Woke

For other uses, see Woke (disambiguation).

"Stay woke" redirects here. For the documentary, see Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement.

For a definition of the term "woke", see the Wiktionary entry woke.

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge with a "Stay Woke: Vote" tee shirt in 2018

Woke (/ˈwoʊk/ WOHK) is a term that originated in the United States, referring to a perceived awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice. It derives from the African-American Vernacular English expression stay woke.

First used in the 1940s, woke has resurfaced in recent years as a concept that symbolizes perceived awareness of social issues and movement. By the late 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term associated with left-wing politics, progressive or socially liberal causes such as anti-racism, LGBT rights, feminism and environmentalism. It has also been the subject of memes, ironic usage and criticism for its methods and consequences. Its widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Reception and analysis

See also: White backlash and White defensiveness

Both the word woke and the concept of wokeness have been subject to parodies and memes having described the term as becoming pejorative or synonymous with radical identity politics, cancel culture, race-baiting, extreme forms of political correctness, internet call-out culture, virtue signalling and as part of a general culture war.

Woke reached mainstream American awareness as a term with political meaning following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, when stay woke became a phrase used by activists admonishing people to keep watch for police brutality. Since then, journalist Aja Romano argues that woke has evolved into a "single-word summation of leftist political ideology, centered on social justice politics and critical race theory"; among American conservatives, the term is often used mockingly or sarcastically. Linguist Ben Zimmer writes that as the term has gained mainstream acceptance, "its original grounding in African-American political consciousness has been obscured". Hess argues that the word has been culturally appropriated, writing, "The conundrum is built in. When white people aspire to get points for consciousness, they walk right into the cross hairs between allyship and appropriation." Writer and activist Chloé Valdary has stated that the concept of being woke is a "double-edged sword" that can "alert people to systemic injustice" while also being "an aggressive, performative take on progressive politics that only makes things worse."

In October 2019, former United States President Barack Obama expressed comments that critiqued woke culture, stating: "This idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're politically woke, and all that stuff – you should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."

Social justice scholars Tehama Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith, in their 2019 book Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter, argue against what they term as "Woker-than-Thou-itis: Striving to be educated around issues of social justice is laudable and moral, but striving to be recognized by others as a woke individual is self-serving and misguided."

In 2021, Social scientists Stéphane Beaud and Gérard Noiriel argued that French culture, to achieve social progress, should retain as an object greater leveling of social classes without emphasis on racial considerations rather than adopt that of its becoming "woke" (éveillé aux discriminations), Noiriel's noting that race is not recognized by the French government.

History of usage

In some varieties of African-American English, woke is used in place of woken, the usual past participle form of wake. This has led in turn to the use of woke as an adjective equivalent to awake, which has become mainstream in the United States.

Mid- and late 19th century

The term wide awake first appears in political culture and political ads during the 1860 presidential election in support of Abraham Lincoln. The Republican Party cultivated the movement primarily to oppose the spread of slavery as described in the Wide Awakes movement.

20th century

Black American folk singer-songwriter Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly, uses the phrase near the end of the recording of his 1938 song "Scottsboro Boys", which tells the story of nine black teenagers accused of raping two white women, saying: "I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there—best stay woke, keep their eyes open". Aja Romano writes in Vox that this represents "Black Americans' need to be aware of racially motivated threats and the potential dangers of white America." J. Saunders Redding recorded a comment from an African American United Mine Workers official in 1940, stating: "Let me tell you buddy. Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we'll stay woke up longer."

By the mid-20th century, woke had come to mean 'well-informed' or 'aware', especially in a political or cultural sense. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the earliest such usage to a 1962 New York Times Magazine article titled "If You're Woke You Dig It" by African-American novelist William Melvin Kelley, describing the appropriation of African American slang by white beatniks.

Woke had gained more political connotations by 1971, when the play Garvey Lives! by Barry Beckham included the line: "I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I'm gon' stay woke. And I'm gon help him wake up other black folk." Garvey had himself exhorted his early 20th century audiences, "Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!" Romano describes this as "a call to global Black citizens to become more socially and politically conscious".

21st century

A protest in St. Paul against police brutality by Black Lives Matter supporters

The 21st-century use of woke encompasses the earlier meaning of 'socially or politically conscious' with an added sense of being 'alert to social and/or racial discrimination and injustice'. This usage was popularized by soul singer Erykah Badu's 2008 song "Master Teacher", via the song's refrain, "I stay woke".

Merriam-Webster.com defines the expression "stay woke" in Badu's song as meaning, "[continue to be] self-aware, questioning the dominant paradigm and striving for something better"; and, although, within the context of the song it did not yet have a specific connection to justice issues, Merriam-Webster credits the phrase's use in the song with its later connection to these issues. Mainstream usage of woke in this expanded sense was also spurred on by its association with the Black Lives Matter movement, with the meaning of "keeping watch for police brutality and unjust police tactics."

Through the 2000s and early 2010s, woke was used either as a term for not literally falling asleep, or as slang for one's suspicions of being cheated on by a romantic partner; after Badu's 2008 release of "Master Teacher", the term saw increased usage as a term for sociopolitical awareness among black social media users. Professor of African-American studies David Stovall told writer Amanda Hess, "Erykah brought it alive in popular culture. She means not being placated, not being anesthetized."

In popular culture

Implicit in the concept of being woke is the idea that such awareness must be earned. Rapper Earl Sweatshirt recalls singing "I stay woke" along to the song and his mother turning down the song and responding: "No, you're not."

"#StayWoke" hashtag on a placard during a December 2015 protest in Minneapolis

The phrase Stay Woke having become a meme, activist DeRay Mckesson – podcaster, published author, and co-founder (with Brittany Packnett Cunningham) of social-justice advocacy non-profit StayWoke.org – became prominent in part after news photos of his arrest at a July 2016 protest in Baton Rouge showed in a teeshirt emblazoned with the Twitter hashtag "#StayWoke." Twitter's founder, Jack Dorsey, said his own habit of wearing a teeshirt thus-emblazoned advocated for "being aware...staying aware and keep questioning. [...] We saw that in Ferguson."

From social media and activist circles, the word spread to more mainstream usage. Linguist and social critic John McWhorter wrote in 2016 that woke "in essence, serves a function that those of a certain age will recall the phrase 'politically correct' once did." In 2016, the headline of a Bloomberg Businessweek article asked "Is Wikipedia Woke?", in reference to the largely white contributor base of the online encyclopedia. MTV News identified it as a key teen slang word for 2016.

Fictional internet personality and social activist Titania McGrath, who was created by comedian and writer Andrew Doyle, has been described as a parody of a stereotypical woke figure who promotes identity politics and political correctness. In March 2019, Doyle published a book under McGrath's name titled Woke: A Guide to Social Justice which parodies woke thinking and ideas on race, politics and gender. Doyle himself has criticised the idea of woke politics as being in a "fantasy world."

The 2020 TV series Woke features fictional San Francisco black cartoonist Keef Knight, played by Lamorne Morris.

In business and marketing

In an article for Time, journalist Alana Semuels detailed the phenomenon of "woke capitalism" in which brands have attempted to include socially aware messages in advertising campaigns. In the article she cited the example of Colin Kaepernick fronting a campaign for Nike with the slogan “believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything,” after Kaepernick caused controversy by refusing to stand for the US national anthem as a protest against racism. The term "corporate wokeness" has also been used by conservative writer Ross Douthat. Feminist writer Helen Lewis wrote a long article for The Atlantic criticizing the minimal efforts some companies make to feign progressivism while maintaining existing power structures. Conservative commentator Rita Panahi has accused corporations such as Nike of promoting "woke" campaigns in the Western world while choosing to ignore cases of modern slavery and human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in China so as not to upset business interests.

In the run up to the launch of the self-declared "anti-woke" GB News television channel it faced calls for advertisers to boycott the channel over fears that it would be funding "hate".

See also

• African-American culture
• Political hip hop
• Social justice warrior

Further reading

• Cauley, Kashana (1 February 2019). "Word: Woke". The Believer. No. 123.
• McCutcheon, Chuck (25 July 2016). "Speaking Politics word of the week: woke". The Christian Science Monitor.
• Peters, Mark (December 2016). "Woke". 2016 Words of the Year. The Boston Globe.
• "woke adjective earlier than 2008". Oxford English Dictionary. 25 June 2017.