As an Internet user, you’ve probably seen or heard the term “woke.” Ever since 2020, many social media users have used “woke” to signal their support for several causes, including Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, and abortion rights. Given its ties to several political causes, “woke” has even appeared on the news in legislation proposed by government officials and presidential candidates.
But what does the term really mean? Even with an increasing use from both people in favor of and against woke-ness, the word still seems so ambiguous. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? A political catch-all phrase created to be flung around whenever it’s convenient?
In truth, “woke” is not a new slang term created by a generation with immediate, constant access to the Internet. “Woke” also isn’t an invention of two political parties clashing in an increasingly tumultuous society.
Like most parts of American society, the term has crucial, widely unknown roots in Black culture, dating back to the 1920s. When first used, “woke” meant being alert to racial prejudice, injustice, and discrimination. From the 2010s onward, “woke” now means being aware of many or all social inequalities, like racism, transphobia, homophobia, and ableism. How did “woke” undergo such a major shift in such little time?
Let’s unbury these roots and trace the term back to its original source.
Where Did “Woke” Come From?
Given the increased use in recent years and the heavy pushback against its usage, you would think “woke” was a new term invented during the Internet age. After all, wouldn’t such a controversial word have been quietly buried in history to keep it from being used?
Not quite.
Like many words in America’s modern vocabulary, African Americans initially created the term “woke.” The first recorded instance of woke in a political, activist context was by Marcus Garvey. Garvey, a Jamaican political activist, strongly supported Pan-Africanism, the movement of strengthening solidarity between all Indigenous peoples and people in the African diaspora across the world. Garvey saw Pan-Africanism as a way to escape the suffering of colonization, assimilation, and racism; he encouraged Africans and their descendants to have racial pride and build solidarity with each other through African culture and history. To call people to the movement and enlighten them of the oppressions the African diaspora faced, Garvey used the phrases “wake up” and “woke” as a call to action.
Here is Garvey’s quote as seen in the 1923 collection of his writings, Philosophy and Opinions:
“Wake up, Ethiopia! Wake up, Africa! Let us work towards the one glorious end of a free, redeemed, and mighty nation. Let Africa be a bright star among the constellation of nations.”
Marcus Garvey, Philosophy and Opinions
Advancement of the Term Woke
About twenty years later, Garvey’s urgent call would prove successful to some degree. In 1938, blues musician Huddie Ledbetter used “stay woke” in the song Scottsboro Boys, then Negro Mine Workers used “woke” while advocating against discriminatory pay in West Virginia in 1940: “We were asleep. But we will stay woke from now on.”
Despite the above instances occurring in America, several scholars cite William Melvin Kelley’s 1962 essay If You’re Woke You Dig It as the first major use of the term “woke.” In his essay, Kelley discusses the appropriation of Black slang, Kelley focusing on appropriation from white people specifically. This appropriation disconnects the word from its original meaning, warping its meaning until it’s something different altogether. As a result, Black people continue to invent or reinvent slang in hopes of reclaiming their specific dialect, but the cycle inevitably continues.
According to an interview with Kelley’s family, Kelley first heard “woke” used on the streets of Harlem. Surprisingly, Marcus Garvey also lived in Harlem, living there briefly during the late 1910s. The fact that two Harlem residents have the first traceable usages of “woke” in a social-political context could mean that the Black community of Harlem had been doing it unrecorded for years before the rest of the world caught on.
Despite Garvey and Kelley’s respective writings, many Black culture writers cite Erykah Badu as the one responsible for putting the phrase “stay woke” in America’s present lexicon. Badu first used “stay woke” in her 2008 song Master Teacher Medley; four years later, she would use it again, this time on Twitter, to advocate for the freedom of Russian feminist protestors, giving it popularity with an international audience. Badu’s tweet would be the word’s first major use online. The word eventually began circulating as the #staywoke hashtag, which gained popularity in 2014 after the murder of Michael Brown and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Truth requires no belief.
Stay woke. Watch closely.#FreePussyRiot. http://t.co/s4E4DFvO— ErykahBadoula (@fatbellybella) August 8, 2012
Continued Evolution
After “woke’s” resurgence in 2014, it gained a new meaning. In certain contexts, “woke” still meant being socially and politically aware, but as the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum, it also came to mean “stay alert,” a warning for Black people to always be aware of the violence they could face at any time at any place.
From 2014 onward, many activists and allies of other movements would use “woke” to encourage the public to stay knowledgeable. The term’s increased presence online meant many people outside Black Americans were using it, and as activists co-opted it for different causes, its roots in Black culture were buried. In recent years, the term has been especially popular amongst politically engaged teenagers and young adults, which is why many people falsely attribute Gen Z with coining the term. While this misconception seems harmless on the surface, people’s ignorance of the word’s origins has fueled America’s polarizing conversation on diversity and inclusion.
Misrepresentations and Appropriations
Since its common usage on the Internet, “woke” has two separate meanings. The first is used by people engaged in left-leaning politics, denoting support for progressive policies. The second, in classic Internet form, is a modified version that uses “woke” to mockingly describe people becoming aware of something they didn’t originally know.
Given its strong associations with left-wing issues, conservative politicians and right-wing supporters have rallied to eradicate “woke” because they find it unnecessary or even oppressive. The backlash against the term has even sparked some states to take legislative action and eliminate it from establishments. The most popular example of this is Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E Act, first passed in July 2022.
Officially titled “The Individual Freedom Act,” the bill is most commonly known as the “Stop W.O.K.E Act,” a shortened version of “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employee Act.” The bill prevents schools and workplaces from conducting any instruction that causes individuals to “bears responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress” based on historic racist events. The bill also forbids institutions to say anyone is “privileged or oppressed” based on their race or sex. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis summed up the purpose of the bill during a press conference in August 2022:
“We must fight the woke in our schools. We must fight the woke in our businesses. We must fight the woke in government agencies. We can never, ever surrender to woke ideology. […] The state of Florida is where woke goes to die.”
Governor Ron DeSantis on August 19th 2022 in Pittsburgh, PA
As of March 2024, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a November 2022 ruling that the “Stop W.O.K.E Act” is unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment right to free speech. But the Florida government’s support of the bill — and calls for similar legislation across the nation — show how severely distorted the definition of “woke” has become. Instead of being a phrase that signals consciousness of oppression and injustice, people believe “woke” promotes “that one race is morally superior to another race.”
This misrepresentation of “woke” invokes the words of William Melvin Kelley, who warned people of this phenomenon in his essay:
“The language seems to be modified in two ways…The first is to give a word, already in use, its opposite meaning. At one time, the connotations of ‘jive’ were all good; now they are bad, or at least questionable.”
William Melvin Kelley, “If You’re Woke You Dig It“
There is one advantage to “woke’s” appropriation. In the national campaign to eradicate the term, its detractors are the ones keeping it in use, promoting it and its ideology way more than casual speakers ever could. From rallying against Black mermaids in movies, banning queer stories in schools, to prohibiting teaching about Black history at all levels of education, the fight against “woke culture” has reached all corners of our society, thus spreading awareness of the very idea those against its use want to eliminate.
Where Do We Go From Here?
“Woke” is not the first instance of Black vernacular being criminalized. American institutions have always tried to evict Black language by criminalizing its use. The pushback against diversity and inclusion initiatives in schools and businesses within the past few years is just the newest link in a decades-long chain.
How yall feel bout this ? pic.twitter.com/JRC8raLh3f
— 𝓈𝒶𝑔𝒾𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓇𝑜𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓉★ (@backendzyy) January 7, 2024
One of the most common examples is strict language prohibition in public schools. In January 2024, a teacher’s classroom policy went viral for the rage it evoked. At the top of a page listing 32 prohibited slang terms, the teacher stated, “The gibberish some of you choose to use is improper English and sometimes inappropriate for an academic setting.”
The slang terms above originated from AAVE, African American Vernacular English. Although the teacher’s list doesn’t mention the race of the students using these words, this type of slang is used prominently by Black people because the words originate in Black culture.
Prohibiting Black slang in an academic setting adds to the negative connotations that have surrounded AAVE, Ebonics, and different Black dialects for decades, enforcing the historical pattern of criminalizing Black language. The controversy surrounding “woke” may be the largest example of this criminalization, but it is by no means the first, and it probably won’t be the last.
When people place negative connotations on words from Black communities, not only do they enforce the idea that Black language is inferior, but they also separate the Black community from its history and culture. So, how do we stop this from happening?
By doing what Marcus Garvey, William Melvin Kelley, and Erykah Badu have pleaded with us for years to do:
Stay aware of what’s happening around you. Push back against appropriation, criminalization, and misrepresentations by knowing the real definitions and the history of the words you’re using.
Above all, stay woke.
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