First traceable use of "woke"in its modern sense?
February 24, 2023 2:47 AM Subscribe
Woke: The Journey of a Word is a new series of short programmes from BBC Radio 4. The first episode traces the term back to a 1938 Leadbelly recording of The Scottsboro Boys. It then moves on to consider the word's earliest usage in print and to the right's use of it as all-purpose insult. There's some interesting stuff there, I think.
... and to the right's use of it as all-purpose insult.
It seems to be trade the top spot back and forth with “communist” as Here Is A Word I Can Fling At Progressives Without Being Able To Define It lol.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:45 AM on February 24, 2023 [13 favorites]
It seems to be trade the top spot back and forth with “communist” as Here Is A Word I Can Fling At Progressives Without Being Able To Define It lol.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:45 AM on February 24, 2023 [13 favorites]
To be fair, that's most of the words used by the Right's opinion leaders.
posted by flabdablet at 3:48 AM on February 24, 2023 [12 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 3:48 AM on February 24, 2023 [12 favorites]
it's depressing how easily the right co-opts language and turns it against itself.
posted by kokaku at 4:24 AM on February 24, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 4:24 AM on February 24, 2023 [6 favorites]
Right? And once they do, it's tainted.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 4:35 AM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 4:35 AM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
Right wing think tanks are exceedingly good at branding. It's part of why it's so difficult to even have a basic conversation with my dad. Words and phrases are flipped and repeated so they have rallying cries, which they just regurgitate when their views are challenged.
posted by Fleebnork at 4:37 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Fleebnork at 4:37 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
it's depressing how easily the right co-opts language and turns it against itself.
It's a feature of bullies in general, I think. Think of any word used to positively describe a disadvantaged group, and you'll see it very quickly being turned against that group by bullies.
posted by clawsoon at 4:39 AM on February 24, 2023 [9 favorites]
It's a feature of bullies in general, I think. Think of any word used to positively describe a disadvantaged group, and you'll see it very quickly being turned against that group by bullies.
posted by clawsoon at 4:39 AM on February 24, 2023 [9 favorites]
insult/compliment, depending on your point of view of course. Everything I've ever seen described as woke has been something I've either supported or aspired to.
posted by plonkee at 5:01 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by plonkee at 5:01 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
I wear it as a badge of honor now.
If they hurl “insults” at you, embrace it. They have no clue what they’re talking about anyway.
posted by khrusanthemon at 5:38 AM on February 24, 2023
If they hurl “insults” at you, embrace it. They have no clue what they’re talking about anyway.
posted by khrusanthemon at 5:38 AM on February 24, 2023
Words and phrases are flipped and repeated so they have rallying cries, which they just regurgitate when their views are challenged
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_cliché
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:40 AM on February 24, 2023 [7 favorites]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_cliché
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:40 AM on February 24, 2023 [7 favorites]
If they hurl “insults” at you, embrace it
Exactly this. I bought some large black T shirts from Spreadshirt with
inner
city
latte
sipper
on the back in white hugety-point Arial and very much enjoy wearing those while out and about, especially given that I live hundreds of kilometres from the inner city.
They work, those shirts. I was wearing one the other day while walking past a crusty old motor home type camping illegally at my local river swimming hole. On my way back out he bent my ear on how these hopeless bloody greenies have ruined everything, from causing riverbank erosion to spreading weeds to not burning the bush properly, before really hitting his straps and holding forth on everything wrong with "the blacks".
Having that slogan on the back of the shirt is like chumming for racists. If they're about, they're going to show themselves.
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 AM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
Exactly this. I bought some large black T shirts from Spreadshirt with
city
latte
sipper
on the back in white hugety-point Arial and very much enjoy wearing those while out and about, especially given that I live hundreds of kilometres from the inner city.
They work, those shirts. I was wearing one the other day while walking past a crusty old motor home type camping illegally at my local river swimming hole. On my way back out he bent my ear on how these hopeless bloody greenies have ruined everything, from causing riverbank erosion to spreading weeds to not burning the bush properly, before really hitting his straps and holding forth on everything wrong with "the blacks".
Having that slogan on the back of the shirt is like chumming for racists. If they're about, they're going to show themselves.
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 AM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
Right? And once they do, it's tainted.
Yeah. In Canada, the freedom convoy dipshits have made the red maple leaf their proxy confederate/thin blue line/white power flag. It really effectively advances their mission of shitting on absolutely everything.
posted by brachiopod at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
Yeah. In Canada, the freedom convoy dipshits have made the red maple leaf their proxy confederate/thin blue line/white power flag. It really effectively advances their mission of shitting on absolutely everything.
posted by brachiopod at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
“Folks wanna say ‘woke’ with a hard -er so bad”Cf. Jamelle Bouie, 05 January 2021, which I discovered searching for the Bree Newsome Bass tweet I remembered reading.“Visitor to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate calls out new ‘woke’ tours: ‘Depressing and demoralizing’” — Fox News (@FoxNews) July 11, 2022— Bree Newsome Bass (@BreeNewsome) July 11, 2022
P.S. It's a testament to how fraught things have been lately that I thought this tweet was from years ago, but it's not even been a whole year.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:34 AM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
I know it's getting old, but I can't help but point out yet again that the folks sneering about "woke" these days are exactly the same people who crowed "Wake up, Sheeple!!!" for the decade or so prior to this hip new trend.
The absurdity and lack of consistency is an expression of power, among fascists. It's just spectacle-forward outrage politics to drive overall cruelty up.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 8:39 AM on February 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
The absurdity and lack of consistency is an expression of power, among fascists. It's just spectacle-forward outrage politics to drive overall cruelty up.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 8:39 AM on February 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
It's also notable that woke was a complimentary Black / AAVE word (meaning, "admirably alert to, and skeptical of, the white supremacist capitalist kyriarchy machine"), and now it's a racist dogwhistle white word that actually means "ew, Black-lover". Pretty much all uses of the word "woke" are now actually racist.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 9:16 AM on February 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by nouvelle-personne at 9:16 AM on February 24, 2023 [8 favorites]
it's depressing how easily the right co-opts language and turns it against itself.
Yep. And because of the whole thing about how they don't actually care about words or their meaning (see the old Sartre quote for context), they will gleefully pretend that, actually, "woke" is a leftist thing so what are you talking about they're definitely not using it as a catch-all, racist insult.
I literally came across something on Instagram reels the other day that I initially thought was some sort of lefty satire thing until they did a stitch/react to a video where someone talked about how "woke" went from being a positive term with specific meaning in AAVE to a thing that is mostly used as a slur by the right. The response from the faux incredulous person running the account was, "What is he even talking about? I thought being woke was a leftist thing?" And that was when I realized it was not satire and was just a well-polish, alt-right turd that had fooled me for a couple of minutes longer than I felt comfortable with.
posted by asnider at 9:42 AM on February 24, 2023
Yep. And because of the whole thing about how they don't actually care about words or their meaning (see the old Sartre quote for context), they will gleefully pretend that, actually, "woke" is a leftist thing so what are you talking about they're definitely not using it as a catch-all, racist insult.
I literally came across something on Instagram reels the other day that I initially thought was some sort of lefty satire thing until they did a stitch/react to a video where someone talked about how "woke" went from being a positive term with specific meaning in AAVE to a thing that is mostly used as a slur by the right. The response from the faux incredulous person running the account was, "What is he even talking about? I thought being woke was a leftist thing?" And that was when I realized it was not satire and was just a well-polish, alt-right turd that had fooled me for a couple of minutes longer than I felt comfortable with.
posted by asnider at 9:42 AM on February 24, 2023
it's depressing how easily the right co-opts language and turns it against itself.
Christopher Rufo is auditioning for the Steven Miller role in a future DeSantis administration:
“The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory,’" quoted in a New York magazine article.
Rufo is currently in Florida, assisting DeSantis with destroying the parts of the state's public higher education education system that conservatives find objectionable.
Rufo is 38 years old, and has benefited from the traditional radical conservative pipeline: Construct a spurious narrative about an issue, warp discussions about language into a simple buzzword, attract the attention of the propaganda apparatus, influence the President and shroud it with the thin veneer of well-funded conservative publications and think tanks.
“It’s time to clean house in America: remove the attorney general, lay siege to the universities, abolish the teachers’ unions, and overturn the school boards," boasted Rufo on Twitter.
posted by JDC8 at 9:58 AM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
Christopher Rufo is auditioning for the Steven Miller role in a future DeSantis administration:
“The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory,’" quoted in a New York magazine article.
Rufo is currently in Florida, assisting DeSantis with destroying the parts of the state's public higher education education system that conservatives find objectionable.
Rufo is 38 years old, and has benefited from the traditional radical conservative pipeline: Construct a spurious narrative about an issue, warp discussions about language into a simple buzzword, attract the attention of the propaganda apparatus, influence the President and shroud it with the thin veneer of well-funded conservative publications and think tanks.
“It’s time to clean house in America: remove the attorney general, lay siege to the universities, abolish the teachers’ unions, and overturn the school boards," boasted Rufo on Twitter.
posted by JDC8 at 9:58 AM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
worth repeating:
“World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” – Marshall McLuhan (1968)
So yeah, we're in it. words are weapons. And weapons get repurposed.
posted by philip-random at 11:39 AM on February 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
“World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” – Marshall McLuhan (1968)
So yeah, we're in it. words are weapons. And weapons get repurposed.
posted by philip-random at 11:39 AM on February 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
Woke is insulting the other side with a large pool of undecided voters at stake, who are implied to also be asleep. Any leader it offended would use it to fire up their team. Politics is a game to lose, meaning it can be won with 30% of the vote, or by making people afraid, confused or bored. Woke is also subjective, which makes it easy to abuse, or just meaningless to most.
posted by Brian B. at 12:51 PM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Brian B. at 12:51 PM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm rather partial to, whenever we hear the right use the word "woke", substitute the more meaningful (in context) "ewok"
posted by mbo at 7:23 PM on February 24, 2023
posted by mbo at 7:23 PM on February 24, 2023
Matthew Santos : I know you like to use that word "liberal" as if it were a crime.
Senator Arnold Vinick : No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have used that word. I know, I know, Democrats think liberal is a bad word. So bad, you had to change it. What do you call yourselves now? Progressives? Is that it?
Matthew Santos : It's true. Republicans have tried to turn liberal into a bad word. Well, Liberals ended slavery in this country.
Senator Arnold Vinick : A Republican president ended slavery.
Matthew Santos : Yes, a liberal Republican. What happened to them? They got run out of your party. What did Liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican Party, Senator? I'll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended Segregation, liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, liberals created Medicare, liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did the conservatives do? They opposed every one of those programs. Every one. So when you try to hurl that word 'liberal' at my feet as if it were something dirty, something to run away from, something that I should be ashamed of, it won't work, Senator. Because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:54 AM on February 25, 2023 [9 favorites]
Senator Arnold Vinick : No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have used that word. I know, I know, Democrats think liberal is a bad word. So bad, you had to change it. What do you call yourselves now? Progressives? Is that it?
Matthew Santos : It's true. Republicans have tried to turn liberal into a bad word. Well, Liberals ended slavery in this country.
Senator Arnold Vinick : A Republican president ended slavery.
Matthew Santos : Yes, a liberal Republican. What happened to them? They got run out of your party. What did Liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican Party, Senator? I'll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended Segregation, liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, liberals created Medicare, liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did the conservatives do? They opposed every one of those programs. Every one. So when you try to hurl that word 'liberal' at my feet as if it were something dirty, something to run away from, something that I should be ashamed of, it won't work, Senator. Because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:54 AM on February 25, 2023 [9 favorites]
Thank you, kirkaracha, for that fantastic quote. Saved in case I can send that to someone someday in the small hope that they might see at least one ray of light.
posted by blue shadows at 12:04 PM on February 26, 2023
posted by blue shadows at 12:04 PM on February 26, 2023
alternately, I live in British Columbia where for better part of two decades (up until 2018) the ruling party were called Liberal but were generally a clusterf*** of smug neoliberal real estate developers and the kind of organized criminals who hang out with them (he said, consciously hyperbolizing). We're now five years into a "socialist" party running things but the stink of what those "Liberals" perpetrated is still hanging over things.
So yeah, what's a word even mean once political animals get their claws on it? I suppose at some point, you've got to fight for it.
posted by philip-random at 12:18 PM on February 26, 2023
So yeah, what's a word even mean once political animals get their claws on it? I suppose at some point, you've got to fight for it.
posted by philip-random at 12:18 PM on February 26, 2023
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