MSNBC Segment Actually Defines ‘Woke’ and How It Has Been Weaponized Against the People Who Originated It

Conservatives, Republicans, and others on the right wing of politics are fond of the word “woke” as a disparaging term for progressive, inclusive policies. GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has waged a “war” on it. Fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wrote a book about it. But when asked to define it, many have struggled to come up with a definition. MSNBC’s Trymaine Lee appeared on José Díaz-Balart Reports to give them an answer.

MNSBC’s José Díaz-Balart welcomed Lee after introducing the segment with Wednesday’s first GOP presidential debate, pointing out that the word “woke” will likely come up a lot. Despite it being one of the season’s biggest buzzwords, DeSantis admitted to CNN’s Jake Tapper recently that “many can’t even define” the term. In Lee’s segment, he goes into the history of the term in the Black community going back to the early 20th century when it originated as a term for Black safety in the Jim Crow era.

White supremacist danger and violence was a constant threat. So Black folks had to keep their eyes open, literally and figuratively. They had to stay woke.

But as far as a simple definition, Ishena Robinson, NAACP LDF Editorial Director, has that:

It’s to be awake to what’s happening around you, particularly when it comes to systemic injustice.

But after the term caught on following several deaths of Black people at the hands of law enforcement, notably after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the right started latching onto it, co-opting it, and even passing laws against it. Robinson explained the environment leading up to that:

I think there was a lot of terror in seeing what was happening in 2020, seeing the multiracial, multiethnic coalitions of people who really rallied around understanding more about anti-blackness, understanding more about systemic racism.

Watch the video above via MSNBC.