To define “woke,” I consulted the internet and my trusted old friend, the dictionary.
Wikipedia: Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination.
Google: One in ten Britons see woke as being a catch-all term for the overly sensitive, linking it with “people who are offended by everything.” Those Brits have a good sense of humor.
Cambridge English and Miriam-Webster Dictionaries: Aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality.
My favorite is from my 1969 Little Oxford Dictionary, a gift from my dear old friend Bryan in 1974: “Wake” as in “cease to sleep.”
It seems like the use of “woke” is a propaganda tool. It is ceaselessly invoked, brandishing it as some kind of a disease. We are not that old of a nation to effectively erase racial hatred history. There is danger in not being aware. Instead of being awake, “woke” wants people to be asleep. While the new federal government takes more from the poor/working class and gives more to the wealthy, “woke” propaganda is red herring.
Pay attention, more importantly engage in critical thinking. It is critical thinking that gives us engineers who design our bridges/harbors/roads; medical professionals that are there to care for us; scientists/researchers who find cures to cancers and other diseases that rob the lives of our loved ones; chefs; mathematicians who solve complex problems; professors and teachers, coaches, trainers who teach and guide; administrators who take the lead; theologians who delve into and share the divine mysteries; legislators who represent us; attorneys and judges who define the laws that protect us; artists, musicians, authors who give us beauty, entertainment and delight. Why should we stop critically thinking, why would we want to?
Perhaps more importantly, we need to remain awake to the taking away of our rights. Taking away the right to public education by defunding, at the federal and state levels, and dismantling our universities and colleges, is a dumbing down of the citizens.
Denigrating and defunding alternative energies that big business has already invested in and have already created many good tech jobs in so that industries that require hard labor like coal mining can come back? Those primarily coal states have moved on, they don’t want that industry back. Perhaps the future for the lower and middle classes only holds lower paying jobs, jobs in unregulated industries, jobs that cause bad health, jobs with no benefits.
Stay awake, speak up, engage civically. Visit the Legislative Information Office, Amber is great. Even if your representatives don’t seem to listen to you, we can’t stop telling them if we think they are wrong, explicitly and morally. And if you like how they vote, the bills they pass — tell them that too.
Therese Lewandowski is a Homer resident.
