Although the term “woke” has little to no value as a critical descriptor on its own—since it basically amounts to “this work engages with modern issues of representation or diversity in a way that I personally find kind of odd”—we find that the term “woke” has at least one really powerful use: It lets us easily identify the people who use it, namely “the kind of people who get angry when they think something is woke.” It also creates moments like a recent Twitter exchange with Law & Order: SVU Star Ice-T when a fan tried to tell him online that the show has been using the “W” word too much lately, to which the actor and rapper responded in wonderful Ice-T fashion.
“What the hell is woke? lol Like I give a shit,” said the actor, who SVU for 24 years, fired back at the fan in question, even going so far as to unleash the dreaded quote tweet. The tweet has since garnered 120,000 likes, presumably because it’s exactly the mix of indifference and amusement you want to hear from Ice-T in response to this kind of criticism of a show he’s starred in for more than a third of his entire human life. When another pundit wrote that (paraphrased) “woke” means tearing down John Wayne statues and replacing them with Spider-Man statues that “spray gay beer on my lawn” — ah, the internet — Ice T shot back, “That sounds awesome. Fuck John Wayne.”
It’s really hard to see SVU at least from a woke perspective: The show starts with the need to protect vulnerable populations from sexual assault, but also alludes to all the forms that “sexual assault” might take in order to boost ratings. We admit that we haven’t followed the show in recent years, but Dick Wolf, the show’s executive producer, was never out to waste money by alienating everyone who watches TNT on weeknights.
Interestingly, and as noted by diversityIce-T has spoke about how he has come to terms with the show’s inherent politics in the past: A few years ago, he spoke about the complications of starring in a television series that glorifies cops, saying he came to terms with the series after Wolf urged him to “play the cop we need. And if I’m playing the cop we need, I’m not going to have any problems with that.”
