1 definition by MCStayinyourroom
Short for “Awoken” starting in the late 1980’s. Gaining popular use after the Spike Lee movie School Daze, where the final scene has an actor yelling “Wake Up” about the problems in their faces. The wake up/ woke term referred to those college age, African American demographic that Lee addressed in many of his movies. To be woke was “not to be asleep” to the problems of race relations.
The word has since been stolen from hip hop culture and usage, and used as a derogatory term by right wing politicians.
The word has since been stolen from hip hop culture and usage, and used as a derogatory term by right wing politicians.
by MCStayinyourroom May 2, 2021