The Co-Opting of "WOKE"...the real history of the phraseology...

What does and did this term mean?

The following was written as an answer to a question posed to me on social media: “Do you even know what woke is?” This started regarding a discussion about the Disney plus show, “The Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman” which had a diverse group of characters that were based on the original Spiderman characters, but were somewhat different as this was an alternate universe. After watching the show it did in fact have a different type of diversity, however in my opinion it was more realistic to a New York City of 2024. However, to many of my fellow comic readers they simply were upset of what they considered to be race switching for no reason. My response was that in my view, the show was not particularly woke. This brought the question to the definition of what woke is and more importantly, what it was.

“Woke” started as a phrase utilized by Black communities in the Civil Rights Movement era, to indicate Black conscious thought (i.e. Black Panthers. Nation of Islam, 5%Nation of gods and earths, Black Hebrew Israelites, CVL Incorporated, etc.) Many in the original organizations and movements were undermined and infiltrated by the FBI during a program called Cointelpro. This is where FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover put moles into these organizations to start dealing in heroin (often provided by the Central Intelligence Agency) and then criminalized these organizations and the individuals in them, or caused divides between the leadership that was on positive community building and others who liked the power and money of the drug trade as these organizations were initially doing very good things in black neighborhoods, providing jobs, providing childcare providing breakfasts for young kids and summer programs. The FBI in fact incentivized criminalized behavior in many of these organizations. “Stay Woke” meant to BE CAREFUL OF “STATE SPONSORED” INFILTRAITORS.

Later during the Reagan era “War on Drugs,” as the CIA simultaneously flooded black communities with crack cocaine, the burgeoning hip hop movement with groups like Public Enemy, KRS-one and Boogie Down Productions, X Clan, Paris, Poor Righteous Teachers etc. Brought the term back into serious use as they pushed a black consciousness form of rap that was very popular, but eventually it was undermined by a predominantly white owned media machine called the entertainment industry that decided in the late 80s to push N.W.A and gangster hip hop as these were tools to halt the unification that was happening within the black community. At that time Stay Woke” meant to BE CAREFUL OF “STATE and CORPORATE SPONSORED” INFILTRAITORS.

As we move into the late 90s and early 2000s neo-Marxist critical theorist leftists and some of their not paid but mostly paid co-conspirators (i.e. Roland Martin, Mark Lamont Hill, Joy Ried, etc.), In need of a vehicle to try to push their theories, even though race relations had significantly improved throughout the 90s, Co-opted the term “woke.” White liberals and progressives embraced it to be seen as allies even though their alliances were often a ruse to push other agendas while using race as a tool to guilt other whites into bowing down to their neo Marxist critical theorist agendas. Such as pushing movements like BLM giving them the appearance of being about racial justice when in fact they were pushing their own neo Marxist and sometimes even communist agendas. It is at this time the Foundational Black community more than likely will have to give up the phraseology as it has been bastardized by the far left.

There has been at least one positive backlash as the black community has formed movements such as the FBA which is the Foundational Black Americans and ADOS which is the American descendants of slaves. Many in these movements are trying to reclaim actual black identity and define it for ourselves outside of the neo Marxist critical theorist agenda.

One of the negatives is that some people, primarily to some who claim to be conservative, only see that the ways the neo Marxist critical theorists agenda is aimed at the white male patriarchy. Assuming that every time a black person or a LGBTQ person is included in a movie, fantasy story, etc. as an attack on white males. While there is some reality to the pushing of diversity very strongly in modern media to force out heterosexual White males from roles for the sake of diversity (i.e. Star Trek: Discovery), there is a bigger picture to see when discussing what wokeness meant and what it now means.

Regarding the friendly neighborhood Spiderman show that was recently released on Disney+, yes there were some bits and pieces of “wokeness” if that's what you want to call it. However; the diversity of that show does represent a more realistic New York City. There is a line regarding actual diversity and representation from the absurdity of inserting things in a way that are often off putting and can be offensive to people in a real way.

Some people see any bit of referencing and showing diversity as “too woke” (i.e. on Star Trek Picard, the Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman, the Little Mermaid remake, various Star Wars projects), while others see when some people push back against historically inaccurate diversity (i.e. Anne Boleyn miniseries on AMC+) as intolerance.

There has to be a balance of seeing a real diverse world in literature and media, yet not trying to insert diversity simply for shock value of for the sake of simple representation.

Works Referenced:

1. O’Reilly, Kenneth. “The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement during the Kennedy Years--from the Freedom Rides to Albany.” The Journal of Southern History 54, no. 2 (1988): 201–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/2209399.

2. Quinn, Michael. “‘Never Shoulda Been Let out the Penitentiary’: Gangsta Rap and the Struggle over Racial Identity.” Cultural Critique, no. 34 (1996): 65–89. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354612.

3. Schiever, Norm. “Don't Believe the Hype; A counterpoint to the "secret meeting that changed rap" story..” Blog: Norm Schriever: Expat. Author. Cultural Mad Scientist. Enemy of the comfort zone (March 30, 2013): 201–32. https://www.normschriever.com/

4. Price, Derek V. "The Praxis of Critical Empiricism: Race, Class, Gender and Social Justice." Race, Gender & Class (Towson, Md.) 8, no. 2 (2001): 94-115.