![]() Black people used it in reference to racism and other matters for decades, but the word only entered the mainstream much later. ![]() Writing about black slang, Mr Kelley defined it as someone who was “well-informed, up-to-date”. The word was first defined in print by William Melvin Kelley, a black novelist, in an article published in the New York Times in 1962. In 1938 singer Huddie Ledbetter warned black people they “best stay woke, keep their eyes open” going through Scottsboro, Alabama, the scene of a famous mistrial involving nine young black men. ![]() How did the word turn from a watchword used by black activists to a bogeyman among conservatives? Yet in America’s fierce culture wars the word is now more likely to be used as a sardonic insult. Until a few years ago “woke” meant being alert to racial injustice and discrimination. “WOKEISM, MULTICULTURALISM, all the -isms-they’re not who America is,” tweeted Mike Pompeo in 2019 on his last day as secretary of state.
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