The Woke Dichotomy

Over the past few years, the usage of the word woke has been on the rise. A quick look on Google Trends shows that since 2004, the amount of people looking up the term has been steadily increasing and rocketed in 2020. Now the word is everywhere. The term is especially popular among the right wing, where it is commonly used as an insult. With the growing popularity of the word woke, I wonder if the meaning has been muddied.

 

Contrary to popular belief, the word ‘woke’ isn’t new. In actual fact, the term has been around since the 1940s and is an example of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Professor and author J. Saunders Redding used the term in an article about trade union members. Years later in 1972, the idea of being ‘woke’ was used in Barry Beckham’s play Garvey Lives! To ‘stay woke’ comes from 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." In Erykah Badu’s 2008 song Master Teacher, woke is used again, as the line reads ‘I stay woke’. The word was officially added to the English dictionary in 2017. In short, to be woke is to be conscious of social injustices, especially racism.

 

As with many new and evolving political and social ideologies, wokeism is heavily criticised. Despite its roots in the American civil rights movement, the idea has become the target of many right-wing commentators. Instead of a word to describe someone who actively fights social prejudices and inequality, it is used to mock anyone with left-leaning opinions. Take Conservative MP, Suella Braverman for example. In a debate about the controversial Public Order Bill in 2022, Braverman labelled the Labour Party as the ‘tofu-eating wokerati’. An absurd rant that fuelled the use of the word as an insult even more.

 

But why? Why is being woke seen as a negative trait? I see the right-wing use the word as a weapon to attack anyone who has an opposing view. It is now little more than a political buzzword, completely disregarding the real history and meaning behind it. Anything that is even slightly liberal has ‘gone woke’. The UK branded the supermarket Sainsbury’s as ‘woke’ for showing a black family in a Christmas advert; Disney went ‘woke’ when it was hinted that there was a same-sex couple in the new ‘Lightyear’ film; games developer Rockstar Games was called woke when it was suggested that there may be a female protagonist in the upcoming GTA 6.

 

The word woke has joined the ranks of ‘SJW’ and ‘politically correct’. People use woke interchangeably with the word ‘snowflake’. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with being woke, the conflict surrounding wokeism is divisive and distracts from real societal injustices that need addressing.