“Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!” Jamaican philosopher and activist Marcus Garvey shouted out in 1923. He was calling on black people across Africa and beyond to become socially and politically aware – to unite and work toward the liberation and empowerment of Africa and its people.
“Woke” then started turning up in songs. Among these was Lead Belly’s Scottsboro Boys in 1938 about nine young black men falsely accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. “It became a simple warning to black people travelling through deeply racist states in the US that they needed to be very careful and mindful; to ‘stay woke’,” according to Professor Neal Curtis, who studied the history of the term.
Indeed, “woke” has a long, proud history in civil rights, associated with awareness of social injustice, racial inequality and progressive values. It “became something affirmative; a demand for change”, Prof Curtis explains.
Not surprising, “woke” became a rallying cry in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, set up in the US in 2013 in response to police violence against black people.
And then …
BLM took “woke” mainstream – and the white right stepped up its appropriation of the word, turning it into an insult for progressive, leftist and human rights movements.
As we know, “woke” was one of the biggest stars in Trump’s election campaign and into his second presidency. “Our country will be woke no longer,” Trump boomed as he destroyed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and enshrined white privilege.
The term was weaponized to undermine and delegitimize calls for progressive policies, especially those related to DEI, LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, women’s rights and climate change. Trump framed these as threats to American values and evidence of a “radical Left” takeover of institutions and change – he would “de-woke” America.
His chorus of right-wing media and politicians amplified the term to drum up opposition against “wokeness”.
It hit home, all over the place
Shortly after Musk’s money and enough Americans put Trump back into power, I lamented to someone I believed was quite intelligent that I was worried about what Trump would do. He looked at me, puzzled, and asked: “But what about woke?”
I confess, I did not know what he was talking about. “What do you mean by ‘woke’?” I replied.
“I mean Kamala Harris wanting to turn boys into girls,” he said.
Here we were, at a South African “braai” on the other side of the world from Trump’s America – and the tentacles of his toxic misinformation and twisting of truth had taken hold of minds here.
Words are powerful
They are even more powerful when they are usurped, warped and spewed out on social media and some traditional media. Apart from Musk “investing” U$280 million into Trump’s election campaign, his X (formerly Twitter) was/is a platform for Trump, his supporters and a bunch of bots to amplify his “woke culture” messages.
It was not surprising that the person I spoke to focused on transgenderism. During his campaign, Trump honed in on derogatory transgender rhetoric to push his “woke” messaging. He lied that children were being subjected to gender-transition surgery at school.
“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation?” (Trump during his election campaign)
I’ve heard it said that this anti-woke campaign, targeting transgenderism and trans people, was one factor that helped Trump win the election – it energized his conservative base and played on its fears.
Here’s the truth about transgenderism in the US: just 0.6% of adults and 1.4% of 13-17 year olds identify as trans. That is certainly not a “threat” that engulfs society. And, of course, schools do not conduct gender-transition surgery.
As icky as this is, it’s not new
History is full of examples of dictators who usurp concepts and refashion them. Here’s one:
Just as Trump and the right-wing stole “woke” from the civil rights movement, Adolf Hitler stole the swastika from ancient civilizations and the Aryan concept from, well, the Aryans.
The swastika is one of the oldest symbols known to humankind, used in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, often to wish health, luck, success and prosperity. It was also used more recently. As this BBC article explains, the swastika was “enthusiastically adopted” as a symbol of good fortune in the West in the early 20th century, with the likes of Coca-Cola, Carlsberg and the Boy Scouts incorporating it into their branding.
Hitler and his Nazis adopted the swastika at least as enthusiastically and twisted it into a symbol of “Aryan” racial superiority and racial purity.
The Aryans date from around 1500 BCE. They were made up of the Indo-Iranians on the Eurasian steppes (who shaped the foundations of Indo-European languages) and within that group, the Indo-Aryans, who settled in northern India (and whose practices influenced the development of Hinduism). These people used the word, “Aryan”, to describe themselves as noble or distinguished; they followed Vedic traditions and spoke Sanskrit.
Hitler appropriated the term to glorify the German people as members of the superior “Aryan race”; Jews, black people and gypsies were delegated to be “non-Aryan”. As the Holocaust Encyclopaedia explains, though, Aryans are not a race and an “Aryan master race” does not exist.
“The word Aryan is an example of how words that originate as terms to describe seemingly neutral concepts can be adapted, manipulated, and radicalized for ideological or sinister purposes,” it adds.
Now what?
The noise – lies, misinformation and propaganda – is going to get louder.
The best thing you can do right now is get woke – look for the truth behind the noise. And stay woke!
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