Is Hollywood Actually Woke?

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Exactly.

With classic video games (for example), you mostly remember the great titles of those eras and forget how much crap came out.

With music from earlier decades, you mostly remember the great releases of those eras and forget how much crap came out.

So on, so forth.

Yes, and some that we might remember as pure gold back in the day we come to find out was crap all along after having not watched it/played it/listened to it for years.

Sorry the title of the movie was "The Woman King" starring Viola Davis. The movie is aligns with afrocentric views that subsaharan africans had great kingdoms that stood up to colonialism. While that may have been the case, the choice of the Dahomey as the "heroes" is problematic due to their integral involvement in the African slave trade.

I am also a history buff and I am not a fan of afrocentricism which tends to distort history

Yes. A problem I've noticed with any discussion of what "woke" is, is that the term has become a parody of itself. The term was already self-congratulatory to apply to oneself (though I don't think I've personally met anyone who did), so more centrist/conservative voices have started using "woke" in a mocking sense to refer to leftist positions on race/class/gender. It is used to characterize those positions as irrational and radical. It's been turned into a straw man term supported by straw man characterizations of leftists.


Hey that's not true! Some of all of our problems are because of men, hetero's, and cis people!
As has been stated, this is a strawman oversimplification meant to discredit ideas which have well over a century of academic history and development. I am very white and have never really had much issue with people stating (what I have for a long time considered) the obvious: that white people in their colonies and settler states have monopolized power at the expense of non-whites, and used the legal, political, social, and economic powers they monopolized to entrench their privileged status above other races. Ditto for men, Christians, and hetero's.

Contrary to conservative strawman arguments, non-whites are capable of being racist and benefitting from racism. They do so *despite* not being white. Blacks can be bigoted against Natives can be bigoted against Asians can be bigoted against Hispanics can be bigoted against Blacks. These are important racial issues, but whites have historically held primary responsibility for the racial pecking order in the Americas and have maintained that pecking order in part by pitting non-whites against each other. White critics of the left often fixate on racism by non-whites to deflect from criticism of white racism--not because they are especially troubled by racial injustice. It is an attempt to make a "both sides" understanding on race in America which is disingenuous at best and nationalist at worst.

You do know that for many decades prior to the civil rights movements that Natives, Asians and hispanics were enabled by white supremicist police and lawmakers to discriminate against black people.

Native people happily kept black people as slaves. When emancipation happened native Americans re-fashioned native identity so that a blonde haired blue eyed person could qualify as "native" but a person with physically African phenotype (even part native american) would be exluded from being a native american. That's racism...against blacks

Asian people all carry beliefs about people with dark skin they carry with them from their home countries (even they admit to this). For many years they fought successfully to have access to white housing and schools to seperate themselves from blacks. They engaged in jim crow. That's racism.

Hispanics tried to pass themselves off as "white". There are stories of hispanic gangs attacking black residents in their neighborhoods to keep their areas free of blacks.

Both hispanic and asian businesses barred black customers until the end of the civil rights movement in the early 1970s. Even today Asian and Arab stores located in black neighborhood treat paying customers as if they are all criminals. Hispanic and asian parents would threaten their children if they made friends or (worse) dated somebody African American That's racist.

Any wonder when The LA council scandal broke or when Asian hate rose during COVID that black Americans rolled their eyes and minded their own business. Much of the hard work done by black civil rights paved the way for native americans, asians and hispanics who benefited from their efforts but now distance themselves. Allyship is going to take several more decades.

Hollywood like any business is about profit. Whatever "woke" stuff they do stems from the belief that not doing it will hurt the bottom line.

You know that you are in a cult when people of your group call themselves "woke". How ridiculous.

It didn't sound like it.

I agree with this, however I think it's important to remember that people who get into the entertainment industry are storytellers, artists, actors - creative types. I'd doubt that many people go to Hollywood with the primary intention of making lots of money. And I'd include the financiers in that, outside of the well established franchises there are much safer investments than a movie.

I don't find it surprising that creative people lean left or appear 'woke' as some would have it. You have to be interested in people, you have to be empathetic and curious. You have to be interested in small things. You have to want to communicate, and share and connect and include. That just seems to go with the territory, to me.

Also, storytelling leans towards the underdog. Overcoming adversity and injustice are common and compelling narratives.

Some people might consider all that performative, people have said as much in this thread. But that's just a judgement of a person, an attempt to invalidate the message. I do believe that most of the time it probably comes from a good place, even if the privileges of some of Hollywood's finest makes it hard to swallow coming from them. And I include the more right-wing proponents too - the James Woods, the Clint Eastwoods - I don't doubt they believe what they're saying, I think they think if everyone thought like them the world would be better.

But, the converse of ASPartOfMe's statement would suggest that if the majority of entertainment consumers held predominantly 'anti-woke' views, there would be a market for films that spoke to them.

That's capitalism, isn't it? That's America.

So can we conclude that despite being vocal online contingent, and highly visible in traditional (dying?) media like TV and press, the 'anti-woke' must be in a minority?

You know your cult is effective at brainwashing when it convinces it's members that their favourite slurs are actually what their opponents call themselves.

Hollywood isn't anything - it merely panders to those it can profit by most at any given time.

I think the thing I despise most in Hollowood is Disney. Walt Disney their founder would have fit right in with the MAGA crowd if he were alive today and Disney pretends to be a more wholesome corporatation than it actually is...

Read better. That is what some other users were saying just before my post. Also that's what is generally claimed online by the left. It's not me claiming that.

So you're claiming 'woke' is a common self-identification for lefties rather than it's most common usage being as a slur directed towards those who disagree with right-wingers?

I repeat, no that's what other people said that the original meaning of term was.

I like to think of wokeism as PC on steroids. It has gone to such an insane level. I don't know anyone who doesn't feel that way to some degree.

As far as the original question, I think there is an awful lot posturing going on in Hollywood, simply to appear enlightened.