<p>A defining fault line in contemporary Western societies centres on consciousness-raising interventions aimed at addressing social inequities — approaches often dismissed as ‘woke’ — that can generate intense polarization and backlash. In this Review, I apply a cultural-psychological framework to understand both the psychological necessity of consciousness-raising interventions and the predictable resistance they trigger. Specifically, I demonstrate how harmful cultural schemas become embedded in cognitive processes through participation in cultural systems. These schemas shape perception, identity and behaviour in ways that produce and reproduce social inequality and can cause psychological harm, particularly for individuals from marginalized groups. Thus, consciousness-raising approaches reflect a necessary response to harmful psychological processes that occur as minds develop within culturally stratified contexts. I also explain how resistance to consciousness-raising interventions is a predictable psychological reaction to schema disruption rather than a political reaction. By reframing this societal fault line through the lens of cultural psychology, this analysis moves beyond polarized political discourse towards a more empirically grounded understanding of societal tensions and how they might be ameliorated.</p>