What is "woke" and why is it so controversial?


Answer: Woke is a general political term used to group a set of similar ideologies in an attempt to characterize the political motivations typically ascribed to the far left. Although many definitions of woke exist, these definitions run along a few common threads. Woke is typically used to describe the ideals underpinning what is known as equality of outcome. This is to be contrasted with the opposing political forces who support equality of opportunity.

Those who engage in wokeness more often than not cite disparities as evidence of systemic biases or expressions of racism, sexism, classism, genderism, agism and other prejudices. A common example would be that females are disproportionately represented in elementary school teaching whereas males are disproportionately represented in railroad construction. Woke politics would lead us to believe that this is evidence of sexism: women and men are socialized differently so they are pushed into different positions by institutions. Woke opponents would lead us to believe this is evidence of inate preferences different between the sexes: males are generally stronger than females, so men are more suited to performing heavy labor.

Wokeness is controversial because its opponents do not believe disparity is evidence of bias. Disparities can exist due to natural or cultural differences, neither of which can be governed out of existence. The opponents of woke ideology also proclaim that it ignores the root cause of problems which plague society. If one's analysis stops at disparity and from disparity an answer is assumed, one can miss the nuances present in a situation. A common unavoidable disparity cited is that 100% of births are to females, but this is not sexism. Analysis past disparity is required to prove or disprove systemic or individual bias.