I always hated it because it’s in the past tense but used in the present tense in common parlance. It should be “awakened”, but I always preferred “aware” or “cognizant” if “woke” means to describe a state of understanding of the historical patterns of predation, conquest, and subjugation along with their underlying causes between groups of people (my opinion on its definition; not meant to be taken as gospel).
However, it doesn’t matter what I think; grammatically incorrect or not, language evolves relentlessly.
If it helps, the word is about 80 years old and was coined by Black musicians in the 1930s, most notably blues legend Lead Belly, who would end concerts by telling people to “stay woke”.
So it’s not just a contrived way to say “awake”; it comes from natural speech.
Your definition is pretty much the same as the original definition. It means being aware of the existence of systemic racism, and for Black people especially to be aware of the threat that entails.
That definition hasn’t really changed. If someone says they’re “anti-woke”, assume they mean that they don’t want people to be aware of systemic racism. Not that they’re denying systemic racism exists, but that they want to protect it by reducing awareness of it. You’ll find that this definition makes perfect sense in that context, and they’re using “woke” to mean the same thing Lead Belly meant in 1938. They’re just against it.
My opinion is that language can and does regress sometimes, or more specifically put, sometimes it gets harder to parse and determine meanings due to changes in common usage, irrespective of how it’s creatively expressed.
I think the lesson from that is to understand that the phenomenon is relentless and inescapable because it’s inherently a biological adaptation. It’s a fool’s errand to attempt to uphold linguistic purity, and thus, it isn’t a terribly important hill to die on, so to speak.
The word woke is badge of honour at this point.
Always was.
I love “insults” that are really complements
You’re smart, haha nerd!
You’re capable of empathy, haha woke!
Remember “social justice warrior”? Always made me think of Superman, incidentally
I always hated it because it’s in the past tense but used in the present tense in common parlance. It should be “awakened”, but I always preferred “aware” or “cognizant” if “woke” means to describe a state of understanding of the historical patterns of predation, conquest, and subjugation along with their underlying causes between groups of people (my opinion on its definition; not meant to be taken as gospel).
However, it doesn’t matter what I think; grammatically incorrect or not, language evolves relentlessly.
A synonym for ‘anti-woke’ is ignorant, so if that’s what people want to reveal themselves to be, it’s fine by me and that’s what I’ll call them.
If it helps, the word is about 80 years old and was coined by Black musicians in the 1930s, most notably blues legend Lead Belly, who would end concerts by telling people to “stay woke”.
So it’s not just a contrived way to say “awake”; it comes from natural speech.
Your definition is pretty much the same as the original definition. It means being aware of the existence of systemic racism, and for Black people especially to be aware of the threat that entails.
That definition hasn’t really changed. If someone says they’re “anti-woke”, assume they mean that they don’t want people to be aware of systemic racism. Not that they’re denying systemic racism exists, but that they want to protect it by reducing awareness of it. You’ll find that this definition makes perfect sense in that context, and they’re using “woke” to mean the same thing Lead Belly meant in 1938. They’re just against it.
If you never break the language by being playful, the language will stagnate.
Human communication works better when people can creatively express themselves, regardless if is “correct”.
My opinion is that language can and does regress sometimes, or more specifically put, sometimes it gets harder to parse and determine meanings due to changes in common usage, irrespective of how it’s creatively expressed.
I think the lesson from that is to understand that the phenomenon is relentless and inescapable because it’s inherently a biological adaptation. It’s a fool’s errand to attempt to uphold linguistic purity, and thus, it isn’t a terribly important hill to die on, so to speak.