Just to expound upon the observation that wokeness is actively opposed to empathy, it's relevant to point out that opposition to empathy isn't always wrong or insane.
Paul Bloom wrote an entire book in opposition to empathy with an argument favoring a rational compassion.
I think Bloom's argument falls flat from time to time. I still agree with Hume that reason is and ought only to be, a slave to the passions. Empathy isn't a perfect moral value; but, it's an important component to a proper set of ethics.
The problem with wokeness being against empathy is that it's also an ethical framework predicated only on feelings and personal experience. You can have something resembling an ethical framework without empathy if you're leaning on reason - think Ayn Rand.
You can't have an ethical framework which is entirely based off of sympathy. An ethical framework based entirely off of one's personal emotions and experiences while condemning the mere attempt to truly understand people who aren't like you and don't think like you creates a level of selfishness that makes Ayn Rand look like an altruist. It's all about how you feel at any given moment. I can't refute how you feel. All anyone can do is refute your reasoning. Wokeness is about the attempt to create an ethical system that exists entirely in one's own head and can't be refuted.
Namely, wokeness is ethical cowardice.
