Staying Woke: Reclaiming the True Meaning of a Cultural Call to Awareness

“I shook hands with them, and then I made this little song about down there, so I advise everybody to be a little careful when you go along through Alabama. Stay woke; keep your eyes open.”

Cultural origins

That’s the first recorded use of the word “woke”, from an interview with folk artist Huddie Ledbetter, BKA Lead Belly, in 1935. The “little song” here is “Scottsboro Boys”, titled in reference to the nine black teenagers who were falsely accused of rape and assault in 1931 and sentenced to death in Alabama. The case is a famous example of racial injustice and the miscarriage of the US judicial system in the service of white supremacy. Lead Belly sings,

“I’m gonna tell all the colored people

Livin’ in Harlem swing

Don’t you ever go to Alabama

And try to sing

Go to Alabama and you better watch out

The landlord’ll get you, gonna jump and shout

Scottsboro Scottsboro boys

Gonna tell you what it’s all about.”

“Stay woke.” It is now, and has always been, an expression by and for Black people in the US, because its meaning is very specific: Be aware and vigilant of the mechanisms of institutional racism and anti-Blackness acting upon your life at all times. 

The meaning of this term has never changed for its originators; culturally, this admonition is handed down from generation to generation in the face of sustained white supremacist oppression and violence. It remains a deeply meaningful and empowering call to solidarity in Black culture. My own mother had a history of community activism in the 70s; as a child, I heard “stay woke” as constantly as “be good”. So how did a term rooted in Black resilience and awareness become a political weapon and a driver of widespread divestiture across the social impact spectrum?

Snatched up

“Woke” was co-opted by the mainstream more or less as soon as the mainstream became aware of it. Erykah Badu’s “Master Teacher” in 2008 brought the word into the 21st century; the murder of Michael Brown in 2014 brought it to mainstream attention through the rallying cries of Black activists and community leaders. 

Since then, “woke” has been appropriated to political discourse, more often than not stripped of its original context and either morphed into a catch-all synonym for people and movements in support of broad social justice, or weaponized as a pejorative term to deride those same people and movements. 

This co-opting shifted the term’s meaning to align with partisan narratives, and to equate it with radical liberalism or extremism. In the immediate wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, “woke” was already being used as a slur for any social values/movements (and the groups behind them) not embraced by those who identify as conservative. 

There’s clear and tangible harm in this redefinition.

Harmful impact

For one, it erases the cultural significance of “woke” as an expression of empowerment in the face of historical and current racist oppression, and perpetuates what is, at its core, anti-Black rhetoric. 

Policies and organizations can’t really be “woke”, only people can – and then, only if those people are Black and historically subject to institutional racism and social harm in the US because of their heritage. Therefore, “anti-woke”, given the historical and current context of the word for Black people in the US, is tantamount to “anti-Black”.

For another, this four-letter word has become a FOUR-LETTER WORD with a potentially outsized amount of power over the actions and decisions of funders, industry leaders, and policymakers.

Corporations are abandoning internal diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across the board for fear of being characterized as “woke” and targeted by the current federal administration for obstructing its aims to dismantle all such programs in every sector. 

Funders and nonprofits are weighing their capacity or inclination to risk the same, even as their work is under active threat; as such, the future of nonprofit organizations at every scale is suddenly significantly more uncertain than usual. 

Here in Philadelphia, city leaders have already begun critical discussions about how best to protect and support our most vulnerable residents. City Council, the Mayor’s Office, and community partners convened a hearing in January to plan for what the future might bring for those targeted by President Trump’s Executive Orders, which have so far taken aim at immigration policies, birthright citizenship, transgender rights, federal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and more.

Realigning the discourse

While my aim here is to offer context and meaning that might realign the discourse, I’m not the first to point out the misappropriation of this powerful word. 

Whether the appropriation of “woke” is used positively in reference to broad social justice aims, or negatively to denigrate them as wicked, I’m extremely concerned at how quickly and firmly “anti-woke” as a phrase has embedded itself in the public lexicon, and how swiftly and dramatically this misguided sentiment has been able to drive conversation among social impact leaders and actually shape policy. 

As a member of the media ecosystem in Philadelphia, I can personally refuse to perpetuate the misuse of this word which has such deeply meaningful cultural and historical implications, including for myself. I can pledge not to use my access to this platform or any other to sow anti-Black rhetoric coded in partisan, divisive, stolen language. 

I invite social impact leaders in Philadelphia and beyond to remember: the value in any initiative, policy, or industry is in the extent to which it aims to promote positive and healthful outcomes for all humans, not just favorable groups. Efforts that center – rather than suppress – inclusivity, justice, community voice and government responsiveness should never live and die by a partisan agenda. 

Buzzwords fall in and out of fashion all the time, but the blueprint for social sustainability, for all, has always been (and will always be) human-centered.