Obama Calls Out 'Woke' Culture: 'That's Not Activism,' 'Get Over That Quickly'

Brittany M. Hughes | October 30, 2019
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When you’ve gone so “progressive” that you’ve lost Barack Obama, you know you’ve gone too far.

The former president, known for encouraging political activism among younger Americans – a movement that largely helped win him the presidency in 2008 and 2012 – called out this new “woke” culture that seeks to “cancel” people for decades-old mistakes from behind the safety of one's keyboard.

“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re politically woke and all that stuff — you should get over that quickly,” Obama told his audience during the Obama Foundation Summit this week. “The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids and you know share certain things with you.”

“One danger I see among young people particularly on college campuses — Malia and I talk about this...but I do get a sense sometimes now, among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, there is this sense sometimes of, ‘The way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people and that’s enough,’” Obama continued. 

“Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right, or use the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself. ‘Cause, ‘Man, did you see how woke I was? I called you out! Let me get on TV, watch my show, watch Grown-ish.' “That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far. That’s easy to do.”
 

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