Stony Brook University celebrated Musa al-Gharbi, an assistant professor for the School of Communication and Journalism (SoCJ), and his newly released book, “We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite” in hardcover on Tuesday, Oct. 8 in the Charles B. Wang Center.
The event was set up as a discussion between al-Gharbi and Colleen Eren, director of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Program at William Paterson University in New Jersey. The two discussed al-Gharbi’s book and the sociological themes present within it. Eren previously released the book, “Reform Nation: The First Step Act and the Movement to End Mass Incarceration,” which discusses similar issues to al-Gharbi’s book.
Laura Lindenfeld, dean of the School of Communication and Journalism, introduced al-Gharbi, praising him for the accomplishment of publishing his book since he joined the SoCJ a little over a year ago.
“This compassionate book points out the stark contrast between our expressed opinions and our actions, and the adverse effects our behaviors and institutions often have on people who may be less fortunate than we are,” Lindenfeld said.
Following Lindenfeld, Vice President for Equity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer Judith Brown Clarke emphasized the brilliance of al-Gharbi and Eren’s works as it “take[s] us through a journey of humanity but accountability.”
“I’m extremely excited to hear the conversation [between al-Gharbi and Eren] because I think deep within your scholarship, deep within your experience and your truth and all the things you’ve reached, you’ve come to a spot and you’re standing in a space that really gives us the ability to answer these complex and complicated questions,” Clarke said.
al-Gharbi opened with a brief speech about his experiences and journey that led him to ponder the sociopolitical issues centralized in the book. He began writing the book in 2020 as part of his doctoral dissertation in his PhD program at Columbia University.
He explained that the book revolves around the rise of the knowledge economy, what he deemed as “important professions” and how it has changed the inequalities in America. He cited careers like doctors and academic professors as “important professions.” al-Gharbi said that people, such as himself, in these academic professions “[are] the Americans who are most likely to self-identify as anti-racist, environmentalists, allies to LGBTQ people and feminists.”
“To put it mildly, things haven’t played out quite like we had planned. Instead, the U.S. has seen slowing innovation, economic stagnation, rising inequalities, increasing affective polarization, a so-called crisis of expertise, diminishing trust in one another, diminishing trust institutions, increasing institutional dysfunction and epistemic chaos,” al-Gharbi said. “The core thing that the book is trying to figure out is basically what went wrong here … why does the world we live in look so different than the world we promised?”
After al-Gharbi’s speech, Eren said, “as a fellow sociologist, I appreciated this book as not only one of cultural critique … because it shows the ways gestures towards social justice work against meaningful progress.”
She discussed the importance of his book and its uniqueness amongst others in the same genre. Eren described the book as a tool to encourage readers to take a look in the mirror to reflect on their outlook.
Eren then asked al-Gharbi about what could be done to make individuals become more aware of social injustices and help effectively.
He responded that people could begin by talking to members of marginalized communities or minorities directly impacted by social injustices and asking them how to help. Eren and al-Gharbi talked about the issue with elitists, such as those in “important professions,” assuming what these communities want.
“There’s this patronizing attitude that because of the privilege we’re given by our education or class status … that we know better than the people themselves. There’s this subtle racism and classism of presuming to know better,” Eren said.
After an hour of discussion between al-Gharbi and Eren, the remaining 30 minutes of the event were left for attendees to ask questions.
One participant went up and asked why al-Gharbi overlooked issues like the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 in his book.
“There’s a lot that I agree with you … but I do worry that by concentrating on the intellectuals, or the masses so to speak, that we’re actually losing sight of things that are genuinely wrong in society. For example, things are going backwards for women in this country,” she said.
He said gender inequalities such as the pay gaps between men and women are bigger in the knowledge industries compared to other fields, despite the majority of individuals in these fields identifying as liberals and feminists.
al-Gharbi responded, “If we look at who benefits from gender inequalities and how they benefit in concrete terms … we can see that a lot of the problems are created by people like us.”
In an interview, al-Gharbi further explained the main ideas of the book. He said elitists believe their opinions carry more weight than other people whom they consider beneath them — that the desire to be an elitist and promote social justice conflict with one another, leading to the elitist desire to win out and end up engaging in symbolic social justice efforts that don’t change anything.
“Instead of trying to engage in these cosmic, abstract struggles of trying to end racism or sexism, why don’t you just help non-white people in your own community? Why don’t you try to help women in your own community and think about how you treat the women in your life and how you interact with them?” he asked.
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