One of the biggest movements of our time is to be woke.
But what does it mean to be woke?
Is wokeness just for racial issues, gender issues, or just meaning you are educated?
Read on to learn all about the woke ideology meaning, woke gender ideology, and why you should be educated about the woke movement.
The beginnings
The dictionary defines woke as being actively attentive to important facts and issues in society.
Wokeness is more prominent in black culture.
It primarily speaks of being aware of societal injustices and unfairness.
The current woke revival began in the 2010, but the term stay woke originated in the 1930s.
Woke is derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) to alert people to racial prejudice and discrimination.
In 1938, Huddie Ledbetter, a black American folk singer also known as Lead Belly, used “stay woke” as part of the afterword to a recording of his song Scottsboro Boys.
He was referring to the fact that you need to “stay woke” when going through Scottsboro, in the spoken afterword.
In 2014 being woke was tied to the Black Lives Matter movement to draw attention to abuse by police after the shooting of Michael Brown.
This was later fueled by the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
White people used the term “being woke” to show that they support the movement and understand what black people go through.
In recent years “woke” has grown to encompass so much more.
Wokeness in race and gender
Wokeness has grown to encompass all matters where there is injustice, criticism, and hatred.
It is now prominently used by activist groups and associated with all injustices that involve race, gender, and identity.
Many people argue that woke gender ideology has gone too far with the spread of the critical race and critical gender theory which is spreading through schools.
This teaches children, as young as kindergartners, that gender does not mean the sex you were born as and can be altered or changed, if they wish.
One major debate America faces today is whether transitioning biological men should be allowed to compete with biological women in many sports.
Is woke ideology good or bad for America?
Woke ideology can be a very bad thing, according to many popular beliefs, especially in references to gender identity.
People like Riley Gaines, a competitive swimmer, are against wokeness.
She states that the woke movement urges competitive sports teams to allow biological men to compete alongside her.
This creates an unfairness to biological women because biological men, regardless of affirmation therapy, are still just as strong as they were before transitioning.
Woke ideology also allows doctors to give children as young as 4 years old puberty blockers, and at times reaffirming surgery, with or without parental permission in some states.
In some instances where children have taken puberty blockers they have grown up to realize they made a mistake and now need surgery to transition back to their biological gender.
When talking about wokeness in relation to race, the debate is almost as strong.
It has been attributed to the defunding of police and many rallies which have gone out of control and violent.
This is not to say a person should not be woke, but the current woke fads have gone beyond sanity with some people claiming if you are not woke you are racist or sexist.
