beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2020-12-12 02:49 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2020-12-12 02:49 pm
Entry tags:
Woke
I saw someone elseweb try and define woke
so I was thinking
I've seen people use 'stay woke' as an instruction, not an identity.
It's like 'keep your head on a swivel'.
I don't know where the phrase came from and it sounds odd to me, but both phrases seem to mean
'stay alert'
like, don't go asleep and not notice this, stay awake and notice things.
Woke as an identity word... I'm not sure I've seen people use it about themselves? It gets aimed at other people. I haven't seen it used and defined as an identity by people who are saying they, personally, are woke.
Also it reminds me of assorted rpgs were the awakened are the only ones who Really Know the Truth
but that is unfortunate, because it seems to be used to mean,
notice when there is danger and when people are getting killed.
Like, there are things one needs to notice.
So I looked Woke up on wiki and it has useful there, including
"To "stay woke" in this sense expresses the intensified continuative and habitual grammatical aspect of African American Vernacular English: in essence, to always be awake, or to be ever vigilant"
I figured it was AAVE because it don't sound grammatical to local English
but
intensified continuative and habitual
isn't something I know how to say easily in local
and it seems handy to have.
I know about habitual be, like he be reading means he's usually or habitually reading, not necessarily what he's doing right now.
Also wiki quotes "Stay woke. Watch closely."
that was the sense I'd understood it to have.
Wiki also suggests it has moved on to being a summary of leftist politics, but I feel that slides over who is doing the summarising.
I feel like the word got latched on to because it sounds odd in other forms of English, not because staying alert is a bad idea.
But there is a really long section in the wiki entry about people criticising the idea, saying it dont suggest actions just airs grievances, or its a more extreme form of political correctness.
The more of that section I read the more familiar it seemed. Old arguments getting attached to newish word.
Woke.
I looked it up and it is one of those words getting wrestled over.
Guess I'll look again later to see how that works out.
so I was thinking
I've seen people use 'stay woke' as an instruction, not an identity.
It's like 'keep your head on a swivel'.
I don't know where the phrase came from and it sounds odd to me, but both phrases seem to mean
'stay alert'
like, don't go asleep and not notice this, stay awake and notice things.
Woke as an identity word... I'm not sure I've seen people use it about themselves? It gets aimed at other people. I haven't seen it used and defined as an identity by people who are saying they, personally, are woke.
Also it reminds me of assorted rpgs were the awakened are the only ones who Really Know the Truth
but that is unfortunate, because it seems to be used to mean,
notice when there is danger and when people are getting killed.
Like, there are things one needs to notice.
So I looked Woke up on wiki and it has useful there, including
"To "stay woke" in this sense expresses the intensified continuative and habitual grammatical aspect of African American Vernacular English: in essence, to always be awake, or to be ever vigilant"
I figured it was AAVE because it don't sound grammatical to local English
but
intensified continuative and habitual
isn't something I know how to say easily in local
and it seems handy to have.
I know about habitual be, like he be reading means he's usually or habitually reading, not necessarily what he's doing right now.
Also wiki quotes "Stay woke. Watch closely."
that was the sense I'd understood it to have.
Wiki also suggests it has moved on to being a summary of leftist politics, but I feel that slides over who is doing the summarising.
I feel like the word got latched on to because it sounds odd in other forms of English, not because staying alert is a bad idea.
But there is a really long section in the wiki entry about people criticising the idea, saying it dont suggest actions just airs grievances, or its a more extreme form of political correctness.
The more of that section I read the more familiar it seemed. Old arguments getting attached to newish word.
Woke.
I looked it up and it is one of those words getting wrestled over.
Guess I'll look again later to see how that works out.