Jonah Sela, Special to The Denisonian–


Being “woke” has been the norm of progressivism for the past 10 years. 

Since its resurgence from the Black Lives Matter movement, being “woke” has taken on a wide variety of meanings to different people and focuses on many different facets of oppression. However, being “woke” has been stolen and co-opted by the very systems and people it was created to fight against. 

I intend to point out the issue with our current form of “‘woke’ ideology” and to show how it prevents actual systematic change, and actually helps the established status quo put on the face of change while they really exploit us more. 

To discuss how the word “woke” has been co-opted, we must first define it. In my own words, being “woke” is a movement designed to highlight the systemic inequality marginalized groups face around the world. 

While a most definitely noble goal, the conservative critique, that I agree with, would be that it limits the possibility for change via only focusing on marginalized groups in society, which does not have every member of that group oppressed. Economic oppression is the most pervasive form of oppression in modern society, and many issues of inequality in society can tie back to it. I often see racial barriers being brought down between people when they are in similar hardships, especially due to the fact that the hardships themselves are what might have caused the bigotry. 

I used to have views that were somewhat bigoted against immigrants; I used to believe they were genuinely stealing our jobs and ruining the American culture and economy. However, my opinions changed radically when I simply sat down with immigrants. I went to a high school with a massive Somali population, and seeing their stories and relating to them broke down my bigotry and gave me much more empathy. This is primarily because going through the same experience, or trauma as someone else, brings you closer together and allows you to relate to them.

Corporations and the elite love to focus on “being ‘woke,’” at least from an outsider’s perspective. Whether it’s Pepsi’s infamous ad with Kylie Jenner, stopping a protest from colliding with the cops via giving cops a Pepsi, or the fact that most social media corporate accounts change their profile pictures for pride month and keeping their Middle Eastern accounts normal. While I think it’s foolish to seek support from these massive entities that are only focused on profit, it still goes to show how disingenuous this support is to begin with, as it shows they are simply trying to get more market share instead of actually solving the problem. 

In fact, assuming that these multinational corporations actually care about human rights is quite comical. In the pursuit of “maximizing shareholder value,” corporations have ended up committing horrendous atrocities, such as child slavery, death squads, and many other atrocious acts. 

To illustrate the damage corporations do while pretending to be “woke,” one of the most iconic examples is necessary. 

Nestlé is a multinational corporation with a market cap of over $250 billion that specializes in many different food products, ranging from baby food to bottled water to ice cream. However, despite their production of very unassuming items, since the 1970s Nestlé has faced waves of criticism for forced labour, child labour, modern slavery, union busting, deforestation, and multiple types of misinformation. 

While all of this happens, Nestlé pushes a narrative of progressiveness by making negligible yearly donations to democrat politicians, such as $45,000 to Kamala Harris, $2,750 to Sherrod Brown. Although their official political stances can be very up in the air, partly because they also donated $9,000 to Trump’s 2024 political campaign. Nestlé also promotes its LGBTQ+ initiatives and workplace, and brags about being ranked highly on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index. 

I am happy they provide an inclusive and supportive workplace but it feels extremely performative while they are making the lives of people, especially in third-world countries, much worse.

Jonah Sela ‘28 is an economics major from Powell, Ohio.