Member-only story
LANGUAGE
Why So Many People Are Blaming "Woke" For the Last Election Results
They're making the term rooted in black culture a scapegoat
As the dust settled from the last presidential election cycle, many have attempted to explain America's political shift to the right. While some adopted race-neutral explanations, such as the presumption that voters were motivated solely by economic anxiety, others embraced a more provocative explanation. For example, political consultant James Carville publically blamed the party's losses on "woke era" politics. From his perspective, the Democratic party should begin to distance itself from racially progressive policies. Yet, this critique is problematic when considering the term's etymology.
When the Black American folksinger and songwriter Huddie Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly, first used the phrase "stay woke" in spoken word, introducing his 1938 protest song, "Scottsboro Boys," he chose to shine a spotlight on the injustices Black people routinely endured throughout the Jim Crow era. The song tells the story of nine teenagers, Haywood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Willie Roberson, Andy Wright, Ozzie Powell, Eugene Williams, Charley Weems, and Roy Wright, who "collectively served more than 100 years in prison" after being falsely accused of raping two White women. Sadly, falsely accusing Black teenagers and men of crimes to justify their incarceration or lynching was commonplace.
Journalist Ida B. Wells wrote, "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." Under these social conditions, where Black people were routinely harmed and killed without recourse, it makes all the sense in the world to "stay woke." It's no wonder Belly honored the story of the Scottsboro boys case by issuing a warning, "I'm gonna tell all the colored people," "Don't ya ever go to Alabama/ And try to live." The mantra, "stay woke, and keep your eyes open," which he recited, encouraged the black community to develop and maintain awareness of racial injustice. Lead Belly once shared, "I made this little song about down there." "So I advise everybody, be a little careful — best stay woke, keep their eyes open."
Since the term "woke" generally refers to an elevated state of awareness regarding…
