To Be Woke

To be woke:

it has poignant origins, to stay woke meant to keep aware of the social situations facing Black Americans during a time of grave danger and injustice. This wasn’t just a small slice of time in history, and it has cultural meaning to a significant population of Americans, to be woke meant being vigilant to current tensions aimed against them, and to be caught asleep at any time was dangerous indeed.

to get a feel for this we can listen to Lead belly’s song from 1938 “Scottsboro Boy’s” were he advises everyone to “stay woke and keep their eyes open”. We can get a feel for this right now, 2023, by watching the news and seeing the statistically outrageous number of Black Americans killed by the police, daily, and the indifference most of the population shows towards this issue. It’s not because we don’t care, or at least I don’t believe so, but more that that this news has fallen to the background noise of our daily lives.

we remain unaffected, asleep.

we’re not woke because we don’t have to be.

and it’s difficult for so many of us to be awakened.

now, to be woke holds a bit more meaning to many other Americans, it applies to women in the workplace and the inequality that’s so often shown, it’s to the growing loss of their reproductive rights, the erosion of voting rights for Black…