Suffolk Reporter

On Tuesday, October 8, the School of Communication and Journalism (SoCJ) will host a conversation titled “We were promised social justice. We got symbolic gestures. Why ‘wokeness’ can’t deliver the goods,” featuring Musa al-Gharbi, assistant professor of communication and journalism.

The event coincides with the release of al-Gharbi’s book, "We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite," which will be available in bookstores on the same day.

In his book, al-Gharbi examines what he refers to as “symbolic capitalists,” individuals who sustain their livelihoods through ideas, technical skills, and social prestige. This group includes journalists, academics, bureaucrats, consultants, artists, and others.

“Many ‘symbolic capitalist’ professions are explicitly oriented around serving altruism and the common good,” said al-Gharbi. He notes that these individuals are often those who identify as antiracists, feminists, environmentalists or allies to LGBTQ+ people.

Despite their growing influence over the past fifty years, many social issues have worsened during this period. Al-Gharbi attributes this deterioration to the behaviors and lifestyles of symbolic capitalists themselves.

“My hope in putting together this book and in hosting this conversation is that we may start to see something new and important that we otherwise wouldn’t have,” said al-Gharbi. “The goal is to sharpen the contradiction between symbolic capitalists’ expressed positions with respect to feminism, antiracism and LGBTQ rights now how they behave in the world.”

Al-Gharbi acknowledges his own place within this elite class while calling out its contradictions and hypocrisy. His analysis aims for a compassionate yet critical examination of these issues.

“Musa’s thoughtful and deep analysis of the contradictions between expressed ideas and behaviors of this new class of elites, including academics, is already sparking conversations in media, on college campuses and in other places social capitalists gather,” said Laura Lindenfeld, dean of SoCJ and executive director of the Alda Center for Communicating Science. “I eagerly await the Stony Brook conversation and hope it will be as inspiring as Musa’s book itself.”

The event is free and open to the public. Afterward, books will be available for purchase and signing. It is sponsored by SoCJ along with Stony Brook's Office of Diversity Inclusion Intercultural Initiatives (DI3).