A term that originated in black communities; a AAVE (African
American Vernacular Enlgish) slang for being aware of the social injustices around oneself.
During and after the Black Lives Matter movement, the term has been thrown around and its original meaning
lost, as the negative perception of the BLM movement + new media and content that makes an effort to be inclusive, affects the general interpretation of the word.
Now, its often seen being used to describe a person/entity of trying too
hard to show
diversity and be inclusive, for the pure sake of crowd pleasing.
The people who use this word with a negative connotation tend to be right-wing/
conservative in their political beliefs; the majority being White. The people who use "woke" with its original meaning intended, tend to be left-wing/liberal in their political beliefs; which most groups tend to be ethnically and religiously diverse.
Notes: Younger generations seem to use it in a positive sense, older generations tend to apply negative connotations. "Younger" generations are now stepping up and into positions of
power and authority: becoming politicians, educators, and creating new movies and media. both generations are seeing normalized sexualization,
racism, misogyny, etc being filtered out, and feel different ways about them.
original intended meaning:
"Make sure you know your rights when dealing with law enforcement. Stay woke!"
"Stay woke out there- its against federal law to prevent employees from sharing wage information. They'll take advantage of you if they can."
conservative-evolved meaning:
"The Little Mermaid is WHITE, Disney needs to
stop being woke!"
"Woke
liberals are trying to indoctrinate children into thinking they are gay."
