The right has turned ‘woke’ into a cartoon boogeyman both sides of the aisle are running away from. Rewriting history won’t lead to a more progressive future.
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“Woke” used to mean something.
Like many facets of American culture, “woke” was derived from African American Vernacular English, meaning to “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” The term has been central to Black political consciousness from its adoption in the 1930s, to its use in both iterations of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014 and 2020, to its appropriation by non-Black people to discuss matters of gender and queerness, to its addition to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.
Since 2020, woke has taken on a new meaning entirely divorced from its original context, serving more as a dual-sided straw man. Breathless Republicans have turned woke into a pejorative for anyone and anything they don’t like. And the progressives they cudgel with the term don’t even ascribe to it. On the left, woke is used almost ironically to gesture toward more progressive politics or poke fun at right-wingers who misappropriate it.
The recent, tedious retracing of “Woke 1.0” history seems less like a much-needed course correction and more like an attempt to woo all those undecided voters who definitely exist and capitulate to Republicans who were bound to grind their anti-progressive axes regardless.
The lack of specificity in defining the woes of woke suggests that its perceived failure isn’t a result of the ideologies it propagated, but a reflection of a culture where paradigms and mores are ever-changing. Sure, whatever these people are calling Woke 1.0 could’ve been more focused, but we can’t say all its wounds were self-inflicted.
What exactly was Woke 1.0?
As democratic socialists win elections across the country, there’s been a concerted effort from progressive politicians to distance themselves from past interpretations of woke. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, agreed with her local city councilman that “Woke 1 was crazy.” Democratic socialist Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong has walked back her more polarizing stances on prisons and Thanksgiving.
To me, Woke 1.0 represents an era of political awakening between the mid-2010s into the early 2020s where complex discussions of race, gender, sexuality, class and disability entered the Overton window. Academic ideas like patriarchy, systemic racism, intersectionality, queer theory and the like found their way into the progressive lexicon, especially online.
The most salient criticism of Woke 1.0 can be found in the clumsy application of those ideas. Although it’s admirable that so many desired and sought after a more robust understanding of the world around them, we didn’t have the political acumen or imagination to effectively apply these ideas and create our progressive utopia.
Instead, we opted for virtue signaling. Land acknowledgements at movie theaters and on university websites acknowledged the abhorrent genocide of Native Americans but did very little to improve the material conditions of Indigenous communities. Netizens and “internet activists” spread awareness about racism and other political topics through infographics and black squares (?) that seldom materialized into actionable change.
Punching across felt easier than punching up. Lateral finger-pointing and inciting guilt through social media infights between progressives and moderates seemed like worthwhile causes. All the while, the silent majority was regaining a voice and Indigenous land remained unceded.
Let the right relitigate their woke boogieman
Woke 1.0 reached its peak in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The culture of isolation and chronic internet use brought on by COVID-19 made this moment inescapable.
For the first time, institutions were incentivized – or forced, rather – to acknowledge America’s sordid racial history. It was a flash-in-the-pan moment when those in power were actually held accountable for past missteps.
This is where many Woke 1.0 dissenters express their grievances with the era. Many thought the “cancel culture” that woke propagated was too punitive and unspecific. But let the right tell it, and woke supporters were hosting public executions for anyone who strayed from liberal dogma.
I’m sure some wrongful cancellations happened, but most were rightfully reprimanded for bad things they said. Actions have consequences.
The reelection of President Donald Trump in 2024 effectively ended Woke 1.0 and the momentum toward a culture it wanted to shape. Now that Republicans have regained power, they’ve employed woke-esque cancel culture tactics against anything they dislike – be it books, Bud Light, NPR, PBS, drag shows, transgender people or diversity, equity and inclusion.
But if the alleged slash-and-burn tactics of Woke 1.0 were such a failure, why have Republicans been able to use them with such success?
It’s clear that those tactics weren’t the sole cause of Woke 1.0’s demise. In actuality, its calls for radical ideas like police and prison abolition were more idealistic than realistic, and the way these ideas were packaged online haphazardly posited them as easy solutions instead of long-term efforts to reimagine ossified American institutions. Why would the powers that be want to take part in their own collapse?
Many efforts that came as a result of Woke 1.0 were doomed for this very reason. DEI efforts were tasked with putting Band-Aids over bullet holes with little institutional support. They were set up to fail.The right has effectively morphed “woke” into a cartoon boogeyman. Progressives should let them wear themselves out, and keep moving along with all the same ideological fire that made the right melt down in the first place.
With Woke 2.0 on the horizon, now is the time to take hold of many Americans’ dissatisfaction with the state of things. Hopefully, with a bit more practicality.
Kofi Mframa is a columnist and digital producer for USA TODAY.