When wokeness becomes a smokescreen for inequality, the elite just keeps real change out of reach, writesStephen Saunders.

INTERVIEWED IN JULY 2025 on his Australianbook tour, U.S. sociologistMusa al-Gharbiwaxed eloquent on wokeness and inequality, on the U.S. and China.

We met the same day as Musas Canberra event, his best attended. Would some see his much-discussedWe Have Never Been Woke(WHNBW) as validating their attitudes?

He rejoined:

Others imagine its kind of a right-wing tract.

Reviewing WHNBW forAustralian Population Research InstituteandThe Australian, Id tagged al-Gharbi more as a curiosity-led scholar, driven by data and evidence.

In his observations, woke is a definable set of attitudes and behaviours developed in the U.S. (and other wealthy nations) among the supposedly altruistic symbolic capitalists (or top 20 per cent) of the knowledge economy.

This elite, he writes, aligns with the top 1 per cent. The second allows the first to opportunity hoard an attractive share of the loot. Wokeness justifies this appropriation.

The top 20 per cent self-identify as allies of disadvantaged groups, aesthetically embracing diversity and inclusion. Focusing on identity and subjectivity, they recognise their privilege but work on unconscious biases. Theirs is a tight focus on disparities between identity (race, gender, sexuality) groups, not on inequality at large.

Instead of arresting widening post-1970s inequality, these Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) tropes camouflage and extend it.

Rather than lubricating the social-mobility ladder, Musa observes:

The word "woke" is deployed by conservatives to poison the public discourse and appeal to our worst instincts, writes Paul Begley.

About the author

Of Arizona military family, al-Gharbi switched from Catholicism to Islam, from shoe-selling to New York academia.

Fresh from his (Columbia) PhD, Musa got a fly-back, for an Arizona position. I was overqualified. After his cultural and class shift, how to stay grounded? Theres a book for that, Jennifer MortonsMoving Up without Losing your Way.

Also:

Currently hes a journalism/sociology prof atStony BrookUniversity on Long Island, New York. Where would he do a sabbatical? Rather than nominating a top European school, Musa parries, PerthsForrest ResearchFoundation would like him back.

Around the book

WHNBW really got noticed in the U.S. Id spotted athumbs-upin the New York Times (NYT). What recent books would Musa himself recommend?

He advancedElizabeth Currid-HalkettsThe Overlooked Americans, giving the lie to negative perceptions of smaller-town America:

Another suggestion wasTrumps Democrats, burrowing into forever-Democrat districts that flipped for Trump in 2016.

The author is frank:

But they werent getting any identity-focused academic-influencer:

Cautions the book, woke isnt just a left thing.

Says Musa now:

This happens in Australia too. Sussan Ley Liberals are conning and donningLabor tropesUN net-zero, gender-equity,identity-groups. Shadow Treasurers new chief adviser is academicSteven Hamilton, a hyper-immigrationshill.

As Musa reminds me, uponMitt Romneys 2012 loss toBarack Obama, Republicans considered going more hip on race and gender. Even when Trump 1.0 won in 2016, Musa perceived a broad continuation. Not so, with Trump 2.0.

Compared with Scandinavia or Singapore, I complain, Anglosphere nations baulk at putting citizens first. Musa points to the state universities of the U.S., which prefer full-fee cash-cow international students, frustrating local kids.

World-champion at thisscam, I note, is remote Australia. Astonishingly, we glom nigh on15%of the global international-student trade, faking this as export education.

Has identity-politics now supplanted equality-politics?

Musa responds:

I recall that rentally-challenged dad on ABC-TV, urging a migration pause, but mocked by a Labor Minister. Hepitcheda protest tent by Prime MinisterAnthony Albaneses $4m beachside mansion.

Would he have been treated less cruelly, we wondered, had he ticked diversity boxes?

Musa ventures:

Can Western nations push back towards greater equality, or will wokeness reign? For the U.S., Musa expresses mild optimism.

He cites sociologistRobert PutnamsThe Upswing. Though the relative egalitarianism of mid-century U.S. has fallen apart, in principle we can do it again.

The U.S. wont rediscover its egalitarian pathway, however, from Scandinavian nations:

Im thinking, lets task al-Gharbi to write a micro-credential for Treasurers chummyproductivity roundtable. Something like, "Stop Helping Yourselves Start Serving Others".

Australia and U.S.-China

Australia obsesses. Will he (Albanese) or wont he meet him (Trump)? The U.S. is ho-hum, though at long last NYT'sAustralia deskis onto the case.

WWIIJohn Curtinhad pivoted, from the UK to the U.S. alliance. What to make now of ambivalent Albanesesgenuflectionsto China?

Musas vigorous reply isnt ANU line:

Though Australias strong focus on Indigenous issues differs from the U.S., other patterns are similar. What he says next isnt the ABC line, nor that of our so-called Race DiscriminationCommissioner.

He said:

Musa illustrates, via an anecdote from his father-in-laws Shia village in Lebanon. When the latter promoted a diligent Sunni ahead of an indolent Shia, this was seen as immoral.

Musa reckons:

Even in Alabama, the competent black will probably best a mediocre white.

Engaging with China on matters of global security isnt nave its what real leadership should look like.

The next book

At first, the grand scheme of WHNBW was 200,000 words, way overlong. The other half is to surface in al-Gharbis recently announcedsecond book:

The first book resonated in WEIRD (western, highly educated, industrialised, rich, democratic) nations. The second likewise, if to judge from chapter titles Unrepresented America, Asymmetrical Multiculturalism, and Antipolitics of Humiliation.

Rental-protest-dad would fit in. As would our raciallybiasedRace Commissioner and plainlydivisiveSpecial Envoys for Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Social Cohesion.

Here aretipson Australian cohesion. Never mind Trump hysteria, worry about our local extremes. Endless immigration provides75-80%of our population growth. Labor routinely rebrandsstandard-of-livingpainas Treasurywins, whilst maintaining raciallydiscriminatorysweetheart deals for unchecked Indian immigration.

And climate-woke?

Rather than innovation, WHNBWnotes, wealthy nations are experiencing stagnation and declines...dysfunction and mistrust. While their symbolic capitalists are among the primary beneficiaries of the environmental devastation they conspicuously condemn. I saw this form of wokeness ascrucial, craving greater coverage.

Like, the UN net-zero fallacy hassweptWEIRD world, with Australian science goingoverboardfor climate action. Little solace for Planet Earth. Globalpopulationand immigrationpressuresnever slacken, but woke sciencerefusesto link population to ever-plummeting habitats and species.

Though the U.S. shows signs ofreindustrialisation, other WEIRD nationsdeindustrialise. Not-woke China may lead the so-calledelectrificationof everything but is also therunaway leaderfor CO2 emissions. Ignoring this reality, virtuous commitment to an imagined net-zero economy is catnip among the top 20%, legislated in Australia. As in the UK, this elite hypocrisy heraldsausterityfor ordinary people.

Musa comments, the concentrated one-party rules of Democrat New York and Democrat California are among the worst states for inequality. Their governing classes, Id add, excel at climate-actiongrandstandingthateffectivelyfavoursChina. Yep, the totalitarian super-power super-polluter.

OK, Those People isnt going to be that book aboutclimate-woke. Though Musa muses, the intensive rhetoric of climate-mitigation could lend it an interesting case-study.

Ordinary folks (also his Arizona mother) have acquired a certain mistrust of the strong claims made over the decades by elite climate journalists, experts, and institutions, where the uncertainty of their models is not conveyed.

Thoughconsumingway more coal than rest-of-world combined, China stillbluffsnet-zero 2060. Dissing that script, Earths graphs of population, consumption, GDP, emissions, CO2 levels, temperatures, keep on rising.

Stephen Saundersis a former public servant, consultant and 'Canberra Times' reviewer.