On one hand I agree with Obama that much online dialogue is unhelpful and goofy (though this is a general phenomenon, not confined to woke dialogue).
On the other hand, I think wokeness addressed some real thorny problems in our society that had previously been hard to address.
On the other hand, I think wokeness addressed some real thorny problems in our society that had previously been hard to address.
In the 20th century we outlawed racial discrimination, sexual harassment, etc. But although those legal changes helped a lot, there was a lot of tacit discrimination and quiet sexual harassment that the legal apparatus couldn't root out.
Wokeness helped get at those problems.
Wokeness helped get at those problems.
It's easy to see wokeness as defined by the performative goofballs who complain about prom dresses and such. But when I look at the reality of American life, I see many police departments starting to rethink the way they relate to Black communities...
citylab.com/equity/2019/10…
citylab.com/equity/2019/10…
And when I look at the reality of American life, I see big drops in sexual harassment.
hbr.org/2019/07/has-se…
hbr.org/2019/07/has-se…
Just those two changes - less racist policing and reduced sexual harassment - outweigh the annoyance of a hundred million goofy performative woke-tweets.
They represent real and enduring changes that I think couldn't have happened without wokeness, and without social media.
They represent real and enduring changes that I think couldn't have happened without wokeness, and without social media.
In fact, all along I thought this would be the outcome of the "awokening". I wrote this thread about it last year:
Has wokeness overreached? Sure, in many cases it has. Has wokeness gotten annoying and goofy? Sure, in many cases it has.
But I believe the overreach and goofiness will disappear over time, and the positive changes - which always outweighed the downsides - will remain.
But I believe the overreach and goofiness will disappear over time, and the positive changes - which always outweighed the downsides - will remain.
A healthy society is always looking for ways to improve itself. And usually it takes a movement in order to push improvements through.
Maybe I'm being whiggish here, but I think wokeness appeared because we needed it, or something like it.
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Maybe I'm being whiggish here, but I think wokeness appeared because we needed it, or something like it.
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