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BarackTheVote

(938 posts)
33. "Woke" comes out of the African American community
Mon Apr 25, 2022, 11:46 AM
Apr 2022

as a call to “wake up” to the unique difficulties facing the Black community in America, the racism and prejudice that are baked into our system as a way to support white privileged at the expense of Black communities, holding them down as a perpetual under-class.

The Right Wing latched into it because they’re racists, they know they benefit from white privilege, they fear Black people entering their spaces, their industries, their workforce, their families. “Woke” is also an example of African American Vernacular English, which the Right and racists demean and make fun of constantly because they think it sounds uneducated—when it’s really just the evolution of language in a segregated community.

CRT, Cultural Race Theory, is an advanced legal theory that has a similar motivation to becoming “woke”—examining our laws, testing them for baked-in racial prejudice, and challenging the laws that are inherently racist in order to create a more equitable society. Obviously, the Right hates CRT for the same reason they hate “woke,” because even they know it’s not cool to be racist, so they don’t like being called out as racist, they don’t like being confronted by the fact that a system that supports whiteness and represses Blackness, and not just their own merits, have helped them get what they have.

To be “Woke” is an aspirational goal. CRT is a just and vital way to examine our laws and society. One of our greatest failures is how we have allowed the Right to sieze and poison our terms and language. It’s like New Speak: the goal of New Speak is to reduce the language down as much as possible to eliminate thoughts that are contrary to the status quo—and that is EXACTLY what the Right has been doing for decades… poisoning “Liberal,” “Progressive,” “Political Correctness,” “Social Justice,” “Woke,” “CRT.” And yet, we continue to let them take the language from us, and usually without a fight.

Stay Woke and fight back against this before we don’t have the language to fight back against them at all!

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"Woke" can be traced back to the early-to-mid-20th century and was used by Black Americans as a call WhiskeyGrinder Apr 2022 #1
So, if that is true, the Republicans are openly and proudly insulting black people and wearing their AZLD4Candidate Apr 2022 #3
They've been doing it for decades. WhiskeyGrinder Apr 2022 #4
Five or six years ago the "wake-up" call was shortened... brush Apr 2022 #16
No, the term has always been "woke." WhiskeyGrinder Apr 2022 #17
I personally didn't hear it until the 2010s and I'm Black... brush Apr 2022 #22
That's fine; its documented use goes back decades. Leadbelly used "stay woke" in a song in the late WhiskeyGrinder Apr 2022 #23
I remember when my niece started saying it BumRushDaShow Apr 2022 #24
It faded out because, you know, like most Black slang, when they get ahold of it... brush Apr 2022 #25
Exactly BumRushDaShow Apr 2022 #26
"Wake up", "stay woke", "stay alert" all have the same... brush Apr 2022 #31
yes, pretty much anarch Apr 2022 #29
The greatest majority of those using it have no clue of its origins. Maru Kitteh Apr 2022 #14
Just like socialism, Marxism, communism Nevilledog Apr 2022 #34
+1, GZP appropriates works black people use to demonize knowledge of their horridness uponit7771 Apr 2022 #19
I haven't got a clue. It seems they are VERY bad a coming up with pejoratives Siwsan Apr 2022 #2
And "tree hugger". lpbk2713 Apr 2022 #7
Antifa does not support troops or government entities to combat Nazis LeftInTX Apr 2022 #15
"woke" is a left wing term that right wing made into a slur Demovictory9 Apr 2022 #5
So it's coded language for white straight christian power elite? AZLD4Candidate Apr 2022 #8
To them a woke person believes racism and sexism exist Demovictory9 Apr 2022 #20
It' started in the Black community in the 2010s. brush Apr 2022 #37
Whatever it means, DeSantis just passed a law against it: "The Stop WOKE Act." sop Apr 2022 #13
How about "cancel culture"...WTF does that mean? sop Apr 2022 #6
The use of "woke" by MAGA chuds works basically like an inverse Godwin's Law... keep_left Apr 2022 #9
If I hear someone use it, they are hereafter nothing to me. Patterson Apr 2022 #10
Yep, you know immediately they're a winger. brush Apr 2022 #28
I tell people it means they (republicans) Mr.Bill Apr 2022 #11
Because they can't spell "enlightened". Lunabell Apr 2022 #12
When asked the MAGA answer is - if answered- basically anything non-MAGA haele Apr 2022 #18
Buddha vs. White Jesus ymetca Apr 2022 #21
Just one more instance of grammar-school namecalling. grumpyduck Apr 2022 #27
"It's something WE DON'T LIKE, LIBTARD!!!!" hatrack Apr 2022 #30
It's another truncated variation of "We can't run on policy, so we make shit up!" Torchlight Apr 2022 #32
"Woke" comes out of the African American community BarackTheVote Apr 2022 #33
Well said, but we have no way to stop them from... brush Apr 2022 #38
It all typically means anything that challenges hegemony. Caliman73 Apr 2022 #35
Conservatives used to have a lovely term for liberals jmowreader Apr 2022 #36
Read some of the rest of the entries on this thread. brush Apr 2022 #39
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