So it's been completely co-opted now. It's either a derogatory label or it's used sarcastically.

But my memory is fuzzy on this. Was it ever a serious term? Was there ever a time people used "woke" earnestly?

Was Childish Gambino's hook serious or jokey?

Once upon a time, maybe up until the late 90's (early aughts even..EARLY) it had validity.


"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

Its been turned into a joke unfortunately. But it was an important phrase or word

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"The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in." - James Baldwin

Hilarisad watching evangelicals and Christian fundamentalists using the term based in awakening as a derogatory word

I bet if you asked these kind of people what the word means...they’d be lost

Woke is the new Antifa...it’s a good filter

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If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

I read this WaPo article the other day and your post brought it back to mind.

I know some conservative folks (white, of course) who have used it with derision when discussing politics with me. It made me cringe because of the way it was brought into the mainstream.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/cancel-culture-background-black-culture-white-grievance/2021/04/01/2e42e4fe-8b24-11eb-aff6-4f720ca2d479_story.html

“Cancel” and “woke” are the latest terms to originate in Black culture only to be appropriated into the White mainstream and subsequently thrashed to death. Young Black people have used these words for years as sincere calls to consciousness and action, and sometimes as a way to get some jokes off. That White people would lift those terms for their own purposes was predictable, if not inevitable. The commodification of Black slang is practically an American tradition. “One of the biggest exports of American culture,” said Renée Blake, a linguistics professor at New York University, “is African American language.”

Terms such as “lit” and “bae” and “on fleek” — or, if you’re a little older, “fly” and “funky” and “uptight” — have been mined by White people for their proximity to Black cool. The word “cool” itself emerged from Black culture. “I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States,” James Baldwin wrote in 1979, “but they would not sound the way they sound.”

With “canceled” and “woke,” there’s a twist: Not only have these words been appropriated from Black culture, but they have also been weaponized to sneer at the values of many young Black liberals.

https://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13309061&mode=full#13309110


https://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13309061&mode=full#13309836

so much for master teachers

man.

IG: amadu_me

"...Whateva, man..." (c) Redman

they're born, grow up, some blow up. then die. some take a long time to die.

it sux when then make it to mainstream and become jokes or used as a negative.

I wonder how it happens with some and not others.

Y'all buy those labels, I was born supreme

nigga

Won't ever die. And yes...it's slang.

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https://soundcloud.com/swageyph/yph-die-with-me

America has imported more warlord theocracy from Afghanistan than it has exported democracy.

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The ULTIMATE negation of everything.

The space between despair and orgasm is hard to fill ~ Maron

Has it really been co-opted?
If they say it, we know it’s bs but if we say to each other it continues to hold its original meaning, and if we say it to each other around white folks best believe faces will turn plum red cause they know what we mean too.

We should continue to say it, I mean if we can redact the nword to mean everything from best friend to foe then why let ‘woke’ go?

>Was it ever a serious term?
>Was there ever a time people used "woke" earnestly?


This cannot be a real question on OKP of all places.

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Days like this I miss Sha Mecca

or he wears khakis up to his chest like Season Vet.

cause how the fuck can you ask this question

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

this is on brand for him.

some of these dudes really show their ass and tell on themselves.

aint no way your memory is so fuzzy you don't remember how woke was used by Black folk unless you don't fuck with Black folk.. lol

dude really unplugged from Blackness or maybe he is white. Never know these days on here.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

>dude really unplugged from Blackness or maybe he is white.
>Never know these days on here.

He's been around here longer than I have, and I don't know him to be a troll, so something ain't right. Dude gotta know better than this. Being white ain't even an excuse not to know this on here.

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I thought he was just asking when or how it was repackaged.

acting like you have no idea how it was birthed is just...

weird.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

--
Sometimes you have to look reality in the face and say 'No!'
-Ben (Reaper)

If you need any help, don't. Hesitate to ask.

It's totally possible to be black and not have a lot of exposure to people using the term earnestly.

Childish Gambino's song 100% sounds tongue in cheek or something less than earnest. Same goes for This is America at this point. Both of those songs sound like inside jokes now.


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

acting like “woke” is some secret back room pass used to get into Black Panthers meetings in the 1960’s.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

DeRay McKesson was using the term in interviews around the time of Mike Brown. That's long after Georgia Anne Muldrow on Badu's album. This ain't about policing blackness. That's not even a sensible response to anything I said.

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the origin of the word woke.

niggas are not that far gone no matter how much twitter or right wing content they ingest.


Pimp cant remember where woke came from but he knows all about that nag champi.. lmao

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

>niggas are not that far gone no matter how much twitter or
>right wing content they ingest.
>
>
>Pimp cant remember where woke came from but he knows all about
>that nag champi.. lmao

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I said I don't remember the word used earnestly. I remember it always being with sarcastic undertones.

I'm sure it probably was used seriously. Just like some people use third eye seriously. My question is if the mainstream black culture used it seriously? Or if the mainstream black culture just used it like I remember --sarcastically.

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we knew it came from a sincere place at one point in time

at least it seemed obvious to most people

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

Totally possible??? Really?

You must have spent time in OKP Activist with your 3rd eye open. Normal folks didn't use seriously, I don't think. At least in the south.

I always associated woke with sarcasm. Like "stay woke my brother" after someone talks about some off the wall conspiracy.

This dude was woke:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/inlivingcolor/images/b/b3/Character-Oswald.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141021020033

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which is why we side eyeing the fuck outta you.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

It's a term that I recognize. But I don't think it's a word I would have ever used except as its currently used today. at least I don't remember it ever being a part of my vocab. Not the way I would a term like "conscious".

It feels like a word like "overstand" which I would never earnestly use.




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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

with Monster Kody

I really hope this was coded language cause if not, LOL

Tupac: But you know where you gotta pull me into?
Sanyika: What?
Tupac: Overstand.
Sanyika: I'm telling you.
Tupac: Pull me here into overstand man
Sanyika: Dig it, this is the thing.

Tupac: I'll do it one time and I ain't

Sanyika: Okay, dig it. The word "understand" is to play on one's person, right for instance, understand, to stand under, to be below, to be demeaned. And, so, when you're under anything, it's hard for you to get a whole view of what's going on above ground. So, when you're under, you have a disadvantage. So, especially when you're standing on someone or under anything, you can't comprehend it, you can't feel it, you can't vibe wit' it. So I created the word "over-stand" to get up over that shit, to get a vantage point, even looking down on some shit. You see what I'm sayin'? Like, a helicopter got a vantage point over us when we have to get in the streets and break. They can see us better than a pig at our level.

Tupac: So like that!

Sanyika: The helicopter has an overstanding on us to a great degree, you see what I'm saying? We have to do—Words control people, man, I'm telling you. When you think—when you speak positive, you think positive. So, all the time, I be trying to overstand shit, get a full comprehension.

Tupac: That's right!

Sanyika: You feel me? Yeah, that's where I came from, that concept came.

pick a word that makes you feel proper about the first time you heard about it.

Has nothing to do with you using the word.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

This is the main article you're looking for. Read this first! It goes all the way back to the 30's.

A history of “wokeness”
Stay woke: How a Black activist watchword got co-opted in the culture war.
https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy

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Here's an article from 2018, entitled "To Be Black And #Woke Is To Be In A Rage All The Time"
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-mike-brown-rage-racism_n_5b6992cee4b0de86f4a52959
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I'm absolutely not a fan Deray McKesson, but this is from 2016:

Question-Why is it so powerful when artists like Kendrick and Beyoncé speak out about these issues in their music?

Answer-We aren’t born woke. Something wakes us up. For some people, that’s a video of police violence, or their proximity to a friend, or a protest. For some people it’s art. There are many ways that people begin to understand the world better and deeper, and music is one of those ways...

link: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1318-black-lives-matters-deray-mckesson-on-the-power-of-protest-music/

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We all know "woke" isn't a new term. The idea has been around forever.

We all know Harold Melvin's "Wake Up Everybody". Or remember Dap screaming "Wake up!" at the end of school daze. I think about my dad had the album "Wake Up Black man!".

But I don't think anyone here is saying it's a new word. The whole point is about how people use the word, now and then.

The way it's used today by the media, with is negative connotations, is new. We kind of all agree on that.

But were cats really going around and using "woke" in a serious way. Like, have you ever seriously described an album or a person as "woke"?

I think activist and hotep brothers sure. Using Deray is a great example because he is exactly the type of person folks would want to clown when they say "Stay Woke".

I think yall are making stuff up if you think it's a phrase regularly used by Black people besides jokes before it got co-opted.

Innn fact, Badu song aside, a five minute search on this site produces a reference to Gambino ruining the inside joke of the term:

https://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13093025&mesg_id=13093025&listing_type=search#13095669

So yeah, by the time Childish Gambino used it in his song, it was already jokes and he was probably using it that way. In fact, there were all sorts of discussions about that album at the time not being insincere and pastiche when it dropped but that's a whole nother long discussion.

I know this website's search function is trash but it is still hard to find someone using the term outside of jokes before 2014-ish.

At any rate, it's not that serious and weird hill to decide black authenticity on.




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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

especially with the repeated "policing of blackness" concept you keep referring to. Your insecurities around your Blackness are not my problem.

It's lowkey hilarious that you use OKP as the litmus test for what's being clowned, while referencing those who used the term as "activist and hotep" as if those two are synonymous or somehow equally invalid. Even if they were, OKP would be the other side of the coin with it's ultra liberal or conservative, blindly-gov't-trusting populace. In other words, the people here are equally clownable. I mean look whose post you linked to LOL. That's definitely not an authoritative take on the usage of the word "woke".
***Ultimately, "hoteps and activists" as you call them, are people. That's the only question in the post. "Did people use the term earnestly." The answer is 'yes' even by your own admission. That we also agree one.***
You want to dimiss thoose people as invalid... or unpeople... or something? Idk, but that's not how it works.

I mean damn, I hit you with legit instances of people using the word "in earnest" and a historical breakdown of the word, and you respond with MEAT's opinion as your authority and crying about some phantom entity policing your fragile blackness. C'mon son.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

we all watched School Daze?

we all know about Harold Melvin's song?

how can you assume we all know this stuff then turn right around on some "not everyone knows the origin"

nah bruh.. ain't no one deciding on Black authenticity based on this. We are questioning how you wouldn't know how it was used before it was a "joke" because... we all watched school Daze, heard Melvin... "


you don't even see what you just did

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

have you ever used "woke" seriously before it became a joke, then negative?

Like have you ever said anything like, "That new Outkast is Woke as shit!"


My point is I think Boogie might have, but most people here probably not.


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

that's silly

the term was originally used for political and social commentary that pulled back the curtain on white folks shenanigans.

so if speaking on politics or laws that were "celebrated" as helping us when they were actually harming us. The people who put in work to educate us on those things.. they were "woke" and telling us to "stay woke"

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*