March 17-18, 2023, I spearheaded an arts and apologetics conference in Dana Point. The event was a response to Wokeism, which is why we named it Wide Awake.
I performed several spoken word poems as well as provided research on the ethics of the Woke movement, which I believe can speak to the extreme reaction of alleged Charlie Kirk assassin, Tyler Robinson.
Below are some of my notes on my presentation called “Wokeness and Happiness.”[1]
Identity Politics
Identity politics (IP) has come to represent a broad range of political activity (activism) founded in the shared experiences (of injustice) of members of specific groups based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social and economic class, age, disability status, education, language, profession, political party, etc.
IP is predicated on the overarching social-political binary of the oppressed and the oppressors—with the oppressed seeking equity (getting what they need to enjoy happy lives), presupposing that systemic oppression exists and is valid.
IP describes political movements, such as but not limited to multiculturalism, women’s rights, civil rights, and LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual, plus everything on the gender and sexuality spectrum that letters and words can’t yet describe).
For example, a woke person could identify as a liberal, Latina, lesbian, atheist, Generation Z, disabled, college student, social justice and mental health activist and PTSD rape survivor.
“WOKE” = be aware; question dominant paradigm; strive for equity
Woke is being conscious of all forms of oppression and injustice, such as sexual orientation discrimination, racial discrimination, and age discrimination for the purpose of social justice, more broadly crossing lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, physicality, age, etc., in what’s called “intersectionality.”
“Woke” was coined by Harlem writer William Melvin Kelley in the 1960s and used more recently by R&B artist Erykah Badu in her 2008 song “Master Teacher.”
It was popularized by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists bringing awareness of police shootings of African Americans, such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (2014).
Wokeness is synonymous with “critical theory”—a cultural Marxist movement in social and political philosophy, originally associated with the Frankfurt School in Germany in the 1920s and 30s, dedicated to critiquing cultural hegemony.
Critical Theory
Formally, critical theory may not be considered a worldview but it acts like one, in the sense that it defines worldview questions, such as Who am I? (Answer: part of a social-political binary oppressor-oppressed group vying for dominance.), What’s the problem with humanity? (Answer: oppression. We live in an unjust society, a homophobic society, a racist society, etc.), How do we fix it? (Answer: activism), What’s our ultimate goal? (Answer: enact social change or equity.).
Redefining Racism
Racism used to mean “racial prejudice.” Critical theory (CT) defines it as a system of racial hierarchy and not as being personally racially prejudiced because CT says there are times when a woke person has to be racially prejudiced in order to attain racial equity.
In Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to Be an Antiracist, he says there’s good anti-racist discrimination and there’s bad racist discrimination. Discrimination is not necessarily bad as long as you do it for racial equity.
This system of ethic can be considered utilitarian—morality is determined solely by its utility or usefulness—employing the Machiavellian perspective of the-ends-justify-the-means.”
This moral framework is problematic for the obvious reason that a woke person could be warranted in their activism of violence, aggression, murder, bullying, discrimination, etc., as long as it serves the useful end-goal of social justice.
Take for example the “free speech” rally on April 15, 2017, at Berkeley, California. An antifa supporter hit seven Trump supporters in the head with metal bike lock. Antifa member and adjunct college professor, Eric Clanton, was justified for his discrimination in promoting the cause of resisting oppression via utilitarianism.
Redefining Hate
Just as racism has been given a face-lift, so has the term “hate.” Hate used to mean “feeling intense dislike for someone.” Antifa doesn’t have an official definition of hate. But it opposes “hate” based on its anti-fascist, anti-racist, authoritarian ideology. So does Charlie Kirk or his alleged slayer, Tyler Robinson, fit these discussions of hate?
Starting with the common sense, dictionary definition of passionate dislike, Kirk was not motivated by hate. He was an evangelical Christian who prayed for his interlocutors to come to faith. He sought to provide political and moral evidence for existence of God.
Kirk was a realist when it came to ethics. As a moral realist, he believed that objective moral truths exist independently of our beliefs about them, rejecting moral relativism. And it was this hard stance about right and wrong behavior, grounded in the character of God, that his intellectual opponents hated about him.
Obviously, the former definition applies. One only needs to watch a few of his dialogues/debates to see that people strongly disliked him. And so does the latter explanation of hate apply.
Haplessly, the antifa mindset interprets Kirk’s worldview as “hateful” because he opposed morally reprehensible behavior that contradicts scripture. Apparently, calling people out on their sin is tantamount to “hate speech.” Again, not that he was motivated by hate but because his actions were perceived as fascist, racist, and authoritarian. In a word, hateful.
This hatred for Kirk extended to the suspect in question, Tyler Robinson. One only needs to review the text thread released by Utah prosecutors allegedly from Robinson to his roommate to see the connection.
Roommate: Why?
Robinson: Why did I do it?
Roommate: Yeah
Robinson: I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.
Moreover, the 22-year-old suspect, Tyler Robinson, is thought to have engraved politically-infused phrases on the bullets aimed to kill Kirk. One ant-fascist sentiment was written on one of the three unfired casings: “O bella ciao, bella ciao.” “The slogan is the title of an anti-fascist song popularized after World War II by left-wing Italian partisans.”[2] The lyrics show that a partisan is saying goodbye and asks to be buried in the mountain under a flower for fighting for freedom.
So racism and hate are being changed and manipulated to fit a Woke agenda. Sadly, social justice sympathizers like Eric Clanton and alleged shooter Tyler Robinson have consumed the CT Kool-Aid in copious amounts.
In response, the goal for anti-utilitarian, anti-Woke sympathizers needs to be focused and fierce in order to unsweeten the Kool-Aid by exposing its hypocritical and ideological beliefs that only prove the Judeo-Christian principle of human nature: We are all sinful, thus in need of a Savior.
[1] It’s important to note that I chose this title because the means to the end-goal of Wokeism’s happiness looks vastly different from the means to happiness prescribed by Christianity. The former espouses a Machiavellian ends-justify-the-means, while the latter espouses an Aristotelian ends-exemplify-the-means. To those who have never heard of Holy Writ discussing happiness or flourishing as motivation for human behavior and character formation, read Biblical Ethics: An Exegetical Approach to a Morality of Happiness.
[2] “What is ‘bella ciao’? The Meaning of the Italian phrase written on the alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson’s bullets,” David Propper, New York Post, September 12, 2025, nypost.com (accessed September 17, 2025).