WOKENESS- “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).”
But the idea of wokeness has become inexorably connected to the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2014 when the nation began to grapple with high profile cases of white police officers gunning down and killing young black men, many of us were awakened to the ongoing brutality of racism.
The plea from many of our Black brothers and sisters in this pivotal moment was this: stay woke. That is, now that you have been awakened to the problem of racial injustice, don’t go back to sleep. Stay vigilant and alert.
In the intervening years, the meaning and use of the term wokeness has expanded to refer to any action that seeks to engage with, learn about, and advocate for equal justice with regard to any number of social problems.
wokeness does present a certain danger. Not in the form of its purest intent, but in the way it can be weaponized for personal gain. Instead of true advocacy, a virtue-signaling brand of “wokeness” actually exploits the struggles of black and brown people, using them to increase your own social currency..........*COPIED*
