Would Louisiana Support a Ban on “Woke” Words Like Arkansas Has?

Little Rock, AR (KPEL News) - Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, is banning "woke" verbiage from state documents. Given that Louisiana getting "redder" by the day, would the state support such a ban?

Huckabee issued an executive order on October 19, 2023, that forbids the use of

exclusionary, sexist language in official state government business, effective immediately.

She took issue with a document from the Arkansas Department of Health that was issued for a drinking water update. In the document, they used the phrase "pregnant people." Under the order, that verbiage would be excluded and replaced with "pregnant women" or "pregnant moms." Sanders considers the more general references "woke, anti-women" wording that erases rather than celebrates the differences between men and women.

In a press conference Thursday, Governor Sanders said she wanted to do away with,

nonsense words to erase women and girls... [that] erase our voices and our experiences.

The official document lists specifically which words or phrases should be avoided and what words should be used instead.

In official government documents, the following exclusionary and sexist terms shall be replaced with accurate, female-affirming alternatives:

 

a.    Rather than “pregnant people” or “pregnant person,” use “pregnant women” or “pregnant mom.”

b.    Rather than “chestfeeding,” use “breastfeeding.”

c.    Rather than “body fed” or “person fed,” use “breast fed.”

d.    Rather than “human milk,” use “breast milk.”

e.    Rather than “birthing person,” use “birth mom.”

f.    Rather than “laboring person,” use “birth mom.”

g.    Rather than “menstruating person” or “menstruating people,” use “woman” or “women.”

h.    Rather than “birth-giver,” use “woman.”

i.    Rather than “womxn” or “womyn,” use “woman.”

The move is not Governor Huckabee's first action to eliminate what she considers "woke" language from Arkansas state documents.

Almost immediately after taking office, she signed a similar executive order mandating that the term "Latinx" and its derivatives be removed from state documents and replaces with the words "Hispanic," "Latino," "Latina," or their plural counterparts. The document called the alternatives "culturally insensitive, stating,

One can no more easily remove gender from Spanish and other romance languages than one can remove vowels and verbs from English.

The term "woke" dates back to the early to mid 1900s and coined by Black Americans involved in racial justice movements. It has morphed into a divisive word, with each side of the political spectrum using it differently.

Interestingly, Merriam-Webster's definition of the colloquial form of "woke" encompasses both sides of the argument.

 aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice), often used in contexts that suggest someone's expressed beliefs about such matters are not backed with genuine concern or action.

Louisiana's top slot has flipped red with the election of Republic Jeff Landry as governor. Republicans control both chamber of the Louisiana Legislature. Louisiana Republicans hold the two most powerful seats in the U.S House of Representatives: Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

Could Louisiana leadership go down a similar path at Arkansas and decide to make a similar decision?