The recent obsession with the term ‘woke’ and its companion ‘wokeness’ is properly seen in the way it is applied and intended in the current cultural/political environment. The best and most literal meaning of the term implies being aware/conscious of and responsive to the need for social, environmental, and personal justice. At worst, wokeness can result in an over sensitivity to micro aggressions as they might occur in the normal course of human interaction (please see Tracy Ullman’s quite brilliant satire on woke mentality run amok). What wokeness clearly does not represent (as a certain segment of the populous would have us believe) is an organized attempt to impose a set of values/ideas in lieu of an organic process of collective agreement. Instead, it merely indicates a state of mind wherein a conscious commitment to positive societal change may yield a more just and equitable human community.
Like it’s predecessor, ‘political correctness’, ‘wokeness’ is being used to further divide us by labeling and alienating fellow Americans in an attempt to give voice to the narrow interests of a fearful group of citizens, politicians and their corporate enablers seemingly bent upon the goal of preventing the realization of an otherwise cooperative, compassionate, caring, and diverse nation. Political correctness was never more than a buzz word/phrase to elicit a reaction against an effort to make real in our world an awareness of and sensitivity to our fellow travelers. Sadly, wokeness is also being used as a trigger for a resistance to a similar attempt at making whole a world/society at once varied, sometimes confused, and forever seeking unification.
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