Backlash against wokeness in contemporary organizational fields: a critical discourse analysis of anti-woke discourses in relation to Flemish and Dutch academia

In this paper, we focus on backlash against wokeness as a phenomenonthat contributes to the denial of the ubiquity of racism in contemporaryorganizational fields. We conduct a critical discourse analysis of theseanti-woke discourses that play out at the macro-level (politicians) andmeso-level (university presidents) in the Netherlands and Flanders. Wedemonstrate how micro-level textual strategies divert attention fromthe pervasive nature of racism. This diversion occurs particularlythrough decontextualization and recontextualization, where wokediscourses are removed from their original context and reinterpreted toalign with the objectives of conservative political actors (politicians andacademic leaders). We reveal how these actors manipulate the narrativearound woke discourses to serve their personal objectives, therebylimiting the impact of these discourses on raising awareness about thepervasiveness of racism. Through this study, we provide a deeperunderstanding of the micro-level dynamics at play in anti-wokediscourses.