Are You Woke?

Over the past year, one of the most popular buzzwords, or fashionable words, used in the media (news, TV shows, etc.) is “woke.”

You probably know the word woke as the past tense of the verb “to wake” (to stop sleeping): “He woke up this morning at 7:00 am.”

But the term is being used these days to refer to a person who has become aware of, understands, and pays attention to some type of injustice.

Injustice is when a person or group is treated unfairly, often because of their sex (being male or female, or due to their sexual preferences), race (the color of their skin), class (what social or economic group they’re born into, or how much money they have), or something else.

“Woke,” used in this way, is an adjective. A few examples:

“We say we’re woke, but we still have different rules for men and women.”

“The management at my workplace finally got woke. They’re now listening to more of the complaints of our workers in other countries.”

I can’t say this is my favorite buzzword, but you will hear it a lot these days.

Don’t get me wrong (don’t misunderstand). I don’t want anyone or any group to be treated unfairly!

But it’s the people who tell us they’re “woke” — like our politicians — who often seem the most tone-deaf (people who are the least sensitive to and aware of public opinions and feelings; literally, people who can’t tell the differences among tones in music).

I find it especially annoying (bothersome; making me angry) when it is used as a form of virtue signaling.

Virtue signaling means indicating to other people how moral or good you are because you hold the right (correct) opinion about some political or social issue.

In those cases of “wokeness,” I’d rather be asleep.