Short for âAwokenâ starting in the late 1980âs. Gaining popular use after the Spike Lee movie School Daze, where the final scene has an actor yelling âWake Upâ about the problems in their faces. The wake up/ woke term referred to those college age, African American demographic that Lee addressed in many of his movies. To be woke was ânot to be asleepâ to the problems of race relations.
The word has since been stolen from hip hop culture and usage, and used as a derogatory term by right wing politicians.
Not a lot of people liked John Waters movies, but the guy has been pretty woke for decades.
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