As this year’s [Oscar](https://www.wired.com/tag/oscars/) nominations rolled out this morning, I told my boyfriend that “Sinners,” with 16 noms in total, had made history. “Woke is back,” he replied.
He was joking (don’t come for him!) but his quip highlights a pretty stark dichotomy. Last year, as everyone from President [Donald Trump](https://www.wired.com/tag/donald-trump/) down harped on about the perils of DEI, the biggest cultural breakthroughs—”Sinners,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” “Heated Rivalry,” “One Battle After Another”—all showcased diversity in fresh ways. And it succeeded. These works weren’t just popular among leftists or critics, they were bonafide cultural phenomena.
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As this year’s [Oscar](https://www.wired.com/tag/oscars/) nominations rolled out this morning, I told my boyfriend that “Sinners,” with 16 noms in total, had made history. “Woke is back,” he replied.
He was joking (don’t come for him!) but his quip highlights a pretty stark dichotomy. Last year, as everyone from President [Donald Trump](https://www.wired.com/tag/donald-trump/) down harped on about the perils of DEI, the biggest cultural breakthroughs—”Sinners,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” “Heated Rivalry,” “One Battle After Another”—all showcased diversity in fresh ways. And it succeeded. These works weren’t just popular among leftists or critics, they were bonafide cultural phenomena.
In a year when the White House issued multiple executive orders doing away with DEI programs in the federal government, the successes of those projects felt like a form of resistance. Corporate media followed Trump’s suit, with Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon, Paramount Global, and Disney [all reportedly scaling back](https://variety.com/2025/film/news/hollywood-drops-dei-programs-donald-trump-disney-paramount-amazon-1236327202/) on their diversity efforts. Skydance, founded by Larry Ellison, son of billionaire Trump supporter David Ellison, acquired Paramount, which briefly [removed](https://www.wired.com/story/brendan-carr-isnt-going-to-stop-until-someone-makes-him/) Jimmy Kimmel from the air due to his joke about Charlie Kirk supporters and gave CBS News a seemingly-conservative makeover. Meanwhile, [shows](https://www.wired.com/story/hot-farmers-trad-wives-and-an-immigrant-reality-show-welcome-to-tvs-maga-era/) that offered red meat in the form of farmers, grumpy MAGA adherents, cowboys, and Christian values were greenlit and promoted.
Read the full story here: [https://www.wired.com/story/legislators-push-to-make-companies-tell-customers-when-their-products-will-die/](https://www.wired.com/story/legislators-push-to-make-companies-tell-customers-when-their-products-will-die/)
Lulz nobody likes woke anything.
Woke isn’t synonymous to “diverse stories.” It’s when critical social justice ideology is applied to everything in a condescending way.
Is _Sinners_ “woke” even under any neutral definition of that term? _One Battle After Another_ is certainly a left-wing message movie, but _Sinners_?
What exactly is woke about this movie? It’s a good movie, but I don’t find it “woke” at all. Do you think anything with black folks is woke?
Sinners is woke, and that’s good.
If this clickbaty headline were true, One Battle would have set the record not sinners