Awake, Not Woke

"Stay woke," she said. But then she took it back.

Flashback to 2018. I was a senior in college and in my final year as a Dancer Performance Major. I spent all Fall Semester preparing for my Senior Capstone which included choreographing, costuming and lighting a 6-minute piece on a topic of my choice. What was my topic? White Privilege. Based on the 50-point list from Peggy McIntosh’s essay, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.

I was a part of the Woke, zombie cult. I mean this partly to be funny, but I’m mostly serious. I truly believe the Woke group functions as a cult.

I knew nothing about the incident. I hadn’t even watched the news, I heard from a friend and accepted the story she told me.

I walked around with my racial appropriation magnifying glass. I wore my heart on my sleeve and was convinced I was being racially profiled if anyone stared at me a second too long. I wrote an entire paragraph in my paper on the BAND-AID brand and their lack of skin color inclusivity. Do I even care what color my BAND-AIDs are? My honest answer is no. I really and truly do not. Yet I still found a way to have a stick up my butt about it. I became well versed in complaining about race issues. I fell right in line and accepted the Michael Brown “hands up, don’t shoot" narrative (look it up before you get mad at me). I knew nothing about the incident. I hadn’t even watched the news, I heard from a friend and just accepted the story she told me. Fast-forward to when I was finally faced with questions about some of these topics. I couldn't answer. I was so ignorant of the facts it was embarrassing. This was when I started searching for the truth, not just a narrative.

I have now seen the Woke cult for what it is and I cannot un-see it. So today we’re going to talk about Wokeness (and why it makes me cringe) in three parts: the issues, the emotions and the actions.

The Issues

The Woke cult has placed way too much energy and focus into the wrong issues. Today those main focuses are white supremacy and systemic racism. We are being led to believe that these two issues are the main reason black people are unable to succeed or build wealth. In reality these topics serve only as a distraction from the true issues. We could be talking about broken families, abortion rates (more black babies aborted than born in some areas), public education in inner cities, financial illiteracy, the welfare state, and the many other generational issues plaguing black communities! Finding solutions to these topics instead of fighting the white supremacy and systemic racism boogeymen would much better serve the community.

The Emotions

It’s important that we recognize the importance of logic and reasoning when addressing these problems instead of giving way to knee jerk reactions. Most recent example…

What did reading this headline make you feel? Did you ask any questions about the situation before you chose a “side?” If the answer is no... oof.

I saw a lot of people post about this young girl that day. Several posts saying things like, “We can’t even breathe for two seconds before they’re killing us again.” But in the comments these same people were telling others they didn't actually know what happened...

Sooooo, WHY ARE YOU POSTING!!!?

The problem today is that mainstream media is opportunistic and they begin pushing their narrative before all of the facts have even surfaced. By the time the facts are out everyone is already spiraling and so overly emotional that you end up with people seriously arguing that knife fights are normal for teenagers and cops should be shooting their weapons in the air. No to both of these things BTW.

*Breathe.

This isn’t to say feelings and emotions aren’t important in some cases, but the reality is that emotions are easily manipulated. We cannot allow MSM, our friends, or ANYONE for that matter any ounce of control over how we react. Wait for the facts. Think critically. Don’t conform to the status quo.

The Actions

My biggest pet peeve right now is virtue signaling. I've noticed there are two tiers. The first tier are the people who truly do believe in the cause and who are convinced that posting a black square, sharing a nice mural of a criminal, and calling a Trump supporter they've never met a "racist" on Facebook is doing their part and anyone not doing the same deserves to be publicly shamed.

Real life example: Cussing someone out [*cough ME *cough] because they shared that they enjoy celebrating the 4th of July but didn’t bother posting a black square in June. If you behave in this manner…

The second tier of virtue signalers are doing so because they are scared--NOT because they believe in the movement. They know that posting will appease the masses and hopefully be enough to avoid being cussed out and fired. An honest question for those who believe in the cause: why would you want your movement built on fear as opposed to a genuine concern for the issues you believe are harming the black community? Virtue signaling seems to me an excuse for people to be unkind under the guise of helping others.

What other actions have the Woke zombies taken? Let's see,

• We're canceling math and accelerated classes,

• tearing down statues,

• attempting to rewrite history,

• segregating spaces,

• and telling white people they are all racist, they just don't know it.

It's CRT Brain Rot.

But what’s really sickening are the people willing to call someone's job to have them fired because they refuse to bow down to the mob. I won’t lie. I thought my stomach was going to fall out of my butt (any Mean Girls fans?) when I clicked the “post” button for my first political post on Facebook. It took me this long muster up enough courage to start this blog, mainly because I work in the performing arts. Almost all of the people I work with do not share my values or political ideologies. I knew I would lose friends and possibly work by being vocal about my beliefs. This should not be the case. I find it abhorrent that anyone would feel it necessary to have someone fired from their job because of their politics.

Wake up. Wake up to the distractions and how they’re dividing us. Wake up and start thinking critically. Wake up to the fact that the cure cannot be worse than the problem.

Wokeness is proving to be detrimental to how we, as individuals, relate to others. I’m not sure how one can believe they are on the right side of history when actively working to divide and destroy. People are afraid to speak their minds. Including myself. Really shaking in my boots (I’m kidding) since I’ve lost hundreds of friends and followers on Insta and FB--some I didn’t know well, and some I did. Some who would be surprised to learn that we may have common ground. Relationships are being ruined: friendships; families; even marriages have been completely destroyed because people are claiming to be “doing their part,” while furthering the problems they pretend to resolve.

Don’t stay woke. Wake up. Wake up to the distractions and how they’re dividing us. Wake up and start thinking critically. Wake up to the fact that the cure cannot be worse than the problem. But don’t just wake up, stand up and fight back. Call out wrong when you see it, but have grace and an understanding that we all fall short. Recognize that no one is perfect and it is impossible to spread love when perpetuating hate.