WOKENESS.

I had a foolish troll, whom I blocked, call me woke and when I told him that I’d take it as a compliment, tell me that I would because I’m woke and told me to wake up. When you are woke you are awake to injustice.

I saw a ridiculous comment on twitter that wokeness was making people unhappy about going into their workplaces because, wait for it, they couldn’t tell jokes or what have you. I remember, when I was in year Eight, I had a boy in my class tell a racist joke about a Vietnamese man and the teacher angrily sent him outside. There was a Vietnamese boy in my class. The boy who told the joke could not have used the excuse that he didn’t see the Vietnamese boy in the class as Vietnamese, just another student. And this was not the first time that this boy had been subjected to racism. I remember, on the first day, our teacher asked us to introduce ourselves and say which primary school we had attended. This boy gave his name and told us which primary school he had attended and the teacher asked, “And where are you from originally?” The boy answered, “Vietnam,” but I don’t think that the teacher had a right to ask that.

Telling racist jokes is not something that I consider humorous or acceptable.

I have seen right-wing politicians lambast corporations, Procter and Gamble was one, for supporting “woke agendas”. Yes, corporations will do that because there’s benefit for them, but if a corporation is not in need of a racist’s, sexist’s or transphobe’s money, then that’s a principled stance. I knew a kid whose father worked for Procter and Gamble, and some thought that the kid was gay. He and I were friends.

I do not believe that “wokeness” is a reason why people were unhappy in their workplaces. If they have a problem with not being able to tell a racist, homophobic, transphobic or other joke, well, that speaks volumes about them.