History Matters: From Black Vernacular to Meaningless Catchall

You've heard from politicians countless times over the past few years. "We need to stop Woke." "We need to stop the 'woke mob.'" "Wokeness doesn't belong in our schools." The idea of being "woke" has faced a lot of backlash recently, particularly from politicians and lobbyist groups on the right. But to understand why this use of language is troubling, we need to exmaine the history of the word "woke" and its significance.

"Wokeness" is rooted in Black History
Marcus Garvey, a controversial Jamaican Black Nationalist, is the first to be credited with demanding "Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!" in a collection of his work published in 1923.
A Black Union leader in 1940 stated during a strike, "We will stay woke from now on," with regards to becoming aware of workplace discrimination.

William Kelley published "If You're Woke, You Dig It" in the NYTimes in 1962, which discussed the power of language and group-specific jargon, particularly racialized groups. The word woke was then used in reference to Marcus Garvey in the 1972 play about him, "Garvey Lives."

Erykah Badu used the line, "stay woke" in her 2008 song "Master Teacher," not in reference to social justice. In 2016, Childish Gambino used the same term in his song "Redbone" in a pretty clear reference to Badu's Master Teacher.

Over the course of the 2010s, the term "stay woke" became a diluted term to mean being aware of injustice; it was a Jeopardy! category in 2018. Meek Mill released a song called "Stay Woke," in 2018, with explicit references to the Black Lives Matter Movement and injustice.

Dilution?
Nowadays, people are familiar with the word "woke" as being a reference to social injustice, the Black Lives Matter movement, and overall calls for inclusivity and anti-discrimination. While there's no way to trace the true origins of the term "woke" and its application, its repeated use throuhgout history by Black public figures is something that is essential to consider when trying to understand the significance of its use today.

The fact that the word woke has been co-opted by white activists (who seem to mostly reside on Instagram) has left the word next-to-meaningless, unfortunately. Ron DeSantis proposed his "Stop W.O.K.E. Act" largely as a means to deliver a message to his followers; the acronym woke stands for in this situation (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) is totally abitrary. "Woke" was chosen for this bill because of its position as a Black watchword--and the content of the bill substantiates that! According to DeSantis, the bill"was designed to combat “woke indoctrination” in Florida businesses and schools by prohibiting instruction that could make some parties feel they bear “personal responsibility” for historic wrongdoings because of their race, sex or national origin." So, the US's history of white supremacy shouldn't be taught in schools... so, suppression of collective consciousness among oppressed groups that's often responsible for civil unrest... so... Black power movements? hmm..... interesting.

All I'm saying is, be careful if people use the word "woke," especially as a negative. The implications could be worse than you realize.

AM