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Former President Obama Calls out 'Woke Culture'

Barack And Michelle Obama Speak At Obama Foundation Summit

Former President Barack Obama took on 'woke' culture during a panel at the Obama Foundation's annual summit in Chicago on Tuesday.

The former president was being interviewed by a young woman who asked him about youth activism. In the clip posted online, Obama can be heard talking about how people calling others out on social media does nothing to bring about any kind of real change.

"This idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're always politically 'woke' and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly. The world is messy, there are ambiguities," Obama said. "People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids. And share certain things with you."

"I get a sense among certain young people on social media that the way of making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people.

"If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn't do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, because 'Man did you see how woke I was? I called you out!'"

"That's not activism," Obama said. "That's not bringing about change."

'Woke' is defined as someone to describe anyone who has learned and attempts to teach others about racial or social discrimination and injustice along with being aware of their actions and how they might affect people around them. However, some can take it too far, Obama said.

Obama has come out against 'woke culture' in the past, when in April he told a crowd an event in Berlin that "One of the things I do worry about among progressives in the United States, maybe it's true here as well, is a certain kind of rigidity where we say 'Uh, I'm sorry, this is how it's going to be' and then we start sometimes creating what's called a 'circular firing squad', where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues."


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