What is ‘woke,’ exactly?

I’ve been “liberal” for at least 50 years of my adult life. Depending on the issue, I sometimes agree with other liberals, and sometime I don’t. But I’ve never known of any “woke” agenda. Honestly, I doubt the liberals will every be cohesive enough to promote a liberal agenda of any sort. Most of us are sort of freethinkers.

But there are politicians campaigning against a “woke” agenda, which seems to be a figment of their imagination or of their expediency. Unfortunately, they have received a lot of uncritical attention.

Perhaps more focused questions should be asked — about civil rights, about sex/gender rights, about personal liberties, about the balance between state and federal authority. But those issues are all getting swept under an antagonistic and vague depiction of “woke” ideology.

Bu Wilson

Iowa City