Disclaimer: first of all, I’m not using “woke” as a bad word, because it isn’t, and it shouldn’t be.

I don’t want to philosophise about this too much, and just jump into the problem. Self-expression is a good thing. You should never allow anyone else to tell you what to say, what to think, what to feel. Sure, there are social norms and lines that you don’t cross, but those lines are moving faster than goalposts in an argument with a seven year old. It’s dumb. Each of us needs

I was talking about racism a few years ago with my friend, K. And while we come from different backgrounds, I’m Romanian, he’s Jamaican, we have different histories, education methods and rooted beliefs that come through said education, we started to talk about racism. We talked a lot about how some people are discriminated way more than others and how it affected his life, as well as mine to some extent. But as some point in our dialogue, we have reached the same conclusion: it’s not words that hurt, it’s attitudes. Of course, I’m not running around dropping N-bombs left and right, but I won’t be offended if a friends tells me “don’t be a gipsy” because I don’t want to share my shaworma. I understand some people live by the “words hurt” mantra, but I think that’s plain dumb. It’s not the words that hurt, it’s the attitude behind those words, It’s the fake smile that holds a knife behind it’s back, it’s the wish of well-being while secretly wanting someone’s misfortune. I’ve seen countless times people getting flak for using a “non-woke-approved” word in a non-hateful context, while others getting away with literal hate-speech just because they used fancy speech.

Regardless of the medium people are interacting in, be it at work, school, in online circles, social media (ew!), I’ve seen this pattern of “washing up” dialogue, to avoid using certain words or phrases, or even avoid some ideas completely, just for the sake of not being burned on a metaphorical spike in the middle of a metaphorical village. This leads to a lack of self-expression, a muted down dialogue and a lot of self-censorship.

And self-censorship is the nemesis of self-expression. It removes “you” from “you” and lets only a curated, all-approved version of you exist.

So regardless of what you do, when you make a video, write a blog post, talk to a friend or a stranger, be mindful. Be polite. Judge people about what they do, not about who you are. But don’t take an axe to your liberty of expression, and continue to be yourself. The power to express yourself as who you really are makes you who you really are.

PS: Since today is March 8th, I want to wish “Happy Women’s Day!” to all the ladies out there.