What is the future of wokeness?

[WindowPhil]

I would argue that the history of the current "Woke Era" started in the Obama era, with the rise of BLM in the wake of high profile police killings of Unarmed Black men. Which in turn helped lead to a boost in social justice consciousness that facilitated the rise of the MeToo movement. Wokeness was perhaps given its largest boost with the election of Trump, and further boosted with the George Floyd protests.

So here we are in 2021. This year was the first in my recollection where Women's History Month received comparable amounts of visibility to Black History Month (whereas before it was just limited to internet bickering around the "international women's day" Google Doodle). Ad agencies are starting to air commercials with many people starring in them that feature zero white males (whereas in the past there was usually at least one "token white guy"). The word "Latinx" has reached notoriety. Reparations for African Americans has became a mainstream idea. The idea of "Equity" is gaining acceptance, which states that excluding people who are simultaneously members of privileged racial and gender groups is necessary in order to help marginalized groups as much as possible.

America has had periods of wokeness in the past. After the civil rights act was signed, the Black Power movement of the 1970s ascended in the public conciousness before declining from its peak. The 1990s brought us a woke period after the LA riots, which decline in the public conciousness after a period of time.

Will this period of wokeness eventually pass like with the ones in the 1970s and 1990s?

Will it stay around permanently? With future Democratic administrations after Biden having zero white males in them, most advertisements having zero white males in them, affirmative action in every fascet of society, etc.

[Alben Barkley]

I figure it will fade away eventually like the 90s PC craze did. But then again, social media wasn't a thing back then so perhaps that could give it more staying power?

[Mercenary]

Hopefully non-existant.

[Ferguson97]

Hopefully it stays!

[EastwoodS]

Hopefully it stays!

To the gulag you go.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Like most things, it won't go away but it will quiet down.

[Bootes Void]

alot of wokeness already gets adopted into the larger mainstream culture, some of the more extreme or nonsenscial parts of it do get die off, and lastly some of the more divisive parts such as affirmative action or anti discimination laws(and to their extent) do get debated.

[Hermit For Peace]

The future of "wokeness" is that more and more people are turning to metaphysics to understand life.

[Cassandra]

Capitalism has incorporated (and thus neutered) liberal feminism. We can expect advertising firms and politicians to talk "like that" for the next generation at least.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I figure it will fade away eventually like the 90s PC craze did. But then again, social media wasn't a thing back then so perhaps that could give it more staying power?

Actually social media is also a source of the pushback against it, see how "womxn" is basically entirely cancelled now due to a few Twitter backlashes and "Latinx" is also headed in that direction.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Anyway I think the odder aspects of it will definitely die out just as things like a lot of second-wave feminism and the 80s/90s push to say "African-American" instead of "black" did (side note: I find it hilarious how some right-wingers still think this is a thing and make unfunny jokes about it, as if there's a movement called "African-American Lives Matter" today.) It's just not developing critical mass or seeing opposition crumble like support of gay marriage or tolerance of marijuana did.

Also a good chunk of its advocates who give it lots of attention on social media are pink haired college students or even minors who'll eventually grown up and start caring about things like bills, work and family instead of obsessing over culturally appropriative hairstyles or whatever. And Twitter is likely starting a decline and it became the main disbursement mechanism of this stuff after Tumblr went moribund.

And finally Joe Biden as President will out a large damper on it as he isn't a culture warrior in either direction. He neither actively promotes it like someone like Elizabeth Warren would do or inspired a backlash that fuels it like Trump did.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Much like the quickly rendered meaningless terms of "political correctness," "SJW," and "cancel;"  "woke" as a fear-based meme in reaction to society will eventually evolve into a new pejorative term that replaces it in usage until that term becomes the more mainstream one, and so on and so forth.

[Pink Panther]

I can see the woke ideology either quiet down, moderate itself, or completely collapse in the future. However, I'm not sure what will happen internally or externally(Trumpism, traditional ideologies, etc.), as they will help lead wokeism to it's future.

[Real Texan Politics]

Not permanent, but social media will help it stick around far longer than it should, and will likely affect the politics of America at some point in the future (whether that's AOC getting elected president or a protégé of her, or something completely different).

[Xing]

It will probably evolve into something else, which, like “PC culture”, will be annoying and more prevalent than most would like, but also exaggerated and made into a boogeyman by the right.

[DaleCooper]

It will never go away as long as all the corporate power in this country enforces "woke" standards of behavior. If your job, livelihood, and family are on the line then you're not going to stand up for anyone that gets silenced or bullied.   

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It will never go away as long as all the corporate power in this country enforces "woke" standards of behavior. If your job, livelihood, and family are on the line then you're not going to stand up for anyone that gets silenced or bullied.   

Thing is though even I'll admit someone getting fired for saying "Latino" instead of "Latinx" or posting a picture of their video game character's hairstyle is a stretch.

[DaleCooper]

It will never go away as long as all the corporate power in this country enforces "woke" standards of behavior. If your job, livelihood, and family are on the line then you're not going to stand up for anyone that gets silenced or bullied.   

Thing is though even I'll admit someone getting fired for saying "Latino" instead of "Latinx" or posting a picture of their video game character's hairstyle is a stretch.

True, but those are the rare cases where it's so obscenely ridiculous that almost everyone is in agreement. A better example would be that time last year where that girl was kicked out of school and had her whole life as she knew it destroyed because she said something vaguely offensive in private when she was literally a child. Just defending her on Atlas, where I'm not connected to an identifiable real-life persona, made me a little nervous in the back of my mind. Regardless of the injustice of it all, I'd never risk defending her or anyone in her situation publicly. I guess that means I'm part of the problem then, but I don't want to get fired and have a NYT op-ed written about how evil I am.