Man the whole theft of “woke” and the subsequent use of it as a form of slur should point to the answer.
Being Woke means that you are aware of systemic inequalities and biases. That’s it. The word originated as a term for that among the black community, specifically about systemic racism.
It did spread among other marginalized groups, because it is such a simple and powerful word for a giant concept. That concept applies to more than just racial issues because systematic bigotry is so fucking ingrained into the social structures of the world. And I mean world, not just “the west”. There are forms of bigotry and inequality everywhere. But it is essentially an English term, and is mostly a US term. The concept behind it is universal.
Yet again, racists and bigots stole something from black people amd turned it against them.
Make no mistake, anyone using the word Woke in a negative sense, as an insult towards something is 100% dog whistling their bigotry. They are absolutely racist, even if only by the appropriation of the word and using it against marginalized groups other than black people.
So, stay woke, people. Systemic bigotry exists, and you can become a target of it.
It’s not woke if all the characters are black. Can you provide some examples of this?
It can feel “woke” if the characters were white and are now black, or if the character’s skin color is paraded around as some virtue signal or trophy. If the skin color of a character breaks an already established rule of the story world (for example, black skinned dwarves or elves in Lord of the Rings), that can also contribute to a “woke” feeling. The established rules of the world or story should not bend around or break just to ensure a diverse skin color of every race in the story.
Nobody complains about Mr. T in the A-Team, Denzel Washington as Robert McCall in The Equalizer, or Samuel L Jackson playing Mace Windu in Star Wars, because the color of their skin is not their only defining quality. They are well written and highly beloved characters that are important to their story, have equally as good acting and dialogue as the other characters in their stories, and are played by actors that are well qualified. Their characters feel like they were always meant to be there, and when they were written into their story, their skin color didn’t matter.
(East) Asians are the most accepted race aside from white people. Not that racism against them doesn’t exist, but it seems that white people naturally gravitate towards them compared to other races