanting to cosplay as a woke social justice warrior. Model 1 of Ms. Sey railed in opposition to the woke mob on Tucker Carlson, whereas her alter ego, Model 2, performatively lamented the pandemic’s results on marginalized groups- although solely when it got here to mitigation measures, by no means the virus.
Model 2 of Ms. Sey claimed to be very involved about discrimination in opposition to Black and Latino children- solely when it got here to COVID vaccines.
Model 2 of Ms. Sey claimed to be very involved about teen suicide- solely when she may use it to unfold faux statistics about pediatric COVID or unfold misinformation that suicides had been a direct impact of distant studying.
Misinformation alert: The pediatric loss of life price was not 1 in 1,000,000.
“There was no clear steering. It was simply, ‘Belief us, ship the children again, and it’ll be okay.’”
Although I’ve not seen Ms. Sey amplify these voices, it’s value studying articles corresponding to Why Black Dad and mom Aren’t Becoming a member of the Push to Reopen Colleges and Some Households of Colour Stay Cautious of Returning to Lecture rooms as New College Yr Begins to study what Black or Latino dad and mom truly needed to say in. It seems that vaccine mandates had been Ms. Sey’s chief concern, not theirs. One in all these articles reported:
“On the identical time that folks had been speaking about reopening, we had been seeing [COVID-19] case numbers go up astronomically,” she recalled. “There was no clear steering. It was simply, ‘Belief us, ship the children again, and it’ll be okay.’” When Anderson queried different Black households to see how they had been feeling, she found she was not alone.
Analysis bears this out. In line with one article:
Analysis confirmed that about two-thirds of Black, Hispanic and Asian dad and mom nationally wanted masking, instructor vaccinations, common testing and most of all classroom air flow to really feel their youngest school-age little one could be protected studying in individual. White dad and mom had been a lot much less anxious, with simply 32 % needing masking necessities and 35 % citing testing.
One other article from Could 2021 titled What’s Behind The Racial Divide On College Reopening? reported:
In line with the mid-February wave of the College of Southern California’s Understanding America survey, practically 60 % of each Black and Hispanic dad and mom mentioned they most popular for his or her kids to proceed studying remotely, in comparison with fewer than 30 % of white dad and mom. In New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., white households have opted into in-person schooling at a lot increased charges than their Black counterparts when faculties partially reopened.
Although they didn’t study it from Ms. Sey, these dad and mom had been nicely conscious that the virus impacted their communities first and hardest. They had been clever sufficient to not blindly belief privileged voices from outdoors their group who insisted their kids had no danger and will return to high school with zero protections.
Examine Sklyar right here
Covid Loss of life Price Amongst Black Youngsters Practically Three Instances Greater Than White Youngsters
To be clear, Ms. Sey was not improper that the pandemic, like just about all the things else, disproportionately affected marginalized teams. Nevertheless, was the founding father of XX-XY Athletics actually distraught that COVID mitigation measures vastly impacted LGBTI+ individuals?
I’ll have missed it, however since COVID arrived, I’ve not seen her champion LGBTI+ individuals, intercourse employees, drug customers & homeless individuals other than her objections to mitigation measures. I by no means noticed her suggest that these marginalized teams obtain additional help and assets in the course of the pandemic.
Ms. Sey’s grave fear about teen suicide was totally restricted to when faculties had distant studying. She Tweeted about suicide 21 instances in 2021. Colleges are actually open, and he or she hasn’t Tweeted about suicide as soon as in 2024. She actually by no means shared articles titled Teen Suicide Plummeted Throughout Covid-19 College Closures, New Examine Finds.
I by no means noticed her lament when faculties closed as a result of overwhelming COVID outbreaks. Although she had loads of alternatives, I by no means noticed her share tales like this one from Texas in 9/2021- At Least 45 Districts Shut Down In-Particular person Lessons Due To Covid-19 Circumstances. It mentioned:
Caseloads have left districts scrambling when many have mentioned they’ve fewer instruments at their disposal to fight the unfold of the virus.
Regardless of her concern over Black kids, she by no means shared articles corresponding to Covid Loss of life Price Amongst Black Youngsters Practically Three Instances Greater Than White Youngsters. I by no means noticed her mourn the lack of a Black or Latino little one who died of COVID. The truth is, she repeatedly minimized pediatric COVID, even after it was clear kids of coloration suffered probably the most. The headline under and her Tweet, minimizing literal loss of life for kids, had been simply two weeks aside.
Ms. Sey’s minimization of literal loss of life from COVID was a part of a sample that began even earlier than anybody was vaccinated. The truth that mitigation measures efficiently protected kids in 2020 was used as “proof” they weren’t wanted in any respect. In distinction to literal loss of life, Ms. Sey, who claimed she had “nothing in opposition to vaccines”, predictably was on excessive alert to scold anybody whom she felt minimized a uncommon, normally delicate vaccine-side impact.
We must always take a second to thank important employees who truly received Covid & contributed to herd immunity
So why was Ms. Sey very involved about social justice points solely when it got here to COVID mitigations, and why was her resolution solely to take away these mitigations?
Clearly, real concern is constant concern.
Certainly, Ms. Sey was genuinely involved about mitigation measures, and so Variations 1 and a couple of of Ms. Sey persistently agreed on only one thing- mitigation measures wanted to go. In distinction, solely Model 2 of cared about marginalized teams, and even then the priority was with reference to how they could be affected by vaccine mandates, as if this was the largest menace they confronted. Certainly, discover how in another way Ms. Sey mentioned literal loss of life from COVID in comparison with how she mentioned the potential harms of vaccine mandates.
Clearly, this highly-selective “concern” had all the things to do with Ms. Sey’s disdain for COVID mitigations and nothing to do with any honest concern for marginalized teams. Principally, Ms. Sey woke-washed the pandemic. Like an organization placing up a rainbow flag, she was attempting to make her “model look good with out doing something concrete”.
She was hardly distinctive on this regards. Like Ms. Sey, many pro-infection medical doctors equally code-switched between two identifies. Model 1 went on Fox Information to advocate for herd immunity by mass an infection. After this failed miserably, Model 2 emerged, to retroactively declare the only motivation for eradicating mitigations was a benevolent concern for “studying loss for kids, particularly in poor households” and the “important working class“. You probably have not executed so already, please learn my articles The Failed “We Need Them Contaminated” Motion Is Attempting to Rebrand Itself As The “All We Actually Wished Was Poor Youngsters in College” Motion and Dr. Jerome Adams Was Proper. They Wished Them Contaminated. That’s a Reality. Like Ms. Sey, these medical doctors’ “concern” about marginalized teams and teenage suicide existed solely in relation to their opposition to COVID mitigations. To today, they incessantly lament distant education that ended years in the past, however are completely silent about newer headlines that learn Third Teen Employee Killed In Industrial Accident As States Strive To Loosen Little one Labor Legal guidelines.
In fact, it’s not clear who deputized Ms. Sey to be the voice of marginalized teams when it got here to COVID coverage. I by no means noticed any Black or Latino individuals declare to talk on behalf of rich, White enterprise executives like her. Nevertheless, many highly-privileged individuals, sheltered from the results of their phrases, felt completely entitled to talk on behalf of Black and Latino dad and mom, at the same time as they contradicted the coverage preferences of a majority of them. These individuals of privilege merely anointed themselves as spokespeople for marginalized teams to additional their aim of herd immunity by mass an infection. They then disregarded the impression of the virus in these marginalized teams. They valiantly defended Black and Latino kids in opposition to vaccine mandates, whereas concurrently blowing off the virus, the factor that killed and sickened a lot of them. This didn’t go unnoticed.
Whereas such concern over marginalized teams was disingenuous advantage signalling, it nonetheless served a broader objective. By co-opting progressive points and rhetoric, individuals like Ms. Sey sought to provide a permission construction for many who wished to consider themselves as liberal to withstand mitigation measures. The truth is, Ms. Sey informed them it was their obligation to take action. Although the aim was to let the virus rip for the sake of herd immunity, the framing was considered one of social justice. Publicly feigning concern over marginalized teams was additionally a method of calling progressives hypocrites for rejecting the philosophy of mass an infection. By claiming to really symbolize liberal values, Ms. Sey turned a invaluable ambassador for the We Need Them Contaminated motion who mentioned in essence:
In the event you had been actually involved about marginalized teams, you’d opposed COVID mitigations. In the event you had been actually involved about Black and Latino individuals in public areas, you’d oppose vaccine mandates. In the event you had been actually involved about teen suicide, you’d open faculties months earlier than any kids had been vaccinated. In the event you actually had been progressive, you’d need them contaminated.
Jennifer Sey Retains Getting Canceled for Talking Up
Though anti-public well being outfits now have a good time Ms. Sey with nonsense articles titled Jennifer Sey Retains Getting Canceled for Talking Up, the reality is that like many “silenced” voices, Ms. Sey turned a mini-celebrity in the course of the pandemic. She has been mentioned on NPR, MSNBC, Fox Information, The NY Publish, and The NY Instances, despite the fact that all she actually did was stop her job. Sadly, in lots of circles she’s extra well-known than individuals who precise achieved issues in the course of the pandemic, like Katalin Karikó. It’s clear nevertheless, that Ms. Sey is aware of learn how to entice an viewers, and even these of us who wished to vaccinate kids as a substitute of infect them can’t deny that she’s been very efficient at getting her message out. The mitigation measures she opposed are lengthy gone. She received all the things she wanted- aside from herd immunity, after all.
At the moment, nevertheless, as a substitute of taking a victory lap, Ms. Sey desires everybody to know she’s a sufferer as a result of phrases damage her emotions. She describes herself thusly:
I couldn’t stay silent when the lockdowns had been cruelly imposed on kids throughout covid. And for the crime of claiming I imagine public faculty children deserve to have the ability to go to high school in the course of the pandemic, like the children in non-public faculties, I used to be dragged, demonized and smeared.
And but, as little one labor legal guidelines loosen across the nation, this self-proclaimed common mother who boasts of “advocating for open public faculties, disproportionately attended by low revenue, black and brown college students“, is comfortable to crew up with a rich libertarian who particularly calls for youths to dropout of public faculties to allow them to smoke cigarettes throughout their break from working at Walmart and Chick-fil-A.
Make of that what you’ll.