“Woke” became popular in the early 2010s as a term to describe someone who has “woken up” and become aware of extreme social inequalities, like sexism, racism, and homophobia.
But even in 2025, there are still people who are purposefully very “anti-woke,” cringed the users of the “Am I the A**hole?” (AITAH) subReddit.
Redditor WokeBeans had a cousin who was obsessed with defining what was “woke” and what was not and described himself as “anti-woke.”
To prank their cousin, the Original Poster (OP) told him that the use of beans in his cooking was a “woke” thing to do, and the cousin became so furious about it that he wasted a lot of food.
They asked the sub:
“AITAH for pretending to think that adding beans to chili is ‘woke’ to prank my cousin who is obsessed with being ‘anti-woke’ and who also loves chili?”
The OP’s cousin was well-known for his chili recipe.
“My cousin is known for making chili. And he’s good at it.”
“He makes his own chili flakes from his ‘secret combination’ of various dried chilies, and it has a very nice kick. It’s like the perfect amount of spice, and it’s hot but not too hot.”
“He also always adds kidney beans. Not canned beans, either. He has a whole process for preparing them for the chili, too.”
But the OP’s cousin was also becoming known for his beliefs.
“For the past two or three years, my cousin has become obsessed with all this bulls**t about what is or isn’t ‘woke’ and how ‘woke’ things are the end of the world.”
“He’s always been a good dude so I don’t know what his bag is, but he is completely obsessed. It’s annoying.”
The OP brought their cousin’s love of chili and hate of “woke” things together.
“A few weekends ago, I was at his place, and he was making his famous chili. So I got the idea for a little prank.”
“I was like, ‘I’m surprised you still put beans in your chili.'”
“He was like, ‘What? Why?'”
“I was like, ‘Beans in chili are so woke. Everyone is saying so.'”
“He was like, ‘What do you mean?’ And he was like genuinely concerned, as if this was something serious.”
“I said something like, ‘Yeah, beans in chili are woke. The original conservative Texans who made chili only used meat and chili. San Francisco liberals started adding beans to chili in the ’60s because so many hippies were vegetarian. Now all the woke scientists are saying beans are a better protein source than meat.'”
“He didn’t say anything to that.”
“I kind of just assumed he’d know I was f**king with him and get the joke. We have always f**ked around with each other and joked about and all. But he was quiet all dinner.”
The prank had a huge impact on the OP’s cousin.
“Just yesterday, I was back again at his place and he was making his chili again. There were no beans. It was a totally different chili. This guy has been making his chili with beans for like 15 years.”
“I was like, ‘What’s up? Where’s the beans?'”
“He was like, ‘I don’t f**k with that woke s**t.'”
“I was like, ‘What?'”
“He was like, ‘Beans in chili are woke. Even you know that.'”
“Everyone else was like, what? Because… what? I was like, ‘Dude, I was just f**king with you.'”
“He got REALLY angry. He dumped his chili in the sink and told everyone to go home. I thought he was pranking me back or something, but he was serious. The dude totally lost it.”
The OP’s cousin argued that they took the prank too far.
“He texted me later and said this exact thing, ‘I researched this online, and it turns out you really were lying to me. Beans are not woke. How could you do this?'”
“We went back and forth for a bit. His position is even though we have historically pranked each other, I went ‘too far,’ I ‘betrayed him,’ and I ‘made him question his chili.'”
“I tried to ask him if this at all made him think he cared too much about ‘wokeness,’ like what if beans in chili WAS woke, then so what?”
“He ignored that and demanded I apologize.”
“Did I take this too far?”
“AITAH?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
Some felt the cousin set himself up by being so close-minded to another way of thinking.
“That’s f**king hilarious. He’s so d**ned fixated on what other people say is ‘woke’ or ‘not woke’ that he’ll sabotage his own cooking.”
“NTA. He handed you that material to prank him with on a silver platter, and he needs to get over it.” – mittenknittin
“He needs to accept that he’s an easily impressionable manchild who doesn’t even understand what he’s upset about. If you will alter something as dear to you as the chili is to him over a dog whistle, you ain’t f**king smart, bro.” – NexusMaw
“NTA. You made him question his beliefs in a smart way, and he got upset. All you did was show him how sensitive he really is. Maybe he’ll start thinking through this more.” – Successful-Topic8874
“The cousin realized he was willing to betray his own cooking, which is exactly why he is so butthurt about it, lol (laughing out loud).”
“His chili recipe, which he apparently cared so much about and which largely defines his personality, could be thrown out the SECONDÂ someone mentioned it was ‘woke.'”
“It’s uncomfortable to think about so he acted out and is trying to put the blame on OP to comfort himself.”
“The fact that he was silent all throughout dinner feels promising to me. Mans was thinking hard about his beliefs and chili life right then. NTA.” – Reinardd
“NTA. I hope this woke him up (no pun intended) to how easily he can be manipulated into believing lies, simply because of his extreme hate.”
“I personally would want to know that about myself.”
“But then again… the opposite of ‘woke’ is ‘sleep.'” – Kathrynlena
“OP made their cousin question his chili!! Are there no limits to what the woke mob will ruin? Soon I’ll have to eat plain white toast and nothing else to own the libs. Where will the madness end?!”
“Just kidding, this was hilarious. NTA, OP!” – potatopierogie
“My new year’s resolution is now going to be to use, ‘You made me question my chili!’ at least seven different times. And no, I don’t care whether it’s February already or if anyone knows what I mean.”
“Other than that, NTA, but you’re a hilarious dude, and I’d love to buy you a beer if I could.” – endor-pancakes
“LOL (laughing out loud), that’s hilarious. NTA. You didn’t know he took you seriously!
“The poor dude is brainwashed. Hopefully, this prank can be some kind of wake-up call… Oh, wait, ‘wake up,’ so maybe not.” – Tough_Tangerine7278
“Aside from the fact that he would even believe that beans in chili were woke in the first place, why would he do the research only AFTER you told him it was a joke?”
“Why am I even questioning his line of reasoning? Anyone who constantly goes on about how ‘wokeness’ is bringing the world to its end doesn’t need logic to do anything that they do. Forget I said anything.”
“This was f**king hilarious, though.” – WaywardPrincess
Others agreed and hoped that the OP would keep the jokes going.
“Next, say reacting badly to a joke is ‘woke.'”
“Demanding an apology is ‘woke.'”
“If he reacts, say reacting is ‘woke.'” – WayOfIntegrity
“NTA. I would have been so much worse and really drove home how he went full snowflake over the woke chili. Then when he got angrier and started wasting food, I would have commented, ‘Nice!’ and stuff like that. I would have been SO annoying. You’re better than me, OP!” – Cautious_Clue_7861
“NTA. OP, double down.”
“‘Bro, did you know that knowing what’s woke is actually super woke? Like, you have to know all about wokeness to avoid being woke, so really if you think about it, avoiding wokeness is the most woke thing you can do.'”
“I would be clowning him nonstop.” – Mean-Impress2103
“The fragile egos of the anti-woke and their inability to recognize that fact always boggles the mind. I’ve started to use the ‘Facts don’t care about your feelings’ line whenever possible.” – bhonest_ly
“NTA: Oh my gosh, this needs to happen a LOT more so that people eventually see the idiocy of their anti-woke sentiments.”
“I think I’m going to make Cilantro woke, because… soap. Can we also make any non-stretch clothes woke, because… comfort. And makeup, can we make makeup woke, because… lazy.” – MasterGas9570
“NTA. Anyone this concerned about ‘being woke’ deserves far worse than this. Instead of this being a wake-up call about how ridiculous he is being, he just got angry. I hope being quiet at dinner was him stewing in his decisions rather than being pranked.” – samanime
Obviously, it’s okay for people to share different viewpoints, but being “anti” basic human rights for whole groups of people and calling it “woke” is a completely different problem.
What’s worse is that it sounds like the cousin was so blindly committed to this that he not only took what the OP said without researching anything first, but his hateful attitude led to a lot of wasted food.