The 4 Definitions of Woke
An ever evolving word that can be an insult or a compliment depending on who's saying it.
Earlier this month, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez echoed a sentiment that had long been building about the usage of the word woke among right wing commenters; in a nutshell when used by those speakers it was an insult. No surprise there, it is. Where I part company with Ocasio-Cortez is what she claims is being insulted - civil rights and justice.
In my estimation, when someone like Joe Rogan uses the word woke in a negative light heβs talking about a very large but very specific group of people, far leftists. And one could argue that the group being referred to is even more specific than that. College educated, young, urban, and mostly white would define this group.
In the rush to assess Ocasio-Cortezβs statement, which Iβll post in itβs entirety below, some interesting ideas were laid out. The one that stands out and that was repeated often was that the right had βappropriatedβ the word from black slang. This couldnβt be farther from the truth. The right hadnβt learned the word from black speakers but rather from white speakers on platforms like Twitter.
So hereβs your plot twist - applying the original definition of woke there are two groups of folks that are woke. High powered white racists and a few intelligent but paranoid black folks. This paradox stems from logic. If a black person is woke heβs aware of the plot and actions meant to keep him down, not everyone can be a main character after all. On the other hand obviously, the plotters, planners, and enforcers must be aware of these ill effects too. So they are woke. Everyone else in effect is asleep or sleep, to use the proper AAVE.
Diving deeper, thanks to John McWhorter and many others who have done extensive research and even wrote entire books on this phenomenon, we can define woke simply as being awakened to the realities of systemic racism. But that definition doesnβt fit exact. The term has been in use for almost 90 years. This will likely be a surprise to many of my readers. So using standard English to deduce a meaning will leave you with only a partial understanding. Woke to me means very simply knowing what βThe Manβ has planned. That doesnβt necessarily have to be an out and out racist conspiracy. Woke could plainly mean knowing or thinking in this context, or not going with the program. In this vein, it can become a compliment, acknowledging someoneβs intelligence for being able to see behind or beyond the curtain.
One of the best examples of this βknowingβ that comes to mind is Chris Rockβs octagon joke from his 2004 HBO special. The setup is a slave driving a wagon carrying his master. He sees a stop sign and canβt decide whether to stop or blow through the intersection because stopping will reveal he knows how to read and potentially put his life in danger as reading for slaves was outlawed prior to the Civil War.
The slave in Rockβs joke decides to ignore the sign and ends up wrecking the carriage. He still ends up revealing that heβs more learned than he should be when he refers to the stop sign as an octagon. This hypothetical is impossible, as stop signs were invented in 1915. Yet the story captures the stresses that come with being truly woke or knowing, of what The Man doesnβt want you to know.
Itβs clear this isnβt a stress millions of people could know or feel. This understanding of the word is far off from what it means to be woke for your average white liberal millenial, of which there are tens of millions. A republican could never be woke in the modern liberal usage of the word. A black person that is distrusting of the government on issues the modern liberal considers settled business would not qualify as woke either, see: vaccine mandates.
The mandates are a great wedge here. Certain black people that consider themselves woke may see white liberals as The Man in this instance. Vaccination numbers lag precisely because black communities are fearful of what white people want to do their bodies. So the massive push for vaccination driven by the white millenial leftists would naturally be seen as one of those moments black person who is woke by the old definition would be on the look out for. On the other side, liberals who consider themselves to be woke would see anti-vax republicans that are finding allies within the black community or simply encouraging black anti-vax sentiment as racists operating with ulterior motives, a sure sign of undying systemic racism rather than shared distrust of the government.
So the newer definition, as has been defined by many rushing to the debate now that Ocasio-Cortez has spoken, is someone that subscribes to far left ideology. Nothing more, nothing less can be made of the definition. For it is easy to argue that far leftistsβ agenda is The Manβs agenda from the original black woke perspective. The voting results here in NYC and across the nation around defund the police and charter schools show this out. Many black people believe that this policy slate would injure or endanger their lives.
Weβve covered 3 definitions of the word woke, to recap from oldest to new:
being uniquely aware of the plans of the powers that be
adhering or appearing to adhere to far leftist ideology
an insult, meaning deluded smug liberal enlightenment; specifically leveled at youthful far leftists
The fourth definition is the most elusive of all.
Woke had become something else prior to the itsβ popularity on social media. Itβs the definition Iβm most familiar with but itβs hard to put into words and while many words have been spent on the first 3 definitions over the last half year not much has been said about the fourth meaning. It is only alluded to as a broader meaning or understanding and I even touch on it, unintentionally, in my description of the original. That meaning is neither ground-breaking or ironic as is the revelation that the original usage includes powerful racists as being woke. But it is worth addressing because it too negates the modern liberal usage. This definition squeezes in between the first and second definition listed.
Essentially, it means to be knowing as well but in a much broader sense and while itβs again a limited group it is a much larger group than those who the initial definition applied to. This usage belongs to black millennials and gen x'ers.
Under this definition, using African black soap, instead of say Dove soap could signify oneβs wokeness. The distrust extends beyond leadership to the entirety of mainstream culture. In the soap example, it would be argued that the contents of the Dove soap are harmful and intentionally so. Which in itself makes no sense that soap brands would want to kill off black people. Whereβs the profit in dead customers?
With this conspiracy mindset, virtually any stoner could be woke. Eating organic is woke because of course the intention of farmers using pesticides is to kill black folks.
Not all permutations of this usage result in irony. But many do. For example, being woke could have meant not eating meat, which some could argue based on cancer rates among vegetarians is a very sensible conclusion. Or being a Muslim because that was the most likely religion of our African ancestors. What it doesnβt provide for however is that our average urban far leftist knows whatβs best for the black community. Conspiracy mindset dictates that white people at large are out to get you.
I only really began to think of this definition at the outset of this writing. While preparing to write this, I came across an article about tree planting in Detroit. it did well to frame this newer meaning while never referring to the word woke. Not only did it frame this new meaning but it also showed why this definition couldnβt apply to young white leftists.
The residents of black neighborhoods in Detroit overwhelmingly rejected free tree plantings. Many of the young white leftists who made up the volunteer corp trying to plant these trees believed that the black residents did not know the benefits of trees. A researcher who was curious to find the truth, rather than rely on stereotypes of black intelligence as the leftist volunteers did, found that the residents did know the value of trees. And that it was those residents distrust for government that led to the rejection.
In many ways, this mirrors the defund movement. There is no question some innocent black men would benefit from no longer being harassed and or targeted. But as a community we would be at greater risk. It would βfall on our shouldersβ, the fallout and or consequences that precipitated from this change, as is elaborated by respondents of the Detroit tree study. The benefits arenβt unknown to the black community, rather the harm has been weighed.
So what is woke?
Though there are four definitions, it really only applies to two groups of people.
If youβre an urban white leftist you either define yourself or your in group as being so or your political rivals direct the word at you and your group as an insult. Both speakers are referring to the same group in either case.
OR
Youβre a black person that is intelligent or a quirky outside the box thinker, and itβs always a compliment. If you take it as an insult you belong to the former not the latter group.