If you don’t know what it means to be woke, read this.
If you consider yourself to be “woke,” you understand the crippling thoughts you deal with every day. From institutionalized racism, gender inequality, and homophobia, you recognize the world is seriously messed up sometimes.
Here are 8 thoughts and feelings that conflict us often (in no particular order):
1. It can be hard to enjoy yourself when sh*t keeps happening in the world.
The meme says it all. Your whole mood changes when you think of things like how working parents can’t survive on the minimum wage to support a family or how the DNC sabotaged Bernie’s campaign.
2. Will I ever be able to find someone to deal with me?
Not all of us want a companion, partner, or even a relationship at that. But for those of us who do, we know how challenging it could be to find someone who recognizes our plight , understands it, and supports it.
3. What does it matter anyway?! Climate change is going to be our demise
The fact that people don’t think climate change is real is mind boggling to us. Sometimes we question why we fight for what we believe in when the world is slowly coming to an end.
4. What racist stuff will I see today?
If you listen to the Internet, you would think that racism isn’t real and we make this stuff up. “The media is inciting a race war.” “I don’t see color!” We hear those comments on the regular and we have to bite our tongues to save us the stress of an argument.
5. Hoping you’ll see some #blackgirlmagic #goals #positivity #anythingbutDonaldTrump on social media
With all the negativity happening in the world, and constant reminders of inequalities, it can be nice to see some positivity grace your timeline or newsfeed sometimes.
6. #BlackLivesMatter
Seeing unarmed black men get killed is something we have grown accustomed to seeing. It becomes disheartening and can truly hurt us. We know and believe that #BlackLivesMatter and hope that others will believe it too.
7. Girl, I guess I’m with Her.
When Bernie Sanders was the only candidate that made sense and you feel like you have to vote because you know it’s important but you don’t want to vote for a liar but also don’t want to vote for a racist but know that Trump just isn’t an option and a protest vote is a wasted vote (sorry it is) so you’re also just really conflicted and want to cry.
8. Wanting to attend every protest and combat every social injustice, but time isn’t on your side.
The things we see frustrate us and we want to be on the right side of justice, but responsibilities plague us. Work, school, internships, sleep, food, etc. etc.