Being Cultured and Being Woke

One thing I am for sure about is that the year of 2018 is going to be an awaking year. As eye-opening as 2017 left us, how could it not. With this in mind, I had a thought...

What is the difference between being cultured or being woke?

Are they different, are they the same? Who knows really? Honestly, these are terms I've heard people use but do people actually really know what it means to be either. I decided to do some research on both topics and here's what I got.

Being Cultured

I first looked up the definition of cultured.

cul●tured

adjective

characterized by refined taste, manners, and good education

That is the definition provided by Google. However, first reading that I was a little puzzled. I didn't necessarily see how taste, manners, and good education really defined cultured. So I decided to dig a little deeper. By definition again, a cultured person is also called refined, genteel, civilized, and cultivated. Cultured people are said to have good manners and etiquette. However, being cultured is in the eye of the beholder, because there are so many different cultures in the world. It's difficult to be cultured in more than one culture. That may just be a strong opinion if you ask me but hey who's counting huh?

That definition made a little bit more sense to me but I wanted to do further research. My definition of someone said to be cultured was someone who had appreciation and made way to get involved and learn about other lifestyles and cultures of the world. That being music, food, literature, and so on and so on. More less a well rounded person in said subjects. I was curious just to search how someone would by definition become cultured. I searched how to become a more cultured person and my first result was a step by step tutorial on good ole wiki how. I thought it was funny that there was sort of a how to guide on this kind of thing. As you can imagine I could not resist to look.

I agree.If you want to be something you should probably thoroughly know what it is first.

Step Number Two: Read More

I agree. If you want to learn about something you should do your research and read up on it. Articles, literature, and etc can help to really understand the past and present of a country. Simple understand the day in the life of that specific subject. So far this wikihow is pretty okay with the steps.

Step Number Three: Write

The wikihow advises to write poetry, short stories, screenplays, anything literature wise. A lot of culture comes from and is displays simply from literature.

Step Number Four: Watch Films

Watching films and content from the said culture you are interested in can help alot. I personally like to try and watch as many movies from other cultures just to hear the language and enjoy the other filming styles. Over the summer I watched two movies that I really liked called Palmeras en la nieve (Spanish) and Divines (French). They were both amazing! I am a person who watches everything with subtitles so hearing the language and reading was pretty cool. But again getting involved in the popular entertainment in the culture is extremely helpful. All of it is like creating a foundation for yourself.

Step Number Five: Broaden Your Music Horizons

I could not agree with that even more. There is more to the world than just the same set Top 45 chart toppers on the radio. Try listening to a different genre every chance you get. That is why I actually like Pandora a lot. Pandora plays so many different things and even exposes you to so many different artists and songs. Because of Pandora alone I have grown to love different music specifically jazz and a lot of music with latin influences. Really anything with live instruments. Try listening to other things. GPB (Georgia Public Broadcasting) is something to take a look at. They have a radio station that covers so many different things and just listening to it a couple times, you will learn a lot. Before you call it weird, just give it a chance.

Step Six: Take a deeper interest in art

I remember when I was first learning Spanish, we were really first taught about the history and the art. I've come to learn that in art really shows the time periods within the countries. That's probably why when taking language classes it's one of the first things you learn. You get exposure to the movements. Go the museums, plays, and etc to just explore. Lots of galleries have themes for specific cultures. It's quite interesting.

Last Step: Travel! Travel! Travel!

The best way to learn about a country is to go to it. Seeing another life other than your own is great exposure. Colleges promote studying abroad and I absolutely think you should take advantage of it. It can be quite expensive but it's not something you have to do immediately. Save your money! It is a well worth it investment.

Now I did cut out some of the steps verbatim but from the ones I pointed out I figured you would understand the jist. But honestly I believe cultured is simply just involvement in other cultures than your own. Be aware of other life around you. And with that, that leads me to the opposing team:

Being Woke

I proceeded in the same way to research what being woke truly meant.

woke

past of wake⅟

wake

become alert to or aware of; to realize

Now with that being said it decided to look at what that slang term of it meant because that did keep coming up in the search engine and I felt it would have better defined the definition. Urban dictionary says it is a reference of how people should be aware of current fairs. Also a funny definition I thought worth mentioning was being woke was a state of perceived intellectual superiority one gains by reading the Huffington Post.

Good one Urban Dictionary, Good One

But seriously, how does one become woke, who defines it, and what is the so called set standard?

The first result that came in the search engine was a article about how and what it mean tot be woke on a website called Blavity. I have heard and visited the site before so I knew it would be pretty trust worthy content.

The article points out that wokeness provides a basic understanding of the why and how come aspect of societies’ social and systemic functions. The term itself is an encouragement of just waking up and smelling the coffee.

To be being woke is understanding that there are privileges and mistreatment that still go on and you shouldn't turn a blind eye to it. However, I do think the term and whole movement of it may have become a little gentrified. In order to stay woke one has to first be woke. In the article it says

"Accurately understanding someone's experience and embracing paradigm shifts for the global progression of people. By default, we all project problematic ideologies that reinforce the social ills of our society."

I do notice that people sometimes say it and apply it to unnecessary things. By that I mean sometimes things are read more into than they should be. That where I believe the gentrified part comes in. I think it is best to of course stay woke but again one must first woke.

After looking into both I come to question the similarity and difference between the two. And what came to mind is that both are truly a state of mind. I think especially in this day and age one does not need to be one or the other but both. The world is evolving so much around us it is shame to just turn a blind eye.

And with that I end this article with a qoute

“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
- Maya Angelou

Get out there y'all and go experience you some carefree, aware, and unapologetic life.

*Childish Gambino's Redbone fades into the background