Axios Explains: "Woke" and the backlash to the term
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
President-elect Trump has picked Cabinet members who vowed to remove "woke" influences from the federal government. They aim to fight against everything from DEI mandates and transgender rights to school curriculum choices.
Why it matters: "Woke" exploded into the American vernacular after the murder of George Floyd, and has been used to describe an awareness of other cultures and social inequities. But it's also been weaponized by conservatives, who have redefined the term as a threat to traditional values and cultural/racial norms in the U.S.
- Beyond Washington, the redefinition also has fueled the far-reaching fight against racial diversity policies in academia and corporate America.
State of play: Conservatives now slap "woke" on countless views they find offensive. Attacks on transgender rights helped some conservatives win elections, and now President-elect Trump is declaring war on "woke" — from Pentagon hiring to college admission policies to health issues.
- Progressives worry this anti-woke momentum threatens gains made over the six decades since the Civil Rights Movement.
But now, even some Democrats are using the term in post-election critiques of their party's left wing.
- "When the woke police come at you," Rahm Emanuel, President Biden's ambassador to Japan, told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, "you don't even get your Miranda rights read to you."
How woke and wokeism began
Martha S. Jones, a history professor at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said that woke has its roots in African American vernacular English.
- Its earliest known usage dates to the mid-20th century and concerns social and racial justice tied to movements driven by inequities. References to "stay woke" can be traced back to activist Marcus Garvey.
- Over the past decade, "woke" gained prominence during the Black Lives Matter era, with Colin Kaepernick's anthem protests and the global demonstrations after Floyd's murder cementing its tie to racial justice.
- It typically has referred to an individual becoming more aware of social injustices, including bias, discrimination and double standards.
- "It was a term 'for us, by us,' long before the world cared about our language or explanations," Jones says.
The intrigue: The term gained momentum after the summer of unrest in 2020 and appeared on social media, in music, movies, and protests.
- To be "woke AF" meant to be keenly aware of systemic racism that has largely been overlooked or ignored in U.S. society.
- Scholars have compared it to a simplified expression of critical race theory — which holds that racism is baked into the formation of the nation and ingrained in our legal, financial and education systems.
The backlash
The 2020 protests saw multiracial, multiethnic coalitions topple statues of figures connected to slavery, Native American removal, or segregation.
- Some demonstrators yelled, "Abolish the police," while others pressed for transgender rights.
- Public school teachers introduced lessons about systemic racism to students while they were home on Zoom classes during the pandemic.
- After the Black Lives Matter movement, several brands reevaluated and changed names or logos associated with racial stereotypes.
- Corporate America briefly united to address workplace racial disparities, pledging to increase hiring and promotion of Black and underrepresented employees.
The other side: Conservative parents grew angry about the protests and the anti-racist movement within the education system and fought back by crowding school board meetings.
- They demanded an end to teaching critical race theory in schools — where it's rarely taught outside of graduate and law school — and called for bans on certain books about racism and LGBTQ topics.
- Moms for Liberty, labeled an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, got several red states to pass bills reducing discussions of race, gender and sexuality in the classroom or school material.
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis even named his state's law the "Stop WOKE Act." Teachers and educators across the country reported receiving death threats amid debates over what to teach, and how.
Zoom out: Last summer's Supreme Court decision limited affirmative action, causing many companies and universities to reexamine their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies.
- The Supreme Court's decision to curtail affirmative action raised questions about other corporate diversity initiatives aiming to bolster representation.
- Democrats are arguing among themselves whether the focus on equity has focused too much on transgender rights while scaring off moderate voters — claims that critics say are transphobic.
- Now, Trump is vowing to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education at a time when the nation's public schools are as diverse as they've ever been but are returning to racial segregation levels of the 1960s.
The bottom line: Jones says the weaponization of "woke" and other political dog whistles, like "states' rights" and "law and order" have allowed leaders to speak about race indirectly, rallying a supportive base.
- "Language is power," she says. "When terms like 'woke' are hijacked and weaponized, they're used to delegitimize the very movements and communities that gave them life."
