IN SEPTEMBER 2017, an updated definition of the word ‘woke’ was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and its inclusion was indicative of the regularity with which both the word, and the term to ‘stay woke’, were used in popular culture.
📈And now 'woke' is trending. https://t.co/TuhTf3hLKF
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 1, 2017
‘Woke’, which was initially a slang term, meant to display an awareness of social and racial issues, and has its origins in the African-American community.
Suffice to say that over the last number of years, the term has peppered everyday conversation, been a regular feature of online exchanges and has ultimately become synonymous with those seeking positive social change.
However, it can be argued that it has – in recent times – lost its initial potency; that the frequency with which it is used online devalues it, and the tendency to accuse someone of not being woke ultimately suppresses meaningful conversation from which change might occur.
It has long since been argued that the advent of social media has caused many of us to exist within an echo chamber; we’re disinclined to entertain varying points of view, reluctant to engage with opposing perspectives, and cosset ourselves by claiming the other side simply isn’t woke.
If current online discourse is to be understood correctly, being ‘woke’ is good and not being ‘woke’ is bad, but we all know life is much, much more nuanced than that.
If you seek to highlight social and racial issues, and actively attempt to educate those in opposition, consider yourself woke.
If you purport to effect change, but refuse to engage with alternative opinions and justify it by saying someone isn’t woke, you are unfortunately sleep-walking your way through your activism.
Curiosity is always needed in order to provoke change, and refusing to entertain this curiosity because you’ve used ‘woke’ as a yardstick to assess your ‘opponent’ is a surefire way to paralyse an exchange.
Amandla Stenberg, who rose to fame for her role in The Hunger Games, is regularly branded ‘woke’ in both mainstream and online media; a term she has begun to resent.
Speaking to Sky News this week, the 20-year-old actress said: “I’m so tired of the word woke! I cannot stand it.”
It’s cool that people think I’m woke, which I guess means that they think I’m socially aware, but I think that the word woke and the social media and pop culture activism has played out a little bit, I don’t think it’s necessarily effective.
Indeed, if you linger enough on any online debate, it won’t be long before someone is dismissed for ‘not being woke’, and the debate comes to an abrupt, and ultimately fruitless, conclusion.
Real change isn’t brought about by dampening discussion or dismissing opponents with a hashtag, it’s fostered by authentic conversation and the genuine exchange of ideas and lived experiences.
Amandla is fearful that overusing the term ultimately acts as a barrier for progression, saying:
Sometimes I think it creates a culture that actually is not conducive to progress just because it can be really surface level rather than actually getting to the heart of topics, or can also be kind of critical in a way that scares people away from actually growing.
Positive change takes patience, it requires fortitude, and it calls for dogged determination, and it definitely can’t be achieved by refusing to entertain genuine curiosity or confusion by hiding behind a four-lettered word.
