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Just to be clear, what's the definition of "woke"?

by Braxton1980 2y ago

Gareth321 2y ago
In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. To first approximation, being woke means viewing society through various critical lenses, as defined by various critical theories bent in service of an ideology most people currently call “Social Justice.” That is, being woke means having taken on the worldview of Critical Social Justice, which sees the world only in terms of unjust power dynamics and the need to dismantle problematic systems. That is, it means having adopted Theory and the worldview it conceptualises. Adherents like Ibram Kendi argue that the only solution to historical racism is present day racism (Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (2019), p. 19). In other words, the "woke" believe in applying institutionalised racism and other forms of discrimination to realise a world in which outcomes are perceived to be equal. As this method and goal are antithetical to Enlightenment and democratic principles, there is a large contingent of people who oppose woke ideology.
- dragonwriter 2y ago
  > In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. This is wildly wrong; for starters, “woke” predates critical theory; for another, there is no such thing as “Critical Social Justice”, which is just mashing together two terms right-wingers don’t like and misrepresent.
  - pclmulqdq 2y ago
    The word "woke" was first used in the 1930s, and critical theory began its intellectual popularity in the late 1800s. Marx and Clausewitz were early adopters of critical theory, but Engels, Gramsci, Hegel, and many others who popularized the movement did their work in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In other words, critical theory predates "woke" by a century. The word "woke" only attached to critical theory long after both had come about.
krapp 2y ago
The Wikipedia page is useful here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke Woke is an adjective derived from African-American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and gained further popularity in the 2010s with the hashtag #staywoke. Over time, woke came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and denial of LGBTQ rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States. Like a lot of leftist terms, "woke" been co-opted and intentionally corrupted by the right so that most people will now insist that it refers to a system of anti-white racism, which is a bad faith interpretation of what it represents, and completely disregards the actual history and context of the term. Asking what "woke" means on the internet and expecting any sort of unprejudiced response is about as useful as asking a Klansman to define civil rights or an incel to define feminism. So I encourage people to do their own research and make their own decisions from first, rather than second or third-hand principles.

Just to be clear, what's the definition of "woke"?

In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. To first approximation, being woke means viewing society through various critical lenses, as defined by various critical theories bent in service of an ideology most people currently call “Social Justice.” That is, being woke means having taken on the worldview of Critical Social Justice, which sees the world only in terms of unjust power dynamics and the need to dismantle problematic systems. That is, it means having adopted Theory and the worldview it conceptualises. Adherents like Ibram Kendi argue that the only solution to historical racism is present day racism (Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (2019), p. 19). In other words, the "woke" believe in applying institutionalised racism and other forms of discrimination to realise a world in which outcomes are perceived to be equal. As this method and goal are antithetical to Enlightenment and democratic principles, there is a large contingent of people who oppose woke ideology.

dragonwriter 2y ago
> In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. This is wildly wrong; for starters, “woke” predates critical theory; for another, there is no such thing as “Critical Social Justice”, which is just mashing together two terms right-wingers don’t like and misrepresent.
- pclmulqdq 2y ago
  The word "woke" was first used in the 1930s, and critical theory began its intellectual popularity in the late 1800s. Marx and Clausewitz were early adopters of critical theory, but Engels, Gramsci, Hegel, and many others who popularized the movement did their work in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In other words, critical theory predates "woke" by a century. The word "woke" only attached to critical theory long after both had come about.

krapp 2y ago

The Wikipedia page is useful here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke Woke is an adjective derived from African-American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and gained further popularity in the 2010s with the hashtag #staywoke. Over time, woke came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and denial of LGBTQ rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States. Like a lot of leftist terms, "woke" been co-opted and intentionally corrupted by the right so that most people will now insist that it refers to a system of anti-white racism, which is a bad faith interpretation of what it represents, and completely disregards the actual history and context of the term. Asking what "woke" means on the internet and expecting any sort of unprejudiced response is about as useful as asking a Klansman to define civil rights or an incel to define feminism. So I encourage people to do their own research and make their own decisions from first, rather than second or third-hand principles.