‘Woke culture’ is society changing for the better

DEAR B. Robilliard and other writers on this topic [Woke culture is not a passing fad, 17 June], many thanks for your letter regarding woke culture. As a group of young(ish) parents, we share your concern about future generations’ access to freedom of speech, and freedoms in general. To our understanding, the word ‘woke’ is synonymous with ‘awake’, and refers to being aware of the structures and systems that keep the majority of people ‘in their places’ through categorisation and marginalisation, while a small number of financially wealthy ‘elites’ maintain control. We are also in agreement with your disdain for ‘brainwashing’, however from our viewpoint it is in fact those who are not ‘woke’ who have been brainwashed all their lives with stories of ownership and patriarchal hierarchy, describing nature and people as ‘resources’ or ‘capital’. Yes, woke culture is likely to ‘destroy’ (slightly emotive choice of word there – maybe just ‘change’) our lives as we know them, but this is necessary because life as we know it in 2021 continues to decimate natural ecosystems and biodiversity at an alarming rate, continues to ostracise anyone who is not a white man from the primary focus of our culture, continues to degrade women in everyday language, continues to consciously, unconsciously and subconsciously differentiate in more and more granular detail, putting people in boxes and shaming them if they step outside those boxes. There are endless further examples. Life as we know it simply cannot continue in the same direction.