Woke is the word used to describe someone who is aware of important societal facts and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice. Most historians traced it back to Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey. Martin Luther King Jr. essentially gave a speech on wokeness at Oberlin College in 1965. The first official printed definition was published by the New York Times in 1962 called if you're woke you dig it.
How “woke” went from Marcus Garvey to Childish Gambino to Ron DeSantis.
This episode was produced by Siona Peterous, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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