Woke: (adjective) of African American origin; a term which refers to a perceived awareness of social and racial injustice.
My Timeline of Advocacy:
2013-2017: I was in a Social Justice Theatre Troupe in college called Making Waves. This group was a community of people who believed in equity for all. Making Waves challenged deeply rooted exclusive beliefs through performing controversial scenarios and engaging the audience in dialogue as the characters they portrayed even after performances were finished. The scenarios touched on racial injustice, LGBT+ injustice, religious intolerance, and much more. I was proud to be a part of it, and to stand with people who showed compassion and love to all, and believed that each of our individual differences made us stronger together.
2018-2020: I hated the news. I hated keeping up with current events. It depressed me, made me feel hopeless. I had been signed up for CNN's "5 Things" emails, designed to keep me up to date with what was going on in the world. I hardly opened them. I wouldn't admit it to myself, but I had become lazy. I didn't want anything to do with politics or current events. It felt like too much.
May 25th, 2020: The world is in the middle of a pandemic, I am teaching long-distance over the internet, and life is crazy. I am lying in bed, scrolling through Facebook. My mom, who has become incredibly politically aware within the last 12 months while I have been politically and socially benign, has posted a video with the caption, "Hard to watch; but DO NOT look away." I start the video playing, and can't believe what I am seeing.
I am woke.
I am not proud of how I have turned a blind eye. I am not proud of how I allowed my White Privilege to stay blissfully unaware of what is happening in the world. But I will be better, do better.
As Dr. Bernice King stated on Ellen, when quoting her father, Martin Luther King Junior, "True peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice." I will no longer avoid the tension. I do not live in the world that I want to live in. This is not the world I want my students to grow up in. It breaks my heart that young people like the girl in the video below are sad, frustrated, and afraid in today's society. Our young people deserve so much better; they deserve a united world with a united people.
A few days ago, I was equally concerned with "what" was happening following the death of George Floyd (peaceful protests, violent riots, houses/companies burned, looting, (the last three mostly, if not completely, from organizations who were unaffiliated with Black Lives Matter)) as I was with "why" it was happening. I was constantly having discussions about this with friends and family members. In one conversation, one of my friends stated, "There is so much complexity to the rioting. But, it should not be our focus. We need to maintain focus on WHY this is all happening and not let a few protesters' actions shake our support." Another friend posted a photo online that read, "If you are more upset by how they are protesting than why they are protesting, then you're part of the problem." Between conversations about these statements, I realized that I was engaging in the discussions with my personal bias/White Privilege. My statements and opinions were coming from a place in which I would never have to worry about being heard, listened to, or appreciated. If I were the one peacefully protesting with people who had the same skin tone as me, it wouldn't take long for us to be heard or for change to occur. In contrast, BIPOC have been fighting for decades to achieve this outcome. It is unfair and inequitable.
I am woke. I understand that I will never understand, but I will continue to try. I stand with you.
The following poem, "Let Me", was written by a good friend of mine, Jynni Discenza-Misner. It resonates with me, and beautifully paints a picture of what I believe it means to be 'woke' during this era in history.
