Language is flexible, and definitions can easily turn on a moment or a movement. Change can grip even the most literal of terms: adjectives can go from functional one day to charged the next. Which is what has happened to woke a word that once invoked the state after sleep but this week officially entered the Oxford English Dictionary in its socially conscious, online-friendly 2017 form.
To recap: to be woke is to be sensitive to social issues and how they shape the world we live in, but moreover it suggests that you will call them out, noisily, online and offline. It implies a distrust of elites, imparts exasperation with the status quo, and connotes action and change. The wakeful cohorts tend to be young, and obviously Left-leaning. Incidentally, the term has shades of entitlement: ultimately, you can only wake up to the existence of deeply etched social issues if they havent really affected you much until now.
Furthermore, the term is complicated by the allegation that it has been appropriated from the Black Lives Matter movement. Stay woke became a watch word in parts of the black community for those who were self-aware, questioning the dominant paradigm and striving for something better, explains the Merriam-Webster dictionarys blog. Following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the word woke became entwined with the Black Lives Matter movement [and] became a word of action.
Perhaps sensitive of this, the OED justified the words addition to this years book with characteristic straightness. By the mid-20th century, it notes, woke had been extended figuratively to refer to being aware or well-informed in a political or cultural sense. Though Urban Dictionarys version is less generous, calling it a state of perceived intellectual superiority one gains by reading The Huffington Post.
Inclusion in the OED signifies a words transition from counterculture to mainstream. And wokes shift has undeniably been in process for a while. But perhaps the definitive moment of its evolution into a buzzword for (gently) entitled modern activism was Brexit.
Just over a year ago to the day, the country woke up literally to the news that we had voted to leave the European Union, and 48 per cent of us also woke up figuratively to the idea that the country was mired in a battle of ideals. The top line, Leave versus Remain, disguised a rather more opaque clash of ideologies which are still being thrashed out, and tripped off a summer of protest and prevarication, led mainly by the woke.
Inevitably, the dismal summer became a dismal autumn, which became a desperate winter, when the world woke up literally to the news that Trump had been anointed President and liberals woke up figuratively to the reality that they definitely hadnt called this, and they definitely didnt know who or what to call on now.
2016 crescendoed into a loud backlash against Trump: the liberal echo chambers roared while the fake news sites catered to the illiberal versions of the same cacophony. Memes lampooned the President and rumours impugned his campaign; zeitgeist television shows such as Saturday Night Live the distillation of woke entertainment satirised his verbal ticks and physical curiosities.
As the year turned, we remained wakeful: in January, women marched in pussy hats, so-called after Trumps infamous instruction to grab women indelicately. Woke boys or, woke baes marched with them, determined to show wakefulness does not discriminate on gender grounds.
It was a frantic few months, although not everything that is political is, by definition, woke. And so when the general election was called, it seemed like it could mark a settled, sleepy period. Certainly, the early stages of the campaign had a somnambulant feel: no one seemed very invigorated by the prospect of going to the polls at all, and many hypothesised that turnout would be abysmal. Politicians seemed only to be going through the motions: the Tories kicked off on a vow to be strong and stable, Corbyn didnt seem to have kicked off at all.
And then, suddenly, the electorate animated. Pundits did not predict it, though if theyd been more sensitive, they might have realised the restfulness of the preceding months was unlikely to fall suddenly dormant. Defying expectations from both camps, Jeremy Corbyn animated a youth base that is typically too apathetic to turn up on election day. It is estimated that turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds was as high as 64 per cent for this election, making it the highest turnout since 67 per cent voted in 1992, and ended two decades of disproportionately low turnout in that cohort. They had woken up and roared, and in the mean time got in the way of a neat Tory majority. This in turn drove May towards the DUP, and ignited change.org after a Facebook page about how to agitate.
So it is perhaps poetic that, on Saturday, Jeremy Corbyn (at 68, a notable exception to the rule that the woke tend to be young) addressed the unwashed and underslept crowds on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, which is where many bereft Remoaners found out last year that we would be leaving the EU. He quoted Shelley, while the crowd retorted with choruses of Oh, Jeremy Corbyn to the tune of the White Stripes Seven Nation Army.
In a year, the woke have acquired an official conference, a protest song and a namecheck in the Oxford English Dictionary. No ones sleeping for the foreseeable future.
@phoebeluckhurst
Continued here:
Oxford English Dictionary extends its definition of the word 'woke' - Evening Standard
- The Zeitgeist Film Series Gateway | Zeitgeist: The Movie ... - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- The Zeitgeist Movement Global - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- TZM - Mission Statement - The Zeitgeist Movement - December 10th, 2016 [December 10th, 2016]
- Zeitgeist: Addendum, Debunked - Skeptic Project - December 23rd, 2016 [December 23rd, 2016]
- ZMCA Homepage - January 9th, 2017 [January 9th, 2017]
- Top Five Zeitgeist: The Movie Myths! | Peter Joseph - January 9th, 2017 [January 9th, 2017]
- What is the Zeitgeist Movement - January 9th, 2017 [January 9th, 2017]
- Here Is Everything You Ever Need to Know About Magical Tutting - Inverse - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Tambor Felt Great 'Responsibility' to Transgender Community in ... - ABC News - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Piaget Altiplano turns 60, and it's still the choice of today's jetset sophisticate - City A.M. - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- 'Der Spiegel' magazine sparks furor as cover depicts Trump beheading Lady Liberty - Deutsche Welle - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Super Bowl Ads Capture Zeitgeist and Commodify Diversity - The Wesleyan Argus - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- 'Recruit Rosie': When Satire Joins the Resistance - The Atlantic - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- A movie of the artist as a young man: Paolozzi silent film stars in film festival - Herald Scotland - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- If Los Angeles Becomes a Bona Fide Fashion Show Destination, What's Next? - WWD - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Why I chose Jefferson Avenue over Madison Avenue - The Drum - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- We spoke to the new generation of British playwrights who will dominate 2017 - The Independent - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Salman Rushdie's New Novel is About Political Correctness and the Culture Wars - Heat Street - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The rise and rise of clean beauty - Evening Standard - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Badass Baroque - Daily News & Analysis - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Five things to know from Netflix's 2017 launch - Newstalk 106-108 fm - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- What to Watch at the Grammys - Wall Street Journal - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Young Artists Lead Through Emotional Expression, Powerful Voices and a Conviction for Social Justice - Youth Today - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- When the Secular is the Sacred - Patheos (blog) - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Ava DuVernay's Oscar-nominated '13th' documentary aims to unlock the truth - LA Daily News - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Bernie O'Rourke: An Irishman's Passion for Business - Caldwell University News - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- 9 Ways the Grammys have Totally Blown It - Newsweek - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Q&A: Chef Michel Gurard, a Pioneer of Low-Calorie Cuisine - TIME - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Ava DuVernay's Oscar-nominated '13th' documentary aims to unlock the truth - The Pasadena Star-News - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- The busy busy family's garden - Leinster Express - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- South-West Review bulletin board February 12, 2017 - Lillie News - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Movement as bleak theater, with some terrific Pharrell music too - Los Angeles Times - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Bishops' fumble with same-sex marriage means the Church of England is about to lose a generation - The Conversation UK - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- The Grammys Honored the Wrong Album, and Adele Knew It - Advocate.com - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- These '80s Artists Are More Important Than Ever - New York Times - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Whitehall's war on unaccompanied minors - LocalGov - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Britpop songs 10 of the best - The Guardian (blog) - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Our president is a TV addict. It's going to get the best of him, but he'll never get the best of it. - Washington Post - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- How wellness trends may shape health industry in 2017 - Fox News - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- President Donald Trump is a TV addict - MyDaytonDailyNews - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Belly-Button Rings: Where Are They Now? - Racked - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- In the age of surveillance, what do any of us have left to hide? - Irish Times - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Slam a poem - The News on Sunday - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- With 'The Breaks,' VH1 revisits the '90s hip-hop scene when success wasn't a sure bet - Los Angeles Times - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Why Fashion Has Every Right To Be Political Right Now - W Magazine - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Bangkok city guide: what to do plus the best hotels, restaurants and bars - The Guardian - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Cobbling together: the Brooklynites who gather to make handcrafted shoes - The Guardian - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- The Harlem Renaissance, Alexander Wang and the VLONE Pop Up Shop - Huffington Post - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Museo Amparo - E-Flux - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- These are 'The Breaks': Inside VH1's 'grounded' new hip-hop series ... - Screener - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Why winning the French presidential election could be a poisoned chalice - The Conversation UK - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Campaigners to keep Britain in the EU could learn from Team Brexit - WalesOnline - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- How Sanjay Lalbhai & Pankaj Chandra are trying to build a unique university in Ahmedabad - Economic Times - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Maybe the Earth Is Flat - The Root - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Resistance Against Donald Trump Is Not a New Tea Party | Time.com - TIME - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Forget PoliticiansThe People Of The West Have Decided Against Muslim Immigration - VDARE.com - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Interruptions with fluid movements - The Navhind Times - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Summer of Love 50th Anniversary Posters Wake up Market Street - 7x7 - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Sean Spicer blames chaotic town halls on 'professional protesters.' So did Obama's team. - Washington Post - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Looking forward to a rad week for nonfiction film - The Boston Globe - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- 30 years after his death, James Baldwin is having a new pop culture moment - Los Angeles Times - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Turning Over Stones (What The Election Set Free) - Huffington Post - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Occupancies Explores the World of Our Bodies - BU Today - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- The age of the people - The News on Sunday - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Cruising Down SoCal's Boulevards: Streets as Spaces for Celebration and Cultural Resistance - KCET - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- The Old Divisions, They Do Divide Us - The Good Men Project (blog) - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- When Oscars speeches get political: the best, worst and most annoying in Academy Award history - The Mercury News - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- NAACP Fundraiser Honors Black Leaders, Activists - FOX 21 Online - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- The Simpsons Gospel: A Newer Testament for Troubled Times? - Huffington Post - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Johnson & Johnson pursues empathy in an age of 'anxiety and mistrust' - CampaignLive - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Outcry Kills Anti-Protest Law in Arizona, but Troubling Trend Continues Nationwide - Truth-Out - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Kendrick Lamar Gives A Glimpse Into His Mindset As He Approaches His New Album (Video) - Ambrosia For Heads - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Max Eastman: Curmodgeon - The Liberty Conservative - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- CHAZAN | The Revolution Will Not Have Shoulderpads: Image Comics 25 Years Later - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Big crowd still feeling the Bern at Jewish socialism confab - Jweekly.com - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- David Duchovny Hits the Road to Seek the Musical Truth That's Out There - PopMatters - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Donald and the Dominatrix: How the White House Inspired a BDSM Movement - Salon - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- It's Not McCarthyism, Stupid - New Matilda - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Inclusive, 'cool' Toronto shown in new tourism ad - Toronto Star - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Visa shows you how #KindnessIsCashless via their latest ad campaign - ETBrandEquity.com - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]