Wokeness

Wokeness denotes heightened awareness of systemic injustice — particularly racism, sexism, heteronormativity, and other forms of structural oppression — and the moral imperative to challenge them. As a cultural phenomenon it encompasses a cluster of commitments: centring lived experience and identity, dismantling whiteness and patriarchy as structural forces, recognising intersecting axes of marginalisation, and reforming or abolishing institutions seen as perpetuating inequity. Contested by critics as ideologically rigid and divisive.

Mainstreaming of intersectionality as an analytical and activist lens; normative shift toward identity-conscious policy and institutional reform; expansion of the Overton window on structural racism and systemic oppression; popularisation of concepts such as privilege, microaggressions, and allyship.