woke

File:Marcia Fudge with Stay Woke Vote t-shirt in 2018.jpg holding a T-shirt reading "Stay Woke: Vote" in 2018]]

Woke is an adjective derived from African-American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and gained further popularity in the 2010s with the hashtag #staywoke. Over time, woke came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and denial of LGBTQ rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.{{r|Morgan 2020|Romano 2020|Mirzaei 2019}}

During the 2014 Ferguson protests, the phrase stay woke was popularized by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists seeking to raise awareness about police shootings of African Americans. After being used on Black Twitter, the term woke was increasingly adopted by white people to signal their support for progressive causes. The term became popular with millennials and members of Generation Z. As its use spread beyond the United States, woke was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.

By 2019, the term was being used sarcastically as a pejorative among many on the political right and some centrists to disparage leftist and progressive movements as superficial and insincere performative activism. Some leftists criticize wokeness as interfering with working class solidarity. The terms woke-washing and woke capitalism later emerged to criticize businesses and brands who use politically progressive messaging for financial gain.

Origins and usage

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| quote = Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa! Let us work towards the one glorious end of a free, redeemed and mighty nation. —Marcus Garvey, Philosophy and Opinions (1923){{Cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy |title=A history of 'wokeness' |first=Aja |last=Romano |date=9 October 2020 |website=Vox |access-date=2 March 2023 |archive-date=November 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121030204/https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy |url-status=live}}{{cite magazine |last=Cauley |first=Kashana |authorlink=Kashana Cauley |title=Word: Woke |url=https://believermag.com/kashana-cauley-word-woke/ |website=The Believer |date=February 2019 |issue=123 |issn=1543-6101 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510164352/https://believermag.com/kashana-cauley-word-woke/ |archive-date=May 10, 2022 |url-status=usurped}}{{Cite book |title=The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans |last1=Garvey |first1=Marcus |last2=Garvey |first2=Amy Jacques |year=1986 |orig-year=first published 1923 |publisher=The Majority Press |location=Dover, Mass. |isbn=978-0-912469-24-9 |page=5}}

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In some varieties of African-American English, woke is used in place of woken, the usual past participle form of wake.{{r|Martin 2017}} This has led to the use of woke as an adjective equivalent to awake, which has become mainstream in the United States.{{r|Martin 2017|Merriam-Webster}}

While it is not known when being awake was first used as a metaphor for political engagement and activism, one early example in the United States was the paramilitary youth organization the Wide Awakes, which formed in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1860 to support the Republican candidate in the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln. Local chapters of the group spread rapidly across northern cities in the ensuing months and "triggered massive popular enthusiasm" around the election. The political militancy of the group also alarmed many southerners, who saw in the Wide Awakes confirmation of their fears of northern, Republican political aggression. The support among the Wide Awakes for abolition, as well as the participation of a number of black men in a Wide Awakes parade in Massachusetts, likely contributed to such anxiety.{{cite journal |last1=Grinspan |first1=Jon |title='Young Men for War': The Wide Awakes and Lincoln's 1860 Presidential Campaign |journal=The Journal of American History |date=2009 |volume=96 |issue=2 |pages=357–378 |doi=10.1093/jahist/96.2.357}}{{Cite web |last=Wills |first=Matthew |date=June 29, 2020 |title=Abolitionist 'Wide Awakes' Were Woke Before 'Woke' |url=https://daily.jstor.org/abolitionist-wide-awakes-were-woke-before-woke/ |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US |access-date=July 2, 2020 |archive-date=July 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702151434/https://daily.jstor.org/abolitionist-wide-awakes-were-woke-before-woke/ |url-status=live}}

=20th century=

File:Leadbelly2byGottliebcropped.jpg used the phrase "stay woke" on a recording of his song "Scottsboro Boys".]]

Among the earliest uses of the idea of wokeness as a concept for black political consciousness came from Jamaican philosopher and social activist Marcus Garvey,{{r|Romano 2020}} who wrote in 1923, "Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!"{{r|Romano 2020|Garvey 1923}}

A 1923 collection of aphorisms, ideas, and other writing by Garvey also adopts this metaphor in the following epigram: "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."{{r|Garvey 1923}}{{r|Romano 2020}}

Black American folk singer-songwriter Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly, used the phrase "stay woke" as part of a spoken afterword to a 1938 recording of his song "Scottsboro Boys", which tells the story of nine black teenagers and young men falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931. In the recording, Lead Belly says he met with the defendant's lawyer and the young men themselves, and "I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there (Scottsboro){{snd}}best stay woke, keep their eyes open."{{r|Romano 2020}}{{Cite magazine |url=http://digital.livingblues.com/publication/?i=515680&p=17 |title=Outrage Channeled in Verse |last=Matheis |first=Frank |date=August 2018 |magazine=Living Blues |issue=4 |volume=49 |page=15 |issn=0024-5232 |access-date=September 5, 2018 |archive-date=September 6, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180906014048/http://digital.livingblues.com/publication/?i=515680&p=17 |url-status=live}} Aja Romano writes at Vox that this usage reflects "black Americans' need to be aware of racially motivated threats and the potential dangers of white America."{{r|Romano 2020}}

By the mid-20th century, woke had come to mean 'well-informed' or 'aware',{{cite book |last1=Krouse |first1=Tonya |last2=O'Callaghan |first2=Tamara F. |title=Introducing English Studies |date=2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |location=London |isbn=978-1-350-05542-1 |page=135}} especially in a political or cultural sense.{{r|Martin 2017}} The Oxford English Dictionary traces the earliest such usage to a 1962 New York Times Magazine article titled "If You're Woke You Dig It" by African-American novelist William Melvin Kelley, describing the appropriation of black slang by white beatniks.{{Cite web |last=Martin |first=Katherine Connor |url=https://public.oed.com/blog/june-2017-update-new-words-notes/ |title=New words notes June 2017 |date=June 16, 2017 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |department=Blog |publisher=Oxford University Press |archive-date=May 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514035356/https://public.oed.com/blog/june-2017-update-new-words-notes/ |url-status=dead}}

Woke had gained more political connotations by 1971 when the play Garvey Lives! by Barry Beckham included the line: "I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I'm gon' stay woke. And I'm gon help him wake up other black folk."{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Ben |date=April 14, 2017 |title='Woke', From a Sleepy Verb to a Badge of Awareness |work=The Wall Street Journal |department=Word on the Street |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/woke-from-a-sleepy-verb-to-a-badge-of-awareness-1492183857 |url-access=subscription |access-date=March 1, 2021 |archive-date=June 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610154025/https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/woke-from-a-sleepy-verb-to-a-badge-of-awareness-1492183857 |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |title=Garvey Lives!: A Play |last=Beckham |first=Barry |year=1972 |oclc=19687974}}

=2008–2014: #Staywoke hashtag=

Through the late 2000s and early 2010s, woke was used either as a term for literal wakefulness, or as slang for suspicions of infidelity. The latter meaning was used in singer Childish Gambino's 2016 song "Redbone".{{Cite web |last=Marsden |first=Harriet |date=November 25, 2019 |title=Whither 'woke': What does the future hold for word that became a weapon? |url=https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/future-for-woke-word-became-a-weapon-62988 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415174718/https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/future-for-woke-word-became-a-weapon-62988 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |website=The New European}} In the 21st century's first decade, the use of woke encompassed the earlier meaning with an added sense of being "alert to social and/or racial discrimination and injustice".{{r|Martin 2017}}

File:Erykah Badu, Umbria Jazz 2012 (2).JPG

This usage was popularized by soul singer Erykah Badu's 2008 song "Master Teacher",{{Cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woke-meaning-origin |title=Stay Woke: The new sense of 'woke' is gaining popularity |department=Arts & Culture |publisher=Merriam-Webster |date=n.d. |access-date=February 2, 2025 |archive-date=January 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104090724/https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woke-meaning-origin |url-status=live}}{{r|Krouse 2020}} via the song's refrain, "I stay woke".{{r|Zimmer 2017}} Merriam-Webster defines the expression stay woke in Badu's song as meaning, "self-aware, questioning the dominant paradigm and striving for something better"; and, although within the context of the song, it did not yet have a specific connection to justice issues, Merriam-Webster credits the phrase's use in the song with its later connection to these issues.{{Cite news |url=https://splinternews.com/how-woke-went-from-black-activist-watchword-to-teen-int-1793853989 |title=How 'woke' went from black activist watchword to teen internet slang |last=Pulliam-Moore |first=Charles |date=January 8, 2016 |newspaper=Splinter News |access-date=December 20, 2019 |archive-date=December 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220041150/https://splinternews.com/how-woke-went-from-black-activist-watchword-to-teen-int-1793853989 |url-status=live}}

Songwriter Georgia Anne Muldrow, who composed "Master Teacher" in 2005, told Okayplayer news and culture editor Elijah Watson that while she was studying jazz at New York University, she learned the invocation Stay woke from Harlem alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, who used the expression in the meaning of trying to "stay woke" because of tiredness or boredom, "talking about how she was trying to stay up – like literally not pass out". In homage, Muldrow wrote stay woke in marker on a T-shirt, which over time became suggestive of engaging in the process of the search for herself (as distinct from, for example, merely personal productivity).{{Cite web |last=Watson |first=Elijah C. |url=https://www.okayplayer.com/originals/georgia-muldrow-erykah-badu-stay-woke-master-teacher.html |title=The Origin Of Woke: How Erykah Badu And Georgia Anne Muldrow Sparked The 'Stay Woke' Era |date=February 27, 2018 |website=Okayplayer |access-date=April 2, 2021 |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225043857/https://www.okayplayer.com/originals/georgia-muldrow-erykah-badu-stay-woke-master-teacher.html |url-status=live}}

File:MPD can destroy our spot, but not our souls! Operation staywoke (23145268739).jpg

According to The Economist, as the term woke and the #Staywoke hashtag began to spread online, the term "began to signify a progressive outlook on a host of issues as well as on race".{{cite news |title=How has the meaning of the word 'woke' evolved? |url=https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/07/30/how-has-the-meaning-of-the-word-woke-evolved |newspaper=The Economist |department=The Economist explains |date=July 30, 2021 |url-access=limited |access-date=September 13, 2021 |archive-date=September 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913034136/https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/07/30/how-has-the-meaning-of-the-word-woke-evolved |url-status=live}}

In a tweet mentioning the Russian feminist rock group Pussy Riot, whose members had been imprisoned in 2012,{{cite news |last1=Parker |first1=Suzi |title=Pussy Riot should continue their mission even if freed |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/russian-punk-rockers-should-continue-their-mission-even-if-freed/2012/09/14/24ebeb2c-fea0-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_blog.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=September 14, 2012 |url-access=limited |access-date=April 8, 2021 |archive-date=July 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715071258/https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/russian-punk-rockers-should-continue-their-mission-even-if-freed/2012/09/14/24ebeb2c-fea0-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_blog.html |url-status=live}}{{cite news |last1=Parker |first1=Suzi |title=What American women could learn from Pussy Riot, a Russian punk rock girl band |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/what-american-women-could-learn-from-pussy-riot-a-russian-punk-rock-girl-band/2012/04/21/gIQAYr42XT_blog.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=April 21, 2012 |url-access=limited |access-date=April 8, 2021 |archive-date=March 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316093453/https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/what-american-women-could-learn-from-pussy-riot-a-russian-punk-rock-girl-band/2012/04/21/gIQAYr42XT_blog.html |url-status=live}} Badu wrote: "Truth requires no belief. Stay woke. Watch closely. #FreePussyRiot".{{Cite web |url=https://www.okayplayer.com/culture/woke-cancel-culture-meaning.html |title=The Origin Of Woke: How The Death Of Woke Led To The Birth Of Cancel Culture |first=Elijah C. |last=Watson |date=February 25, 2020 |website=Okayplayer |access-date=April 8, 2021 |archive-date=January 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123005858/https://www.okayplayer.com/culture/woke-cancel-culture-meaning.html |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last=Holloway |first=James |url=https://newatlas.com/good-thinking/obama-woke-culture/ |title=Obama warns against social media call-out culture |date=October 31, 2019 |website=New Atlas |access-date=April 8, 2021 |archive-date=April 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419055709/https://newatlas.com/good-thinking/obama-woke-culture/ |url-status=live}}{{cite tweet |first=Erykah |last=Badu |user=fatbellybella |title=Truth requires no belief. Stay woke. Watch closely. #FreePussyRiot. |date=August 8, 2012 |number=233215131876724736}} This has been cited by Know Your Meme as one of the first examples of the #Staywoke hashtag.{{cite journal |last1=Richardson |first1=Elaine |last2=Ragland |first2=Alice |title=#StayWoke: The Language and Literacies of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement |journal=Community Literacy Journal |volume=12 |issue=2 |date=Spring 2018 |pages=27–56 |issn=1555-9734 |doi=10.25148/clj.12.2.009099 |doi-access=free}}

=2014–2015: Black Lives Matter=

File:Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality (21552673186).jpg supporters against police brutality]]

Following the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, the phrase stay woke was used by activists of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement to urge awareness of police abuses.{{r|Romano 2020|Hess 2016|Richardson 2018}} The BET documentary Stay Woke, which covered the movement, aired in May 2016.{{cite web |last=Holliday |first=Nicole |title=How 'Woke' Fell Asleep |date=November 16, 2016 |website=Oxford Dictionaries |department=OxfordWords |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227055631/https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/11/woke/ |url=https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/11/woke/ |url-status=unfit |archive-date=December 27, 2016}} Within the decade of the 2010s, the word woke (the colloquial, passively voiced past participle of wake) obtained the meaning 'politically and socially aware'{{Cite OEtymD|wake}} among BLM activists.{{r|Martin 2017}}{{r|Hess 2016}}

=2015–2019: Broadening usage=

While the term woke initially pertained to issues of racial prejudice and discrimination impacting African Americans, it came to be used by other activist groups with different causes.{{r|Mirzaei 2019}} While there is no single agreed-upon definition of the term, it came to be primarily associated with ideas that involve identity and race and which are promoted by progressives, such as the notion of white privilege or slavery reparations for African Americans.{{cite news |last=Bacon |first=Perry Jr. |title=Why Attacking 'Cancel Culture' And 'Woke' People Is Becoming The GOP's New Political Strategy |date=March 17, 2021 |website=FiveThirtyEight |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-attacking-cancel-culture-and-woke-people-is-becoming-the-gops-new-political-strategy/ |quote=But in culture and politics today, the most prominent uses of 'woke' are as a pejorative — Republicans attacking Democrats, more centrist Democrats attacking more liberal ones and supporters of the British monarchy using the term to criticize people more sympathetic to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. |access-date=March 23, 2021 |archive-date=October 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029062415/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-attacking-cancel-culture-and-woke-people-is-becoming-the-gops-new-political-strategy/ |url-status=live}} According to communication studies scholar Gordana Lazić, woke refers to "a heightened awareness of social inequalities and injustices".{{cite book |last1=Lazić |first1=Gordana |editor1-last=Samoilenko |editor1-first=Sergei A. |editor2-last=Simmons |editor2-first=Solon |title=The Handbook of Social and Political Conflict |date=2025 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=978-1-119-89552-7 |page=107 |doi=10.1002/9781119895534.ch10 |language=en |chapter=Rhetoric of Social Conflict}} Vox{{'}}s Aja Romano writes that woke evolved into a "single-word summation of leftist political ideology, centered on social justice politics and critical race theory".{{r|Romano 2020}} Columnist David Brooks wrote in 2017 that "to be woke is to be radically aware and justifiably paranoid. It is to be cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures."{{Cite news |last=Brooks |first=David |date=July 25, 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} How Cool Works in America Today |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/opinion/how-cool-works-in-america-today.html |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited |access-date=November 20, 2021 |archive-date=November 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120200653/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/opinion/how-cool-works-in-america-today.html |url-status=live}} Quoted in {{harvp|Morgan|2020|p=277}} Sociologist Marcyliena Morgan contrasts woke with cool in the context of maintaining dignity in the face of social injustice: "While coolness is empty of meaning and interpretation and displays no particular consciousness, woke is explicit and direct regarding injustice, racism, sexism, etc."{{cite book |last1=Morgan |first1=Marcyliena |editor1-last=Alim |editor1-first=H. Samy |editor2-last=Reyes |editor2-first=Angela |editor3-last=Kroskrity |editor3-first=Paul V. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-084599-5 |pages=276–277 |chapter='We Don't Play': Black Women's Linguistic Authority Across Race, Class, and Gender |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190845995.013.13}}

The term woke became increasingly common on Black Twitter, the community of African American users of the social media platform Twitter. André Brock, a professor of black digital studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, suggested that the term proved popular on Twitter because its brevity suited the platform's 140-character limit. According to Charles Pulliam-Moore, the term began crossing over into general internet usage as early as 2015.{{cite book |title=Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts |author-link=John Hartley (academic) |first=John |last=Hartley |year=2020 |edition=5th |isbn=978-1-3518-4801-5 |publisher=Routledge |pages=290–291}} The phrase stay woke became an Internet meme, with searches for woke on Google surging in 2015.{{Cite web |url=http://theconversation.com/where-woke-came-from-and-why-marketers-should-think-twice-before-jumping-on-the-social-activism-bandwagon-122713 |title=Where 'woke' came from and why marketers should think twice before jumping on the social activism bandwagon |first=Abas |last=Mirzaei |website=The Conversation |date=September 8, 2019 |access-date=April 8, 2021 |archive-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320231919/https://theconversation.com/where-woke-came-from-and-why-marketers-should-think-twice-before-jumping-on-the-social-activism-bandwagon-122713 |url-status=live}}

File:2018 Women's March in Missoula, Montana 119.jpg event in Missoula, Montana]]

The term has gained popularity amid an increasing leftward turn on various issues among the American Left; this has partly been a reaction to the right-wing politics of U.S. President Donald Trump, who was elected in 2016, but also to a growing awareness regarding the extent of historical discrimination faced by African Americans.{{Cite web |last=Bacon |first=Perry Jr. |title=The Ideas That Are Reshaping The Democratic Party And America |date=March 16, 2021 |website=FiveThirtyEight |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ideas-that-are-reshaping-the-democratic-party-and-america/ |access-date=March 25, 2021 |archive-date=March 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322131444/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ideas-that-are-reshaping-the-democratic-party-and-america/ |url-status=live}} According to Perry Bacon Jr., ideas that have come to be associated with "wokeness" include a rejection of American exceptionalism; a belief that the United States has never been a true democracy; that people of color suffer from systemic and institutional racism; that white Americans experience white privilege; that African Americans deserve reparations for slavery and post-enslavement discrimination; that disparities among racial groups, for instance in certain professions or industries, are automatic evidence of discrimination; that U.S. law enforcement agencies are designed to discriminate against people of color and so should be defunded, disbanded, or heavily reformed; that women suffer from systemic sexism; that individuals should be able to identify with any gender or none; that U.S. capitalism is deeply flawed; and that Trump's election to the presidency was not an aberration but a reflection of the prejudices about people of color held by large parts of the U.S. population. Although increasingly accepted across much of the American Left, many of these ideas were nevertheless unpopular among the U.S. population as a whole and among other, especially more centrist, parts of the Democratic Party.

File:Stay woke Bin off this bloke - Climate crisis rally Melbourne - IMG 7724 (49568426433).jpg at an environmentalist protest in Melbourne, Australia in 2020]]

The term increasingly came to be identified with millennials and members of Generation Z.[https://sponsored.chronicle.com/Generation-Z-The-Woke-Generation/ Generation Z: The Woke Generation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230706160148/https://sponsored.chronicle.com/Generation-Z-The-Woke-Generation/ |date=July 6, 2023 }}, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Les Echos lists woke among several terms adopted by Generation Z that indicate "a societal turning point" in France.{{cite news |last1=Belin |first1=Soisic |title=Huit mots pour comprendre la génération Z |trans-title=Eight words to understand Generation Z |url=https://start.lesechos.fr/societe/culture-tendances/huit-mots-pour-comprendre-la-generation-z-1302488 |work=Les Echos Start |date=March 29, 2021 |language=fr |url-access=limited |access-date=April 25, 2021 |archive-date=April 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425152632/https://start.lesechos.fr/societe/culture-tendances/huit-mots-pour-comprendre-la-generation-z-1302488 |url-status=live}} In May 2016, MTV News identified woke as being among ten words teenagers "should know in 2016".{{Cite news |url=http://www.mtv.com/news/2720889/teen-slang-2016/ |title=Say Goodbye To 'On Fleek,' 'Basic' And 'Squad' In 2016 And Learn These 10 Words Instead |last=Trudon |first=Taylor |date=January 5, 2016 |newspaper=MTV News |archive-date=December 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222132253/http://www.mtv.com/news/2720889/teen-slang-2016/ |url-status=dead}} The American Dialect Society voted woke the slang word of the year in 2017.{{cite news |last1=Steinmetz |first1=Katy |title='Dumpster Fire' Is the American Dialect Society's 2016 Word of the Year |url=https://time.com/4627056/dumpster-fire-2016-word-of-the-year/ |magazine=Time |date=January 7, 2017 |url-access=limited |access-date=April 2, 2021 |archive-date=April 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420171708/https://time.com/4627056/dumpster-fire-2016-word-of-the-year/ |url-status=live}}{{cite news |last1=King |first1=Georgia Frances |title=The American Dialect Society's word of the year is 'dumpster fire' |url=https://qz.com/880501/2016s-word-of-the-year-is-dumpster-fire-beating-out-post-truth-deplorables-cuck-woke-and-slay-for-the-american-dialect-societys-title/ |work=Quartz |date=January 7, 2017 |url-access=limited |access-date=April 2, 2021 |archive-date=March 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304164405/https://qz.com/880501/2016s-word-of-the-year-is-dumpster-fire-beating-out-post-truth-deplorables-cuck-woke-and-slay-for-the-american-dialect-societys-title/ |url-status=live}}{{Cite press release |last=Metcalf |first=Allan |title=2016 Word of the Year is dumpster fire, as voted by American Dialect Society |date=January 6, 2017 |publisher=American Dialect Society |url=https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2016-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf |access-date=April 2, 2021 |archive-date=March 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303212451/http://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2016-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf |url-status=live}} In the same year, the term was included as an entry in Oxford English Dictionary.{{r|Sobande 2019|Martin 2017}} By 2019, the term woke was increasingly being used in an ironic sense, as reflected in the books Woke by comedian Andrew Doyle (using the pen name Titania McGrath) and Anti-Woke by columnist Brendan O'Neill.{{cite news |last=Shariatmadari |first=David |date=October 14, 2019 |title=Cancelled for sadfishing: the top 10 words of 2019 |website=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/oct/14/cancelled-for-sadfishing-the-top-10-words-of-2019 |access-date=July 5, 2021 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709183048/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/oct/14/cancelled-for-sadfishing-the-top-10-words-of-2019 |url-status=live}} By 2022, usage of the term had spread beyond the United States, attracting criticism by right-wing political figures in Europe.

= 2019–present: as a pejorative <span class="anchor" id="As a pejorative"></span> =

By 2019, opponents of progressive social movements were using the term mockingly or sarcastically,{{r|Romano 2020|Butterworth 2021}} implying that "wokeness" was an insincere form of performative activism.{{r|Romano 2020|Smith & Kapur 2021}}

Woke has been used ironically by the right wing to ridicule perceived left-wing "social justice warriors" and "snowflakes", in connection with mockery of Millennials and Gen Z.{{Cite journal |last1=Sobande |first1=Francesca |last2=Kanai |first2=Akane |last3=Zeng |first3=Natasha |date=2022 |title=The hypervisibility and discourses of 'wokeness' in digital culture |journal=Media, Culture & Society |language=en |volume=44 |issue=8 |pages=1576–1587 |doi=10.1177/01634437221117490 |doi-access=free |issn=0163-4437}}

Some leftists, such as writer Daniel Bernabé and philosopher Susan Neiman, criticize wokeness as a form of tribalism which divides the working class and distracts from the universalist class struggle.{{cite news |last1=Fanjul |first1=Sergio C. |title=Why wokeness has pitched the left into crisis |url=https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-03-11/why-wokeness-has-pitched-the-left-into-crisis.html |work=EL PAÍS English |date=11 March 2024 |language=en-us}}

The term performative wokeness has been used to refer to social media activity perceived as a self-serving and superficial form of activism, i.e. "slacktivism".{{r|Sobande 2022}}

British journalist Steven Poole comments that the term woke is used to mock "overrighteous liberalism".{{cite news |last=Poole |first=Steven |title=From woke to gammon: buzzwords by the people who coined them |website=The Guardian |date=December 25, 2019 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/dec/25/woke-to-gammon-buzzwords-by-people-coined-them |access-date=July 5, 2021 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709191326/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/dec/25/woke-to-gammon-buzzwords-by-people-coined-them |url-status=live}}

This pejorative sense of woke means "following an intolerant and moralising ideology" according to The Economist.{{r|Economist 2021}}

== Americas ==

=== Canada ===

As in the United States, the term woke is used by those on the political right wing in Canada to discredit individuals and policies they consider to be overly progressive.{{cite news |first=Darren |last=Major |title=So who's 'woke,' what does it mean and how is it being used in Canadian politics? |work=CBC News |date=September 17, 2022 |access-date=May 2, 2024 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-distance-from-woke-label-1.6586136}} During a debate in 2023 on the Law Society of Alberta's 2020 adoption of a rule which made certain Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training courses on Indigenous Canadian history obligatory, a lawyer from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms wrote an op-ed arguing that the course was a form of "wokeness".{{cite news |first=Meghan |last=Grant |title=Mandatory Indigenous course at risk after group of lawyers aims to change Law Society rule |work=CBC News |date=January 30, 2023 |access-date=February 6, 2023 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/law-society-vote-the-path-couse-mandate-petition-1.6731399 |archive-date=February 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206184357/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/law-society-vote-the-path-couse-mandate-petition-1.6731399 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Alberta lawyers launch petition against mandatory course on Indigenous history |first=Omar |last=Mosleh |date=January 31, 2023 |work=Toronto Star |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/01/31/alberta-lawyers-launch-petition-against-mandatory-course-on-indigenous-history.html |access-date=February 5, 2023 |archive-date=February 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205205033/https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/01/31/alberta-lawyers-launch-petition-against-mandatory-course-on-indigenous-history.html |url-status=live}}

=== Latin America ===

Brazilian federal deputy Kim Kataguiri has accused the government under president Lula da Silva of promoting a "woke agenda" with a proposal to tax streaming services and social media networks while requiring a certain amount of content to come from Brazilian companies with 51% of capital and shareholders belonging to "identity groups".{{Cite news |last=Peñalba |first=Desirée |title=Lula quer taxar youtubers e forçar 'agenda woke' com novo tributo, diz Kim |trans-title=Lula wants to tax YouTubers and force 'woke agenda' with new tax, says Kim |url=https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/vozes/entrelinhas/lula-quer-taxar-youtubers-e-forcar-agenda-woke-com-novo-tributo-diz-kim |work=Gazeta do Povo |department=Entrelinhas |date=May 14, 2024 |access-date=August 20, 2024 |language=pt |url-access=subscription}}{{Better source needed|date=January 2025 |reason=Section labeled "Voices", author is political commentator}}

=== United States ===

Among American conservatives and centrists, woke has come to be used primarily as an insult.{{r|Romano 2020|Bacon 2021a}}{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Allan |last2=Kapur |first2=Sahil |title=Republicans are crusading against 'woke' |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-are-crusading-against-woke-n1264811 |work=NBC News |date=May 2, 2021 |access-date=September 7, 2021 |archive-date=September 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909011954/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-are-crusading-against-woke-n1264811 |url-status=live}}

Members of the Republican Party have been increasingly using the term to criticize members of the Democratic Party, while more centrist Democrats use it against more left-leaning members of their own party; such critics accuse those on their left of using cancel culture to damage the employment prospects of those who are not considered sufficiently woke.{{r|Bacon 2021a}}{{Cite web |last=Luk |first=Johnny |title=Why 'woke' became toxic |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/24/what-is-woke-culture-and-why-has-it-become-so-toxic |access-date=September 28, 2023 |website=www.aljazeera.com |language=en |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928020733/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/24/what-is-woke-culture-and-why-has-it-become-so-toxic |url-status=live}} Perry Bacon Jr. suggests that this "anti-woke posture" is connected to a long-standing promotion of backlash politics by the Republican Party, wherein it promotes white and conservative fear in response to activism by African Americans as well as changing cultural norms.{{cite web |last=Kilgore |first=Ed |title=Is 'Anti-Wokeness' the New Ideology of the Republican Party? |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/is-anti-wokeness-the-new-ideology-of-the-republican-party.html |url-access=limited |website=Intelligencer |publisher=Vox Media |date=March 19, 2021 |access-date=October 23, 2022 |archive-date=March 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327025754/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/is-anti-wokeness-the-new-ideology-of-the-republican-party.html |url-status=live}}

Such critics often believe that movements such as Black Lives Matter exaggerate the extent of social problems.{{Cite web |last=Butterworth |first=Benjamin |date=January 21, 2021 |url=https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/woke-what-mean-meaning-origins-term-definition-culture-387962 |title=What does 'woke' actually mean, and why are some people so angry about it? |website=inews.co.uk |access-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-date=March 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210328221144/https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/woke-what-mean-meaning-origins-term-definition-culture-387962 |url-status=live}}

Among the uses by Republicans is the Stop WOKE Act, a law that limits discussion of racism in Florida schools. A program of eliminating books by LGBT and black authors from schools was conducted by the Florida government and by vigilantes calling themselves "woke busters".{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/why-some-florida-schools-are-removing-books-from-their-libraries |title=Why some Florida schools are removing books from their libraries |first=Charles |last=Bethea |date=February 7, 2023 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320042300/https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/why-some-florida-schools-are-removing-books-from-their-libraries |url-status=live}} Florida governor and former presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has frequently used the term, referring to his state as a place "where woke goes to die."{{Cite web |title=DeSantis pledges to fight 'woke mind virus' |url=https://www.messengernews.net/news/local-news/2023/07/desantis-pledges-to-fight-woke-mind-virus/ |access-date=July 29, 2024 |website=The Messenger |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Montanero |first=Domenico |date=July 21, 2023 |title=Republicans can't stop using the word 'woke'. But what does it really mean? |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/07/21/1189016049/woke-desantis-trump-black-culture |access-date=July 29, 2024 |work=NPR}}

Former U.S. President Barack Obama has criticized aspects of woke culture, warning against public shaming and ideological rigidity. At the Obama Foundation Summit in October 2019, he argued that activism should go beyond calling people out on social media, emphasizing that meaningful change requires engagement and recognizing human flaws.{{Cite news | last = | first = | title = Barack Obama challenges 'woke' culture | work = BBC News | date = 2019-10-30 | url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50239261 | access-date = 2025-02-17 }}

Linguist and social critic John McWhorter argues that the history of woke is similar to that of politically correct, another term once used self-descriptively by the left which was appropriated by the right as an insult, in a process similar to the euphemism treadmill.{{cite news |last1=McWhorter |first1=John |title=Opinion {{!}} How 'Woke' Became an Insult |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/opinion/woke-politically-correct.html |work=The New York Times |date=August 17, 2021 |url-access=limited |access-date=September 7, 2021 |archive-date=September 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210907011738/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/opinion/woke-politically-correct.html |url-status=live}}

Romano compares woke to canceled as a term for {{" '}}political correctness' gone awry" among the American right wing.{{r|Romano 2020}}

Attacking the idea of wokeness, along with other ideas such as cancel culture and critical race theory,{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Bryan |agency=Associated Press |date=November 2, 2021 |title=Critical race theory is a flashpoint for conservatives, but what does it mean? |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/so-much-buzz-but-what-is-critical-race-theory |access-date=November 3, 2021 |website=PBS NewsHour |archive-date=November 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103184838/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/so-much-buzz-but-what-is-critical-race-theory |url-status=live}} became a large part of Republican Party electoral strategy.{{r|Smith & Kapur 2021}} Beginning in the first presidency of Donald Trump, commentators from the alt-right, religious right, moderate liberals, and libertarians have attacked "woke" ideas and the "{{va|woke mind virus}}", a phrase popularized by Elon Musk, as existential threats to American society.{{sfnp|Lazić|2025|p=113}} Trump stated in 2021 that the Biden administration was "destroying" the country "with woke", and Republican Missouri senator Josh Hawley used the term to promote his upcoming book by saying the "woke mob" was trying to suppress it.{{r|Smith & Kapur 2021}} According to USA Today, the term woke has been "co-opted by GOP activists".{{Cite news |last=Guynn |first=Jessica |title='Woke mind virus'? 'Corporate wokeness'? Why red America has declared war on corporate America |date=January 4, 2023 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/01/04/desantis-republicans-woke-big-business-war/10947073002/ |access-date=April 24, 2024 |work=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}

== Asia ==

In India, the term is used as a pejorative by Hindutva activists and Hindu nationalists to refer to the critics of the Hindu nationalist ideology who are deemed as anti-Hindu by the Hindu nationalist organizations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.{{cite news |first=Shishir |last=Arya |title=Cultural Marxists, 'Woke People' Spoiling India's Ethos: RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat |work=The Times of India |date=October 25, 2023 |access-date=October 25, 2023 |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/cultural-marxists-woke-people-spoiling-indias-ethos-rss-chief/articleshow/104681467.cms |archive-date=October 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025052631/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/cultural-marxists-woke-people-spoiling-indias-ethos-rss-chief/amp_articleshow/104681467.cms |url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Cultural Marxists, woke using media, spoiling country's education and culture: Mohan Bhagwat |work=Press Trust of India |date=October 25, 2023 |access-date=October 27, 2023 |url=https://www.ptinews.com/news/national/cultural-marxists-woke-using-media-spoiling-country%E2%80%99s-education-and-culture-mohan-bhagwat/676236.html |archive-date=October 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027070832/https://www.ptinews.com/news/national/cultural-marxists-woke-using-media-spoiling-country%E2%80%99s-education-and-culture-mohan-bhagwat/676236.html |url-status=live}}

The term is also synonymous with leftism in news headlines{{cite news |title=The woke vs right-winger battle |work=India Today |date=November 2, 2021 |access-date=October 27, 2023 |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/opinion-columns/story/woke-vs-right-winger-battle-sabyasachi-ad-mangalsutra-1872301-2021-11-02#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16983894541677&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiatoday.in%2Fopinion-columns%2Fstory%2Fwoke-vs-right-winger-battle-sabyasachi-ad-mangalsutra-1872301-2021-11-02 |archive-date=October 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027072143/https://www.indiatoday.in/opinion-columns/story/woke-vs-right-winger-battle-sabyasachi-ad-mangalsutra-1872301-2021-11-02#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16983894541677&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiatoday.in%2Fopinion-columns%2Fstory%2Fwoke-vs-right-winger-battle-sabyasachi-ad-mangalsutra-1872301-2021-11-02 |url-status=live}} and is commonly used in social media circles by critics of secularism in India.{{cite news |title=RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat mentions 'woke' in speech: What does the word mean? |work=The Indian Express |date=October 24, 2023 |access-date=October 27, 2023 |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-culture/rss-mohan-bhagwat-woke-speech-meaning-explained-8997724/#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16983894541677&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%2Fexplained%2Fexplained-culture%2Frss-mohan-bhagwat-woke-speech-meaning-explained-8997724%2F |archive-date=October 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027011028/https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-culture/rss-mohan-bhagwat-woke-speech-meaning-explained-8997724/#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16983894541677&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%2Fexplained%2Fexplained-culture%2Frss-mohan-bhagwat-woke-speech-meaning-explained-8997724%2F |url-status=live}}

== Europe ==

File:Meghalt a Woke!.jpg

In Hungary, politician Balázs Orbán stated that "we [Hungary] will not give up fighting against woke ideology".{{cite web |date=November 29, 2022 |title=Orbán Balázs: Nem adjuk fel a woke ideológia elleni harcot |url=https://magyarnemzet.hu/kulfold/2022/11/orban-balazs-nem-adjuk-fel-a-woke-ideologia-elleni-harcot |access-date=January 23, 2023 |archive-date=January 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123140241/https://magyarnemzet.hu/kulfold/2022/11/orban-balazs-nem-adjuk-fel-a-woke-ideologia-elleni-harcot |url-status=live}}

In Switzerland, politicians from and supporters of the right-wing Swiss People's Party criticized Swiss bank UBS for woke culture.{{cite web |title=UBS Targeted by Swiss Populist Party for 'Woke' Culture |work=SWI swissinfo.ch |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/bloomberg/ubs-targeted-by-swiss-populist-party-for--woke--culture/47790240 |access-date=January 23, 2023 |archive-date=January 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123140658/https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/bloomberg/ubs-targeted-by-swiss-populist-party-for--woke--culture/47790240 |url-status=live}}

=== France ===

The phenomenon {{lang|fr|le wokisme}} (sometimes translated 'wokeism'{{Cite news |last=Schofield |first=Hugh |date=December 13, 2021 |title=France resists US challenge to its values |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59584125 |access-date=October 21, 2022 |archive-date=October 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021132121/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59584125 |url-status=live}}) has also been used in French politics to criticize anti-racist movements and leftist scholarship, particularly since the 2022 French presidential election.{{cite journal |last=Amer Meziane |first=M. |date=2023 |title=The Sexular State: Race, Gender, and the Other "Woke Controversy." |journal=Contemporary French and Francophone Studies |volume=27 |number=2 |pages=252–260 |doi=10.1080/17409292.2023.2185420}}{{Cite magazine |last=Williams |first=Thomas Chatterton |date=February 4, 2023 |title=The French Are in a Panic Over 'le Wokisme' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/03/france-tocqueville-democracy-race-le-wokisme/672775/ |access-date=October 21, 2024 |magazine=The Atlantic |language=en |issn=2151-9463}}{{Cite news |last=John |first=Tara |date=January 7, 2022 |title=Analysis: The 'anti-woke' crusade has come to Europe. Its effects could be chilling |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/europe/war-on-woke-europe-cmd-intl/index.html |access-date=October 21, 2024 |work=CNN |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Mamane |first=Eliott |date=March 14, 2023 |title="Aux États-Unis, l'élection présidentielle pourrait être déterminée par le clivage entre "woke" et "anti-woke"" |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/monde/aux-etats-unis-l-election-presidentielle-pourrait-etre-determinee-par-le-clivage-entre-woke-et-anti-woke-20230314 |access-date=October 21, 2024 |website=Le Figaro |language=fr}} Much of the opposition to {{lang|fr|le wokisme}} sees it as an American import, incompatible with French values.{{r|Schofield 2021}} Mohamed Amer Meziane reported that then-education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, organized a conference at which he argued "woke" ideology "plots against the greatness of a white European civilization" and is therefore an "anti-Republican political religion". Blanquer established an "anti-woke think tank" in opposition to what is perceived as an export from the English-speaking world.{{r|Schofield 2021}}{{Cite web |last=Calcutt |first=Clea |date=May 30, 2022 |title=France's culture wars reignited after Macron appoints 'woke' minister |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/france-culture-war-emmanuel-macron-government-woke-minister-pap-ndiaye-education-reform/ |access-date=October 21, 2022 |website=Politico |archive-date=October 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021132121/https://www.politico.eu/article/france-culture-war-emmanuel-macron-government-woke-minister-pap-ndiaye-education-reform/ |url-status=live}} This view also includes a conspiracy theory connecting "wokism" with pre-existing right-wing conspiracy theories of "Islamo-leftism", suggesting that leftists are manipulated by Islamists to replace European white-Christian civilization with Islam. In this context, "woke" is used pejoratively to describe progressive, anti-colonial, and anti-racist positions that are seen as incompatible with traditional French values.

According to French sociologist and political scientist {{Ill|Alain Policar|fr|Alain Policar}}, woke originated from African American communities to describe awareness of social injustices and has been used pejoratively by French politicians from the former republican left, the right and the far right to label individuals engaged in anti-racist, feminist, LGBTQ, and environmental movements.{{Cite journal |last=Policar |first=Alain |date=April 12, 2022 |title=De woke au wokisme : anatomie d'un anathème |url=https://shs.cairn.info/revue-raison-presente-2022-1-page-115 |journal=Raison présente |language=fr |volume=221 |issue=1 |pages=115–118 |doi=10.3917/rpre.221.0115 |issn=0033-9075|url-access=subscription }} This derogatory usage gave rise to the noun {{lang|fr|wokisme}}, suggesting a homogeneous political movement propagating an alleged woke ideology.{{Cite journal |last=Sibony |first=Daniel |date=December 19, 2022 |title=Wokisme et psychologie collective |url=https://shs.cairn.info/revue-commentaire-2022-4-page-879 |journal=Commentaire |language=fr |volume=180 |issue=4 |pages=879–884 |doi=10.3917/comm.180.0879 |issn=0180-8214|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Dély |first=Renaud |date=June 8, 2022 |title=Vous avez dit Wokisme ? |url=https://shs.cairn.info/revue-humanisme-2022-2-page-4 |journal=Humanisme |language=fr |volume=335 |issue=2 |pages=4–9 |doi=10.3917/huma.335.0004 |issn=0018-7364|url-access=subscription }}

French philosopher Pierre-Henri Tavoillot characterizes wokeism as a corpus of theories revolving around "identity, gender and race", with the core principle of "revealing and condemning concealed forms of domination", positing that all aspects of society can be reduced to a "dynamic of oppressor and oppressed", with those oblivious to this notion deemed "complicit", while the "awakened (woke)" advocate for the "abolition (cancel) of anything perceived to sustain such oppression", resulting in practical implementations such as adopting inclusive language, reconfiguring education or deconstructing gender norms.{{Cite journal |last=Tavoillot |first=Pierre-Henri |date=August 1, 2022 |title=Le wokisme ou le progressisme devenu fou |url=https://shs.cairn.info/revue-administration-2022-1-page-63 |journal=Administration |language=fr |volume=273 |issue=1 |pages=63–66 |doi=10.3917/admi.273.0063 |issn=0223-5439|url-access=subscription }}

=== United Kingdom ===

In the United Kingdom, anti-wokeness discourse is driven primarily by Conservative Party politicians and right-wing media outlets.{{cite journal |last1=Cammaerts |first1=Bart |title=The abnormalisation of social justice: The 'anti-woke culture war' discourse in the UK |journal=Discourse & Society |date=2022 |volume=33 |issue=6 |pages=730–743 |doi=10.1177/09579265221095407 |issn=0957-9265 |doi-access=free}} Conservative papers such as The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail commonly publish articles critical of what they deem to be woke.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} The Mail on Sunday publishes an annual "Woke List" criticising public figures for perceived "virtue signalling".{{cite web |last1=Bromwich |first1=Kathryn |title=Opinion {{!}} Appearing on the Mail's sneering 'Woke List' is actually a badge of honour |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/05/the-mail-is-stuck-in-the-past-its-sneering-woke-list-is-actually-a-badge-of-honour |website=The Observer |access-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240213195153/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/05/the-mail-is-stuck-in-the-past-its-sneering-woke-list-is-actually-a-badge-of-honour |archive-date=February 13, 2024 |date=August 5, 2023 |url-status=live}}{{Better source needed|date=July 2024 |reason=WP:NEWSOPED reliable only for statements attributed to author}} The right-wing television channel GB News was proclaimed at its founding to be explicitly anti-woke.{{r|Cammaerts 2022}} Its onetime chairman Andrew Neil has presented a regular segment on the channel entitled "Wokewatch", which aims to be a counter-voice to "woke warriors".{{cite web |last1=Mayhew |first1=Freddy |title=Andrew Neil says GB News plans to take war on 'woke' establishment media global |url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/andrew-neil-woke-gb-news/ |website=Press Gazette |access-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224131045/https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/andrew-neil-woke-gb-news/ |archive-date=February 24, 2024 |date=June 11, 2021 |url-status=live}}

The term woke is often used as a pejorative by conservative figures.{{Cite news |author= |date=March 1, 2022 |title=How US 'wokeness' became a right-wing cudgel around the world |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220301-how-us-wokeness-became-a-right-wing-cudgel-around-the-world |access-date=October 21, 2022 |website=France 24 |archive-date=October 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021132309/https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220301-how-us-wokeness-became-a-right-wing-cudgel-around-the-world |url-status=live}} During the run-up to the 2024 general election, the governing Conservative Party attracted criticism for attempting to create a culture war based on the woke concept.{{cite news |last1=Adu |first1=Aletha |title=UK voters frustrated with politicians' 'desperate' culture war tactics, survey finds |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/21/uk-voters-frustrated-with-politicians-desperate-culture-war-tactics-survey-finds |access-date=August 13, 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=April 21, 2024}} While promoting her book The Abuse of Power in 2023, former Conservative prime minister Theresa May declared herself to be woke, in the sense of "somebody who recognizes that discrimination takes place".{{Cite news |last=Dawson |first=Bethany |date=September 15, 2023 |title=Theresa May: I'm woke |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/theresa-may-im-woke/ |access-date=July 28, 2024 |website=Politico |language=en-GB}}{{cite web |last1=Nicholson |first1=Kate |title=Theresa May Just Declared She's 'Woke And Proud'. History Might Suggest Otherwise |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/theresa-may-woke-proud-immigration-times-radio_uk_65041344e4b09404e9bfe658 |website=HuffPost UK |access-date=July 28, 2024 |date=September 15, 2023}}

In a survey by YouGov, 73% of Britons who used the term said they did so in a disapproving way, 11% in an approving way and 14% neither used it in an approving or disapproving way.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Matthew |title=Most Britons now know what 'woke' is |date=September 26, 2022 |publisher=YouGov |url=https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/09/26/most-britons-now-know-what-woke |access-date=October 21, 2022 |archive-date=October 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021170106/https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/09/26/most-britons-now-know-what-woke |url-status=live}} Columnist Zoe Williams writes in The Guardian that public discourse around cycling has become "the perfect microcosm of the wokeness split in all its forms", with anti-cycling voices portraying cyclists as a "lunatic fringe".{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Zoe |title=Opinion {{!}} Why is the right at war with cyclists? We're not 'wokerati' – we're just trying to get around |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/25/why-is-the-right-at-war-with-cyclists-were-not-wokerati-were-just-trying-to-get-around |website=The Guardian |access-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529095527/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/25/why-is-the-right-at-war-with-cyclists-were-not-wokerati-were-just-trying-to-get-around |archive-date=May 29, 2024 |date=March 25, 2024 |url-status=live}}

== Oceania ==

During the 2022 Australian federal election campaign, both Scott Morrison, then-prime minister and leader of the centre-right Liberal Party, and Anthony Albanese, the subsequently elected prime minister and leader of the centre-left Australian Labor Party, insisted they were not "woke".{{cite news |title=Morrison and Albanese Desperately Want You to Know They Are Not Woke |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/morrison-and-albanese-desperately-want-you-to-know-they-are-not-woke/ |last=Buckley |first=John |date=March 23, 2022 |access-date=January 7, 2023 |work=Vice.com |archive-date=January 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103060722/https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/y3v4zg/morrison-and-albanese-desperately-want-you-to-know-they-are-not-woke |url-status=live}}

Peter Dutton, former Opposition Leader and leader of the Coalition, has also used the term several times before.{{cite news |last1=Butler |first1=Josh |title=Labor defence minister ends Peter Dutton's 'war on wokeness' within department |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/23/labor-defence-minister-ends-peter-duttons-war-on-wokeness-within-department |access-date=January 7, 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=August 23, 2022 |archive-date=January 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103061055/https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/23/labor-defence-minister-ends-peter-duttons-war-on-wokeness-within-department |url-status=live}}{{cite news |last1=Greene |first1=Andrew |title=Peter Dutton's ban on 'woke' defence events overturned |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-23/woke-defence-morning-tea-ban-overturned/101362596 |access-date=January 7, 2023 |work=ABC News |date=August 23, 2022 |archive-date=January 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103061056/https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101362596 |url-status=live}}

Members of minor right-wing parties, especially Pauline Hanson's One Nation and the United Australia Party, also frequently use the term.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

In the 2025 Australian federal election campaign opposition leader Dutton stated that he wanted to rid the schooling and university system of "woke" policies.{{cite news |work=The Conversation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250401105411/https://theconversation.com/election-diary-dutton-flags-intervention-in-what-he-sees-as-woke-education-but-how-much-could-he-actually-do-253116 |url-status=live |archive-date=1 April 2025 |url=https://theconversation.com/election-diary-dutton-flags-intervention-in-what-he-sees-as-woke-education-but-how-much-could-he-actually-do-253116 |access-date=7 April 2025 |date=1 April 2025 |first=Michelle |last=Grattan |author-link=Michelle Grattan |title=Election Diary: Dutton flags intervention in what he sees as 'woke' education, but how much could he actually do?}}

In New Zealand, former deputy prime minister and leader of the New Zealand First Party, Winston Peters, referred to the government led by Jacinda Ardern and the New Zealand Labour Party as a "woke guilt industry".{{cite news |last1=Dimitrof |first1=Stefan |title=Winston Peters tells Aussie TV about New Zealand's 'woke guilt industry' |url=https://www.teaomaori.news/winston-peters-tells-aussie-tv-about-new-zealands-woke-guilt-industry |access-date=January 7, 2023 |work=Te Ao Māori News |date=September 29, 2022 |archive-date=January 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103061930/https://www.teaomaori.news/winston-peters-tells-aussie-tv-about-new-zealands-woke-guilt-industry |url-status=live}} Then{{endash}}opposition leader Judith Collins also referred to Ardern as "woke".{{cite news |last1=Sadler |first1=Rachel |title=Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern should 'stop being so woke' – Judith Collins |url=https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-should-stop-being-so-woke-judith-collins.amp.html |work=Newshub |date=June 15, 2020 |archive-date=January 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103062250/https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-should-stop-being-so-woke-judith-collins.amp.html |url-status=dead}}

Reception and legacy

Scholars Michael B. McCormack and Althea Legal-Miller argue that the phrase stay woke echoes Martin Luther King Jr.'s exhortation "to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change".{{cite book |last1=McCormack |first1=Michael B. |last2=Legal-Miller |first2=Althea |editor1-last=Crawford |editor1-first=Vicki L. |editor2-last=Baldwin |editor2-first=Lewis V. |editor2-link=Lewis V. Baldwin |title=Reclaiming the Great World House: The Global Vision of Martin Luther King Jr. |date=2019 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-5602-0 |page=260 |chapter=All Over the World Like a Fever: Martin Luther King Jr.'s World House and the Movement for Black Lives in the United States and United Kingdom |jstor=j.ctvfxv9j2.15 |jstor-access=}}{{Page needed|date=March 2023}}

Writer and activist Chloé Valdary has stated that the concept of being woke is a "double-edged sword" that can "alert people to systemic injustice" while also being "an aggressive, performative take on progressive politics that only makes things worse". Social-justice scholars Tehama Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith, in their 2019 book Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter, argue against what they term as "Woker-than-Thou-itis: Striving to be educated around issues of social justice is laudable and moral, but striving to be recognized by others as a woke individual is self-serving and misguided."{{Cite web |last=Worth |first=Sydney |date=February 19, 2020 |title=The Language of Antiracism |url=https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/world-we-want/2020/02/19/antiracism-language |website=Yes! Magazine |access-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228104237/https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/world-we-want/2020/02/19/antiracism-language/ |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last1=Bunyasi |first1=Tehama Lopez |title=Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter |last2=Smith |first2=Candis Watts |date=2019 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-1-4798-3648-2 |page=202}}{{Cite web |last=Spinelle |first=Jenna |date=June 19, 2020 |title=Take Note: Authors Of 'Stay Woke' On Structural Racism, Black Lives Matter & How To Be Anti-Racist |url=https://radio.wpsu.org/post/take-note-authors-stay-woke-structural-racism-black-lives-matter-how-be-anti-racist-1 |publisher=WPSU |publication-place=State College, Pa. |access-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-date=April 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421054119/https://radio.wpsu.org/post/take-note-authors-stay-woke-structural-racism-black-lives-matter-how-be-anti-racist-1 |url-status=live}} Essayist Maya Binyam, writing in The Awl, ironized about a seeming contest among players who "name racism when it appears" or who disparage "folk who are lagging behind".{{Explain|date=September 2021}}

Linguist Ben Zimmer writes that, with mainstream currency, the term's "original grounding in African-American political consciousness has been obscured".{{r|Zimmer 2017}} The Economist states that as the term came to be used more to describe white people active on social media, black activists "criticised the performatively woke for being more concerned with internet point-scoring than systemic change".{{r|Economist 2021}} Journalist Amanda Hess says social media accelerated the word's cultural appropriation,{{r|Hess 2016}} writing, "The conundrum is built in. When white people aspire to get points for consciousness, they walk right into the cross hairs between allyship and appropriation."{{r|Merriam-Webster|Hess 2016}} Hess describes woke as "the inverse of 'politically correct' ... It means wanting to be considered correct, and wanting everyone to know just how correct you are".{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/magazine/earning-the-woke-badge.html |url-access=limited |title=Earning the 'Woke' Badge |first=Amanda |last=Hess |date=April 19, 2016 |work=The New York Times Magazine |issn=0028-7822 |access-date=April 23, 2017 |archive-date=April 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407044527/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/magazine/earning-the-woke-badge.html |url-status=live}}

{{Anchor|awokening}}The impact of woke sentiment on society has been criticised from various perspectives. In 2018, the British political commentator Andrew Sullivan described the "Great Awokening", describing it as a "cult of social justice on the left, a religion whose followers show the same zeal as any born-again Evangelical [Christian]" and who "punish heresy by banishing sinners from society or coercing them to public demonstrations of shame". In 2021, the British filmmaker and DJ Don Letts suggested that "in a world so woke you can't make a joke", it was difficult for young artists to make protest music without being accused of cultural appropriation.{{cite news |last=Thomas |first=Tobi |date=March 16, 2021 |title='Woke' culture is threat to protest songs, says Don Letts |website=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/16/woke-culture-is-threat-to-protest-songs-says-don-letts |access-date=July 5, 2021 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709191054/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/16/woke-culture-is-threat-to-protest-songs-says-don-letts |url-status=live}}

''Woke-washing'' and ''woke capitalism''

{{Further|Corporate sociopolitical activism#Woke-washing|Go woke, go broke}}

By the mid-2010s, language associated with wokeness had entered the mainstream media and was being used for marketing.{{cite journal |first=Francesca |last=Sobande |title=Woke-washing: 'Intersectional' femvertising and branding 'woke' bravery |year=2019 |journal=European Journal of Marketing |volume=54 |issue=11 |pages=2723–2745 |issn=0309-0566 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337913558 |format=PDF |via=ResearchGate |doi=10.1108/EJM-02-2019-0134 |s2cid=213469381 |quote=The adverts span from 2015–2018, which reflects the point at which the language of 'woke(ness)' entered mainstream media and marketing spheres}} Abas Mirzaei, a senior lecturer in branding at Macquarie University, says that the term "has been cynically applied to everything from soft drink to razors". In 2018, African-American journalist Sam Sanders argued that the authentic meaning of woke was being lost to overuse by white liberals and co-option by businesses trying to appear progressive (woke-washing), which would ultimately create a backlash.{{r|Shariatmadari 2019}}

The term woke capitalism was coined by writer Ross Douthat for brands that used politically progressive messaging as a substitute for genuine reform.{{cite web |last=Lewis |first=Helen |title=How Capitalism Drives Cancel Culture |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/07/cancel-culture-and-problem-woke-capitalism/614086/ |website=The Atlantic |date=July 14, 2020 |url-access=limited |access-date=July 14, 2020 |archive-date=July 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714173131/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/07/cancel-culture-and-problem-woke-capitalism/614086/ |url-status=live}} According to The Economist, examples of "woke capitalism" include advertising campaigns designed to appeal to millennials, who often hold more socially liberal views than earlier generations.{{cite news |author= |title=Woke, not broke |department=Bartleby |url=https://www.economist.com/business/2019/01/26/companies-can-appeal-to-workers-and-consumers-with-liberal-messages |url-access=limited |newspaper=The Economist |issue=9127 |volume=430 |date=January 26, 2019 |issn=0013-0613 |page=65 |access-date=March 24, 2021 |archive-date=May 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514170137/https://www.economist.com/business/2019/01/26/companies-can-appeal-to-workers-and-consumers-with-liberal-messages |url-status=live}} These campaigns were often perceived by customers as insincere and inauthentic and provoked a backlash summarized by the phrase "get woke, go broke".

Cultural scientists Akane Kanai and Rosalind Gill describe "woke capitalism" as the "dramatically intensifying" trend to include historically marginalized groups (currently primarily in terms of race, gender, and religion) as mascots in advertisement with a message of empowerment to signal progressive values. On the one hand, Kanai and Gill argue that this creates an individualized and depoliticized idea of social justice, reducing it to an increase in self-confidence; on the other hand, the omnipresent visibility in advertising can also amplify a backlash against the equality of precisely these minorities. These would become mascots not only of the companies using them, but of the unchallenged neoliberal economic system with its socially unjust order itself. For the economically weak, the equality of these minorities would thus become indispensable to the maintenance of this economic system; the minorities would be seen responsible for the losses of this system.{{Cite journal |last1=Kanai |first1=A. |last2=Gill |first2=R. |date=2020 |title=Woke? Affect, neoliberalism, marginalised identities and consumer culture |url=https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/25176/ |journal=New Formations: A Journal of Culture, Theory & Politics |volume=102 |issue=102 |pages=10–27 |doi=10.3898/NewF:102.01.2020 |s2cid=234623282 |issn=0950-2378 |access-date=April 21, 2021 |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227212723/https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/25176/ |url-status=live}}