Who is Bethany Mandel? Conservative author trolled as she struggles to define woke in viral clip 

Bethany Mandel, an American conservative author, became the subject of online mockery after she struggled to define the widely used word “woke” while criticizing liberals and progressives. Following her interview with Briahna Joy Gray on The Hill's online program Rising on Tuesday, March 14, a short clip from the same went viral.

The word “woke” has been constantly used by the right to criticize everything that they consider liberal or leftist.

During Tuesday’s interview, co-host Briahna pressed Bethany to give a definition of the term “woke” as the term was brought up several times during their discussion. Briahna said that she wanted to make sure that they were on the same page.

When asked the meaning, Bethany’s words faltered, and she floundered to voice out a concrete definition of the word. She then said:

“This is gonna be one of those moments that goes viral.”

However, after her initial stammering, Bethany continued:

“I mean, woke is something that’s very hard to define, and we’ve spent an entire chapter defining it. It is sort of the understanding that we need to totally reimagine and reduce society in order to create hierarchies of oppression."

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Bethany Mandel gets trolled after failing to define "woke" despite writing a book criticizing it

Bethany Mandel, who is a political and cultural commentator, criticized the “woke” left in her new book, Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation.

In the book, she argued about how the far-left has been indoctrinating and destroying America’s youth with radical ideology, "gender madness", and "victimhood culture".

However, as she struggled to define the word in Tuesday's interview, the conservative columnist ended up saying:

"Um, sorry, I—it’s hard to explain in a 15-second sound bite.”

When Briahna told Bethany to take her time, libertarian co-host Robby Soave tried to assist her a little. He added:

“I mean, everybody is weighing in against wokeness. Like we do some of it on this show as well. It’s definitely something you know what it is when you see it.”

Bethany’s inability to give a proper definition of the American conservative's favorite buzzword did go viral on social media. Several users blatantly called the author out and some even labeled her a "white supremacist."

User @AllVultures wrote that "woke" is a term used by black people, which refers to the political and racial awareness of black people. They argued that white supremacists appropriated the term and kept using it as a catchall to continue racism.

The user claimed that Bethany Mandel is a member of the white supremacist community; thus, when she was asked to define woke, she embarrassed herself.

While Republicans have spent the last few years waging a verbal war against "woke," a recent poll found that a good majority of Americans deem the term positive and define it as a quality where one is informed, aware of, and educated on social injustices.

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Bethany Mandel was among the "36 under 36"

Bethany Mandel attended Rutgers University in 2005 and graduated in 2008 with a degree in Jewish Studies and History. The 37-year-old adopted conservative views during her college years.

Bethany worked for the Washington Hebrew Congregation after graduation while she kept looking for a position in America’s conservative politics. She later became a fifth-grade teacher at Jay Pritzker Academy for a year. In 2010, Bethany pursued an Orthodox conversion to Judaism, after which she started working as a writer and a fundraiser at the Heritage Foundation.

Mandel later became a blogger, editor, and marketer for Commentary magazine. She has also been a guest commentator on several television and radio shows.

In 2013, Jewish Week named Bethany Shondark Mandel one of “36 under 36” for her impactful advocacy for conservative causes. She was also named among the “Forward 50” in 2015.

Bethany Mandel is married to Seth Mandel and has five children with him.