“woke”
What to know
The term “woke” was first used by Black Americans to describe the idea of becoming awake to and aware of systemic racial injustices and prejudices or staying alert to how they manifest in everyday life. (For example, “Stay woke because staying asleep is exactly how dictators win.”)
Use of the term “woke” dates back to at least the 1930s and may have first been recorded for posterity by famed ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax as the Blues musician Lead Belly spoke about his 1938 song, Scottsboro Boys. In 1931, the country had seen a group of nine Black boys falsely accused of raping two white women in Scottsboro, Ala. Eight of them were sentenced to death, and only after copious legal work, collectively served 100 years in prison. Lead Belly wrote the song, he said, as a warning to “good colored people” to “stay woke.”
The Scottsboro Boys case is said to have been among the real-world racial injustices that inspired Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 book, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a 1962 Oscar-winning film by the same name. Both have been on multiple lists of the best and most important works of fiction and described as an inspiration to multiple noted lawyers, elected officials, activists, and artists.
The same year the film was released, the New York City-born novelist and short story writer William Melvin Kelley published a New York Times essay entitled “If You’re Woke You Dig It.” It is believed to include the first reference in print to the term “woke,” meaning aware. The article described a cycle for the appropriation of language or so-called slang coined by Black Americans. This language migrates into the vernacular of white counter-culturalists, then makes its way into advertising and other mass media. Ultimately, it’s absorbed by wealthy society doyennes, corporate executives, and others while falling out of favor with those who developed it first. For the originators, witnessing this cycle can evoke the sensations that come with watching “a white audience at a jazz concert clapping on the first and third beat,” Kelley wrote. Then, the word sticks around but is given the opposite meaning or somehow changed. All the while, new and different terms emerge, starting the cycle again.
In the 21st century version of this cycle, the term “woke,” by many accounts, became popularized via Erykah Badu’s 2008 song “Master Teacher Medley.” It then spread into wider awareness by way of the #staywoke Twitter hashtag following the 2012 vigilante killing of Trayvon Martin and the 2014 police shooting that ended Michael Brown’s life. Before long, “woke” was picked up in coverage of brands to describe thoughtful, adaptive, or inclusive practices that may appeal to socially conscientious customers. But soon, commercial forces began to frame their own products as solutions to social problems — for example, the notorious 2017 Pepsi ad featuring Kendall Jenner.
Another shift in meaning
Beginning in the later 2010s and early 2020s, right-wing commentators, politicians, and private citizens began to use the term as a pejorative, signaling their conservative bona fides in opposition to civil rights and social justice movements and other progressive issues. Given the original meaning of the term “woke” and the cycle Kelley described, some consider this particular inversion of meaning anti-Black. When “woke” is used derisively, the possibility of scapegoating, outright racism, and efforts to stoke or justify racism loom large. The inverted and disparaging “woke” can, at times, function as a kind of socially-acceptable racial slur.
Those who use the term this way at minimum signal scorn for social justice concerns, or what they view as oppressive political correctness or virtue signaling. (Example: “President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable.”) Often, these users have been unable to offer a concrete definition of the word “woke.” In this sense, woke is also now sometimes used as a disparaging catch-all to push back against civil rights, “cancel culture,” DEI, and other efforts to shift social expectations and norms toward being more inclusive and accommodating of all people. (Along the lines of: That woke lawmaker from New York wants to install breast feeding pods in every airport. What a waste!) Pushing these ideas into the mainstream makes it more difficult for “woke” to be used unabashedly to signify an awareness of social justice concerns, leaving it to be more often employed disparagingly.
In 2022, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into state law the Individual Freedom Act, commonly known as the Stop WOKE Act, seeking to limit diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in education and workplace trainings and the teaching of concepts such as critical race theory — which DeSantis argues could make white individuals “feel they bear ‘personal responsibility’ for historic wrongdoings because of their race, sex or national origin.”
Critics argue the law is intentionally confusing and vague, leading to a chilling effect on free speech and education efforts. Practical effects of the Florida law have included educators having to eliminate curriculum, take down educational classroom decor, remove texts from classrooms and school libraries, or sequester books on certain topics for review by a certified “media specialist.” In 2024 a federal court permanently blocked portions of the Florida law that applied to workplaces, but Trump made many of the law’s goals a priority during his second term.
Guidance for usage
Specifying how a source is using the term “woke” and why will help to ensure that your audience understands the intended meaning. In most cases, it is wise to ask the person who uses the term what they mean or why they used the word. It’s important to clarify the source’s point of view, not simply repeat what they say or cloak their statement in your text as an unattributed or unsupported fact.
In situations where a precise meaning cannot be directly obtained from the source — for example, if you are writing about statements made by a politician unreachable by deadline — make an effort to ascertain the source’s meaning from context clues and be transparent about your process. Consider placing quotation marks around the term.
If the term “woke” appears in a source’s quotes or your own writing about a specific piece of legislation, rule, or policy change, thoughtful coverage will address the intended, expected, and actual effects of the intervention you are describing.
Those engaged in truth-rooted storytelling have an obligation to make language changes and the reasons for them clear, particularly when the reasons are inherently political.
Additional resources
- ‘Woke’ and ‘post-truth’ added to Oxford English Dictionary (BBC)
- America’s ‘Great Awokening,’ explained (Deseret News)
- A history of “wokeness” (Vox)
- What does ‘woke’ mean? (Fox News)
- If You’re Woke You Dig It (The New York Times)
Summary
The term “woke” was first used by Black Americans to describe the idea of waking up to systemic injustices and prejudices, and staying alert to how they manifest in everyday life. Use of the term dates back to as early as the 1930s, but by many accounts it was popularized via Erykah Badu’s 2008 song “Master Teacher Medley” and then spread into wider awareness via the #staywoke Twitter hashtag in the mid-2010s following the killings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. If using the term “woke,” it’s important to keep in mind both its origins in African American vernacular and its current popular use largely on the political right as a derogatory catch-all term pushing back against movements for racial justice and other civil rights efforts.