CW: Lots of wokeness. /j

Since the word “woke” has been going around lately, Wednesdays are now for The Woke Agenda. As a member of the alphabet mafia (with a couple of other marginalized labels on top of that), I’ll continue my mission of advancing the “woke agenda” with a series of posts tackling issues of social inequality. I’ll try to keep them book related, but of course, they apply to other spheres as well and you should consider them in your day-to-day life.

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What does “woke” mean?

Let’s talk about the meaning of “woke”. According to Wikipedia:

The definition has expanded to include other communities that suffer from prejudice and discrimination; it now encompasses gender and other discriminated identities. It means being aware of the problems of social and political inequality.

“Woke” has evolved into a single-word summation of leftist political ideology, centered on social justice politics and critical race theory. This framing of “woke” is bipartisan: It’s used as a shorthand for political progressiveness by the left, and as a denigration of leftist culture by the right.

(Romano, 2020)

Now anyone advocating for a more inclusive world risks being called “woke”. It’s used “as an insult against progressive values.” (Alfonseca, 2023) As if asking for people’s rights was a bad thing. Whoever believed this was a burn didn’t think this through, huh?

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What to expect from The Woke Agenda?

Besides living in this world as a trans, gay, (grey) ace, (self-diagnosed) autistic, Mexican man, I don’t have any professional credentials to speak about these topics. I plan on inviting people aggrieved by issues I’m not familiar with to avoid what society does best: speaking from privilege and ignoring the voices of the affected communities.

I know I’ve been wrong in the past, but feeling guilty is not enough. We gotta apologize and try our best next time. I hope people reading these posts approach them with an open mind and know that my purpose isn’t to make you feel bad or judged; I want to share what I now have a better understanding of so we can make this world a safer place for everyone to navigate.

Another thing! If you find me saying something insensitive or inaccurate, PLEASE don’t hesitate to call me out. I’m nowhere close to knowing everything, but I would like to speak about these issues in a thoughtful way and I’m always receptive to learning.

Here are some of the issues I plan on covering in the future:

• Content warnings
• Avoiding ableist language
• Book bans
• Why representation matters
• The importance of labels
• Marginalized voices

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If you wish to contribute to the series, contact me via email at tinyelfarcanist@gmail.com.

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