Someone once pulled my partner aside when I was new to their social circle and asked him, with genuine concern: “Is she woke?” Not curiously or jokingly, but with concern, as if I carried something contagious. And honestly, I’ve thought about that moment a lot since. Because what does “woke” even mean anymore? A quick online search will bring up the definition for 'woke' as follows: " 'Woke' means being aware of social and political unfairness, especially racism. Originally f

There is a particular kind of fear I keep encountering in rooms built for comfort. It isn’t the fear of hunger, or war, or displacement. It’s not the fear of losing a child, or crossing a sea, or sleeping somewhere unsafe. It’s subtler than that. Quieter. Better dressed. It is the fear of falling from a position that has never required climbing. I hear it in the voices of white men and women who speak urgently about borders, about “losing control,” about things being “taken

It feels like a strange time to be part of a collective, watching outrage unfold, not as a shared humanity, but as a performance of...