Opinion: There’s a debate raging over the origin and definition of the term ‘woke’ – as if we don’t have anything better to discuss.
By Greg Moore || Arizona Republic
2:
“In that song, ‘Master Teacher,’ the chorus is: ‘I stay woke,’ ” Erykah Badu, speaking on MSNBC last week.
This is one of those times that I want to stand on a table and scream that we’re all focused on the wrong thing.
There’s a debate raging over the origin and definition of the term “woke” – as if we don’t have anything better to worry about.
We’re talking about a slang term that’s intentionally improperly conjugated and used by liberals and conservatives alike to define their positions in the never-ending culture wars.
This is dumb; we’ve got to do better.
Prominent critic can’t define ‘woke’
The hubbub kicked up a couple of weeks ago when conservative author Bethany S. Mandel froze like water in an ice tray after an interviewer asked her to define the term.
Interviewer: “Would you mind defining ‘woke’? Because it’s come up a couple of times, and just I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”
Mandel: *GULP* … well, errr, ummm …
I wish I was exaggerating.
Her actual response was: “So, I mean, woke is sort of the idea that (long, uncomfortable pause) This is going to be one of those moments that goes viral. I mean, ‘woke’ is something that’s very hard to define, and we’ve spent an entire chapter defining it. It is sort of the understanding that we need to totally reimagine and redo society in order to create hierarchies of oppression. (Another uncomfortable pause.) Sorry, it’s hard to explain in a 15-second sound bite.”
