What Does It Means to Be "Woke"

In the wake of the Capitol mob, our world has been flooded with “reactions” and “takes” that describe the events and people’s feelings toward them.

Some were beautifully poignant and much needed. Others lacked accountability (and truth).

Especially in light of #45’s social media ban, I’m hearing words like “dangerous” and that the tech bros have become too “powerful.” (I will also note that the complaints and the discussions are being levied on the platforms that they are rallying against and have used to rise to power, but I digress…)

There’s also this backlash against “woke” culture.

I’ve been trying to parse out what people are rallying against when they speak of “woke” culture and I think I’ve narrowed it down to a few core concepts.

Woke seems to mean that you believe America was founded on racist principles and the biggest threat to the American dream is systemic racism which is exacerbated by exploitive nature of capitalism. There is a guilt or a righteous justice that seeks to rebalance the scales due to this, especially when it comes to wealth and the equal application of the law. Those that oppose “wokeness” feel that those individuals do not want to the rules of law to apply to them and that any society that is not capitalistic is bad.

They think that these individuals are acting like victims and won’t accept that some people just are working harder and smarter as others. The notion of “privilege” denigrates their hard work. A fear is that what they have worked hard for will be given to others who are less deserving. The danger to them is that it will create a lazy society that is too reliant on government assistance. The idea is that those who are “woke” want to give too much power to the government which would in turn oppress hard-working, private citizens. From what I’m seeing, they believe there are more pressing issues than systemic racism, if they believe systemic racism is a thing at all.

To summarize this, there are people today who feel like they are living in oppression today and want change. There are others who do not feel oppressed and think that change will cause them oppression. The third group is those who do not feel oppressed but believe the system has been oppressive to others and want to change that. The last group is those who don’t care and just want to be entertained.

How you respond to “wokeness” will be determined by which of the four groups you identify with and the degree to which you believe change should occur.