Woke

Marcia Fudge, 2018.

10 attributes of a woke mind as presented by someone with a woke mind.

Woke is a widely-used adjective. Woke is generally understood to involve supporting or believing in various notions that are widely accepted among social justice warriors. People who consider themselves woke generally:

• Consider themselves to be tolerant, inclusive and kind
• Consider themselves to be left-wing
• Support identity politics
• Support feminism
• Believe in rape culture
• Believe in male privilege
• Believe that street harassment is a serious problem
• Believe in and reject cultural appropriation
• Favour strong limitations on free speech
• Favour diversity over merit
• Demand that others believe as they believe

The woke are typically intolerant but use the language of tolerance. They are typically exclusionary while using the language of inclusion. They typically claim to be kind but are often unkind.

A study from Finland reported that people who believe in woke are more likely to be unhappy and have mental health issues.

Much discussion on woke coming from both sides often regards woke as synonymous with the left and anti-woke with the right. This is an over-simplification. While the woke are nearly universally on the left, anti-woke exist across the political spectrum. The World Socialist Web Site takes an explicit anti-woke position. The split between feminists and women's rights activists also demonstrates that people on the left can be anti-woke.

A large 2024 study conducted in Finland found that people reporting woke attitudes were less happy and had higher levels of anxiety and depression than the rest of the community. These results were statistically significant.

Dictionary Definitions

Oxford English Dictionary

woke, adjective: Originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice; frequently in stay woke

Werriam-Webster

aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)

Other Definitions

Crikey, an Australian web site supportive of woke, offers definitions used by those that support and those that oppose woke:

Support

"[T]o be informed, educated on and aware of social injustices".

Oppose

"[T]o be overly politically correct and to police other’s words".

History

The term is derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning alert to racial prejudice and discrimination. Beginning in the 2010s, it began to take on a wider meaning covering all areas in which social justice warriors are involved.

The phrase stay woke had emerged in AAVE by the 1930s, in some contexts referring to an awareness of the social and political issues affecting African Americans. The phrase was uttered in a recording by Lead Belly and later by Erykah Badu. Following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, the phrase was popularised by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists seeking to raise awareness about police shootings of African Americans. After seeing use on Black Twitter, the term woke became an Internet meme and was increasingly used by white people, often to signal their support for BLM, which some commentators have criticised as cultural appropriation. Mainly associated with the millennial generation, the term spread internationally and was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.

By 2020 the self-identified woke had recognised a backlash and were concerned.

Current Status

Research clearly shows that women are significantly more likely to be woke than men.

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Wikipedia shows a strong woke bias. Text copied over from Wikipedia can be corrected and improved.