Disclaimer: This article may contain the viewpoint and opinion of the author.
For years the term politically correct was used for something that was said or done to avoid offending any particular person or group. In the progressive mind, the words used by society to identify people and their traits were shameful and disgusting.
Today, that term now Woke culture. It does not have the same meaning as someone who is politically correct because it involves the level of a person’s social activism. To be woke, you must be politically correct and socially active. You must try to bring down the system.
Woke people believe they are improving the system around them because they are enlightened to the plight of racial injustice and inequality. Those people are dangerous to society because they want everyone to conform to their belief system.
Four years ago, one Alabama supermarket owner took a stand against two of the most powerful companies America has ever seen. Phillip Stewart, owner of S&Z Grocery in Athens, Alabama noticed the Pepsi bottles on his shelves carried the NFL logo.
Stewart immediately decided to pull them from the shelves. It was during the height of the NFL and its player’s battle with the National Anthem. Many players decided they would kneel during the playing of the Anthem in protest of racial injustice within the nation.
“I don’t want to support them in any way, because I feel like it’s just wrong. I can’t in good conscious sell the product because it does have the logo on it,” Phillip Stewart, owner of S&Z Grocery said in a statement.
Stewart is not removing all Pepsi products. He is removing the ones with the NFL logo on them only. When he chose to do this, it was during the Super Bowl weeks so there was a large amount of inventory with the league and their big game’s symbols.
“This may cause me to lose some business, but here goes,” Stewart wrote. “S&Z supermarket currently will not be selling 20-ounce Pepsi or Diet Pepsi. Pepsi produces them with the NFL logo on them. I refuse to sell the product until the logo is removed.
The NFL is one of the most powerful companies in the world and it could easily withstand any progressive cries that they aren’t woke enough. However, they have chosen to dive head first into the myth of social justice.
Players get to choose from numerous slogans to display on the backs of their helmets, including “Stop Hate,” “End Racism” and the famously divisive Black Lives Matter. One wonders about the fate of any player choosing to leave his helmet unadorned.
The struggle against wokeness is real and is happening in every industry and institution in the country. Parents across the nation have begun to take on teachers’ unions and school boards in every state. Virginia has been leading the fight resulting in Governor Youngkin’s election in November.
Schools are rampant with wokeness. Teachers are indoctrinating young kids by teaching them Critical Race Theory and social identity. The process involves forging emotional bonds to influence children to become political proteges of the teachers and peers that emotionally manipulated them.
Americans long for the days when being woke was waking from a deep slumber to take on a new day. A time when sports were sports, and movies are for entertainment and not to express some political or social viewpoint.
Those days may be long gone and may never return to American culture. However, as long as people are looking to tell others how to talk and think, there will be people like Phillip Stewart. Men and women making a stand for good old-fashioned American values. They will stand on principle and risk their livelihood.
