A video of Barack Obama challenging ‘woke culture’ and ‘cancel-culture’, that he believes are fast becoming prevalent among younger people, recently went viral on social media.
The video shows the former US President at the Obama Foundation's annual summit in Chicago, held on Tuesday, 29 October, saying:
“This idea of purity... 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. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”
Obama, in the video, says that calling people out on social media and pointing out the wrong they have done is ‘easy’ and does not ‘amount to activism’. People who do good things are flawed, he added.
Addressing college students and young people in general, he said: “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."
Change is complicated and calling people out on social media does not bring it about, he added.
“That’s not activism, that’s not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you are probably not going to get that far.”Barack Obama, Former US President
The video has generally received a positive response on social media, from both ends of the political spectrum.
Obama has kept a low profile in the past few years, rarely addressing the media, even with US President Donald Trump’s consistent criticism of his predecessor’s policies.
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