woke

Woke is a term that originated in African American Vernacular English to describe an awareness of social and racial injustices and a commitment to addressing them. The phrase, often framed as "stay woke," appeared in Black communities in the early to mid-20th century and gained renewed prominence in the 2010s with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the spread of social media. Over time, the scope of woke broadened to include other forms of oppression, such as sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and systemic inequality in institutions, media representation, and policy.

Today, woke is used as both a descriptor and a political stance. For supporters, being woke implies vigilance toward power imbalances, intersectionality, accountability for institutions, and policies that advance equity. In public discourse, it appears in discussions about education, policing, corporate responsibility, media representation, and social reforms. In many media and academic contexts, woke frameworks guide analysis of how social hierarchies are constructed and reproduced.

Critics argue that the term has become a pejorative shorthand for performative virtue signaling, moral absolutism, or censorship, and they frequently associate it with cancel culture or intolerance toward dissent. The phrase has also been weaponized in political debates as "woke" or "anti-woke" to frame progressive aims as extreme. Corporate and political actors sometimes use "woke" branding to signal virtue without substantive change, a phenomenon known as woke capitalism.

Because it is a fluid and contested concept, the meaning of woke continues to evolve with cultural and political shifts. While some communities use it to describe a lasting commitment to justice, others treat it as a cultural meme that influences how people discuss identity, power, and policy in contemporary society.