How has the meaning of the word woke evolved? economist.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from economist.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Aside from being the past participle of wake, for decades, it meant conscious and aware – but the slang word has come to represent an embrace of progressive activism, as well.
In a recent interview with BizNews founder Alec Hogg, Helen Zille spoke openly about her book ‘#Stay woke: Go broke’ and the dangers of ‘wokeness’ and cancel culture in the South African context (see interviews below). “In South Africa – where the ratios are inverted [and] black people are the overwhelming majority – it doesn’t cause any self-reflection about the abuse of power. Quite the opposite.” In this piece, Tiffany Markman looks at the origin of the word and how it has evolved over the past decade. This article first appeared on FirstRand Perspectives. – Claire Badenhorst
The evolution of ‘Woke’
By Tiffany Markman