We Have Never Been Woke

The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite

By: Musa al-Gharbi

Narrated by: Musa al-Gharbi

How a new “woke” elite uses the language of social justice to gain more power and status—without helping the marginalized and disadvantaged

Society has never been more egalitarian—in theory. Prejudice is taboo, and diversity is strongly valued. At the same time, social and economic inequality have exploded. In We Have Never Been Woke, Musa al-Gharbi argues that these trends are closely related, each tied to the rise of a new elite—the symbolic capitalists. In education, media, nonprofits, and beyond, members of this elite work primarily with words, ideas, images, and data, and are very likely to identify as allies of antiracist, feminist, LGBTQ, and other progressive causes. Their dominant ideology is “wokeness” and, while their commitment to equality is sincere, they actively benefit from and perpetuate the inequalities they decry. Indeed, their egalitarian credentials help them gain more power and status, often at the expense of the marginalized and disadvantaged.

We Have Never Been Woke details how the language of social justice is increasingly used to justify this elite—and to portray the losers in the knowledge economy as deserving their lot because they think or say the “wrong” things about race, gender, and sexuality. Al-Gharbi’s point is not to accuse symbolic capitalists of hypocrisy or cynicism. Rather, he examines how their genuine beliefs prevent them from recognizing how they contribute to social problems—or how their actions regularly provoke backlash against the social justice causes they champion.

A powerful critique, We Have Never Been Woke reveals that only by challenging this elite’s self-serving narratives can we hope to address social and economic inequality effectively.

“In this important and timely book, Musa al-Gharbi describes the rise of the ‘symbolic capitalists,’ and how an ideology has evolved to cement their power and restrict entry from outsiders. We Have Never Been Woke effectively addresses a wide readership on this contentious issue.”—Tyler Cowen, George Mason University

©2024 Musa al-Gharbi (P)2024 Recorded Books

Socio-cultural skeleton key

Insightful, neutral, good-faith sociological/political/economic/cultural analysis of wokeness, elite left politics, and reaction thereto. Not polemical or slanted. Really well done. Vocal performance is nice too.

Best nonfiction book ever

Drop everything you’re doing and read this now. Easy to read and explains so much about America today.

Title is rough, the book isn’t!

First book of 2025 that I’ve read and I loved it! It was well worth the high claims of its recommending!

Musa gives shape to an obvious yet obscured truth about elite culture

I believe this book will come to be regarded as one of the most important explanations/observations of liberal leftist/woke culture from 2010-2022 ish

Clear-eyed reasoning backed by rigorous research

Professor al-Gharbi presents compelling arguments and evidence to show how those who claim with the loudest voices to represent the needs of the poor and marginalized are more out of touch with the actual needs of those people than the current populists.

The professor doesn’t prescribe changes to help bring actions into alignment with speech; instead, he simply rips the scales from the eyes of symbolic and totemic capitalists to reveal how they have been gaslighting themselves and their allies for decades with rhetoric that doesn’t match their actions, and how that alienates the very classes of people they most fervently claim they want to help.