What is the woke ideology?

The term woke up It had its first use in the United States during the 1940s among the country’s black communities. He named an appeal to social conscience and activism in the fight against racism and social injustices.

This ideology seeks to destructure the established order in favor of change at a political and social level. Woke, Translated as ‘awake’, it is an ideology that invites not to remain impassive in the face of social problems and discrimination .

This concept is also often used as stay awake, which translates as ‘stay awake’ or ‘be alert’. The rise of this expression occurred with the movement Black Lives Matter, which began in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of the young African-American Trayvon Martin. It was in this context of denouncing police violence against the black population that the stay woke achieved popularity .

The woke ideology

It is a set of ideas that are characterized by promoting awareness, in addition to demanding our attention to the social facts associated with discrimination. It is an invitation for us to be aware of the social and political problems in which we live.

The ideology woke up aims to awaken people from social indifference, of that disconnection between consciousness, feelings and the behavior towards social problems that have caused so much passivity in people towards the social, political and economic problems that affect them.

With it we seek to “open our eyes” and get out of automatism to take control over life and fight for social change, for inequalities, racism, injustices, etc.

With the emergence of this ideology, perceptions and awareness of latent injustices in society have been accentuated. At the same time, it has been a bastion for spreading suspicion and critical thinking. Being an ideology of awakening, promotes the emancipation of people from social structures that increase inequalities.

Thus, the ideology woke up It transforms passive people into active and emancipated people, into people who act to access a state of autonomy and social equality, in which rights and human dignity are not overlooked.

The woke ideology and transversality

One of the central theories in this ideology is intersectionality, which alludes to the superposition of discriminations and maintains that the social struggle is not only played on a single terrain (race, gender sex, identity, ethnicity, nation, etc.), but in all of them at the same time.

Starting from this theory, the ideology woke up can capture the experiences of subordination and discrimination experienced by a disadvantaged group . It can also account for the crossed or interwoven perception of power relations in the social structure.

With intersectional analysis, ideology woke up he is able to reveal the different identities that exist and expose the different types of discrimination and disadvantages that occur as a consequence of the combination of these.

With this analysis, it is possible to address the ways in which racism, patriarchy, class oppression and other systems of discrimination create inequalities that structure the relative positions of people, groups or communities.

Uses of intersectionality in woke ideology

Intersectionality is useful for this type of ideologies, since through it discrimination tendencies can be counteracted and their patterns identified. In this way, they can be distinguished from those phenomena that are idiosyncratic to each person or community.

With the support of intersectionality, the ideology woke up can understand power relations and social inequalities. In this sense, intersectionality works as:

Field of study of power relations.Analytical strategy that provides new perspectives on social phenomena.Critical practice in social development projects.

Finally, the ideology woke up brings us closer to the fight against discrimination and inequality, whether for reasons of race, ethnicity, gender, sex, identity, etc. The search for a more just society and awakened citizens who are not indifferent to social problems is one of its main foundations. .

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