Glenn Youngkin, staked his victory on railing against teaching inclusive history in public schools. Ron DeSantis has let it be known that Florida is “where woke goes to die.”Īnother potential Republican presidential candidate, Virginia Gov. Potential Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Republican candidate Nikki Haley weighed in at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference by decrying wokeness as “a virus more dangerous than any pandemic, hands down.” Unfortunately, our current political environment is split over this basic proposition. To be woke, then, in this context would be a willingness of our society to grow and learn to accept the need for tolerance and diversity and to come together in a willing acceptance of the melting pot theory, which has been a feature of our societal growth since the 1780s. What distinguishes America is its embrace, even if in a gradual and incremental way, of discovering and propagating growth towards a more equitable society. The quintessential learning curve towards justice is a seminal hallmark of our democratic system. We cannot sleepwalk our way through change, rather we must awaken and take action to implement it. Expanding these rights to all requires the system’s ability to eliminate injustice. The operating principle of the American democratic experiment is to incrementally build upon progress in a social context that allows for growth in our desire to expand freedom, liberty, and human rights. Two years later a BET (Black Entertainment Television) documentary called “Stay Woke” was released and MTV News included “woke” in a list of 10 words teenagers should know.īut what exactly is the definition for those, particularly those in my aging generation, who may be curious or confused? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “woke” as “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” Cambridge Dictionary defines woke as being “aware, especially of social problems such as racism and social inequality.” Collins English Dictionary offers “someone who is woke is very aware of social and political unfairness.” In 2014, Black Lives Matter (BLM) used #staywoke as a call to action about police shootings of Blacks. In 2012 #staywoke raised awareness about unjustified killings of Black people. In 1972 author Barry Beckham used the word “woke” in his 1972 play “Garvey Lives.” In 1962 Harlem-based writer William Melvin Kelly wrote an article in the New York Times entitled “If You’re Woke, You Dig It,” while highlighting the phenomenon of Black American slang being appropriated by white people in the Beat generation. In 1940, in West Virginia, the Negro United Mine Workers went on strike for equitable pay when a Black union leader intoned “we were asleep. In 1938, blues musician Huddle Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly, used the phrase “stay woke” in his song about the Scottsboro Boys, which would render two Supreme Court verdicts that would pave the way for the civil rights movement. A short timeline traces back to the Roaring ’20s when philosopher and social activist Marcus Garvey issued a call to Pan Africanism, calling on Blacks to “wake up.” In researching the historical maturation of this rather awkward-sounding word, I was surprised that while being hip at the current time, it actually has quite an interesting lineage tracing back 100 years.Įlijah Watson, senior news and culture reporter for a hip hop Seattle music station, has defined the Black American colloquialism as follows, “To be woke is to be Black” as he embarked on a journey six years ago to plot its origins. I remember the first time I heard the word “woke” in a political context and wondered how it differed from the more traditional definition of being awake. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” - Albert Einstein “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
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