Stay Woke
There is a parenting technique I used a couple of times back in the day - a fun yet potent kind of aversion therapy. When my 15-year-old daughter wanted to wear micro skirts and midriff tops in the dead of winter, I’d show her how cool that looked on my 50-year-old body when I was picking her up from school, and then offered to lend her the outfit. She dressed like a Trad Wife for weeks after.
This is because there is nothing quite as powerful as an old person having a go at Young People Stuff to immediately rob it of any appeal. Honestly, if more dads wore their pants halfway down their bums and did donuts in a Ford Escort of a weekend, we’d solve the boy racer problem without needing to crush a single car.
And so hat tip to the long-serving Mayor of Wairoa, Craig Little, for decrying the use of States of Emergency during recent Cyclone Vaianu as “woke”. I’m taking this as a sure and certain sign that the term “woke” has – thankfully - reached the end of its useful life.
Mayor Little was suggesting other councils were too quick to pull this lever before they knew how bad the storm would really be, and worried it caused people to panic. We can see his point, but also … is it a tiny bit “nanny state” not trust us to calmly stock up on batteries and beans without losing our minds? Is this itself woke nonsense?
Once politicians start using a word like “woke” to describe “sushi in school lunches” or “acknowledging gender diversity” or “filling sandbags” you know you’re in the final days of the word’s usefulness.
I’d be glad to see it go. I’ve found the latest incarnation of “woke” – as a pejorative term used by conservatives to decry progressive ideas – super annoying. That’s because I’m woke. At least, that’s my goal. In my world, woke means being awake to inequality, being into fairness and ensuring everyone feels valued and included.
Someone once angrily accused me of being a “Social Justice Warrior” like it was a bad thing, and I was happy to confirm I come from a long line of them and hope to make my ancestors proud.
It will be interesting to see how the word next emerges – rehabilitation is not out of the question. A hundred years ago “woke” was popularised by Black Americans – it referred to needing to be awake and aware of racial prejudice and discrimination. There’s a remarkable recording from 1938 of legendary blues singer Lead Belly advising “good, coloured folk” to take care in Alabama – “best stay woke and keep their eyes open” lest they be accused of crimes they didn’t commit.
Over time, the word was adopted by white Americans too – in the 1960s “woke” also referred to broader awareness of social issues like sexism and denial of LGBTQI rights.
As recently as a decade ago, “stay woke” was a catch-cry of the Black Lives Matter movement. It wasn’t until 2019 that the word was co-opted by neo-liberals as their fresh alternative to “political correctness gone mad” and an adjunct to “virtue signalling” which assumes selfish and shallow motives for things you might do to make the world a better place.
Maybe we’re moving on? I’d like to think so. Because honestly, once someone my age has started using “woke” to describe something they just don’t like, it’s all gone a bit 6-7, am I right, Gen Alpha? (Yes, nana, you are.)