It is one of those blog posts where I get into my feelings, reflect, and just spur out random words. So, everyone, bear with me.
First, let’s talk about the term ‘woke’ Because as it is the 21st century, woke is not just simply about waking up. Just as much as the skull emojis don’t mean ‘dead’ or ‘you’re dead’ but more of “It’s so funny I’m dead 💀💀💀”
In the 21st century, the term woke is used to describe people who came to a deep realization, who ‘woke up from the truth’ Which also brings us to the term Filipinos would use the word “Pa-woke” as a term to insult describe someone who ‘educates people’ In retrospect, it should be a good thing, right? It’s like a teacher or more of the classmate who understood the lesson and will explain it to you. But no, if a Filipino would say you’re pa-woke, they’re either offended, in-denial, and in some cases. right. But either way, it’s an insult.
Most commonly seen on Twitter, people would express a certain opinion or thoughts. Some light-hearted from why their favorite movie is the best their is (half-joking), why certain horoscopes are much better than the others (a scorpio, who knows it’s true, but meant it as a joke) and you have those who would go into controversial topics like why a certain person is not equipped for the presidency, why this book is considered a hate crime to Asians, LGBTs, and is blatantly racist.
In this moments, if the author of the tweet is Filipino, those who have opposing ideas would call them “Pa-Woke” as a term to describe how they are overanalyzing something, how the author of the tweet is trying to stir up drama by looking at every single thing in a bad manner.
But consider this, what if, for the most part, the author is right?
Most of the time, Filipinos tend to learn a word or a term then run with it. Every foreigner who reacts positively to the Philippines is ‘Filipino Baiting’ One small mistake, and you are ‘Cancelled’ And now, the term woke is introduced and everybody who says something intelligent, is simply, ‘pa-woke’
Again, just like Arctic Monkeys said, stop and wait a sec.
Most of these tweets, are true. It’s true that a book can be harmful to certain minorities, but calling out its toxic behavior, ruins the fun and ruins people’s imagination. Being woke means calling out something or someone that some people will find offensive and overachieving solely because it doesn’t align with them.
True, there are things that deserve the term ‘pa-woke’ like getting mad about cartoon animals and taking offense to how a raccoon is the stereotypical ‘trash’ character. But a good amount of time, it’s just difficult to admit, how they have a point, and it goes completely against ours. So instead of them shaming us, we shame them.
Just like before, based on experience, it is another case of people smart-shaming individuals who have the brains and the courage to speak out. Because just like always, those who say the most never utter a word, only those who think before they speak.
Grim Reader 