Plog Number 18
Hello all, I hope my readers are doing well these days. I figured out that my Plogs are about two days behind the day I actually publish them. Today is a beautiful and sunny July day. These days are why Ohioans stay in Ohio through the long and lasting winters. Summers are beautiful here.
I want to talk about the word “Woke.” We have all used the word all our lives to describe the state of not being asleep. Webster defines woke as the past participle of wake as in to wake up. Webster also gives Synonyms and Antonyms. Synonyms include aroused, awakened, awoke, knocked up, roused, wakened and alerted. Antonyms include lulled. The Political definition for woke evolved since 2010. It was officially added to the dictionary in 2017. The term is aligned with BLM activists and means to be awake to sensitive social issues, such as racism. It is definitely a part of the African American Vernacular. I define Woke as "yes I see you and I wont put up with it anymore because I am just that strong." To me personally its more about having my eyes open both figuratively and literally.
I have heard Conservative Politicians use the term Woke negatively. More and more people are being openly racist with no attempt to hide anything. Some people call Liberals many bad names including the “woke left”. I fail to see how it can be considered negative to be woke. I also cannot see how it is not considered racist to say it negatively. At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney I wonder why anything that is strongly aligned with black sensitivity gets tagged negatively. To me there is no other reason than disdain and racism. A few examples of things in our society that are tagged as black and viewed negatively include the following: a big butt, big lips, watermelon, fried chicken, Cadillacs, ANTIFA, gold teeth and being woke. I have seen a growing appreciation of big butts and lips over time. Now we see people with thin lips and flat behinds getting theirs plumped up. I think you would have to be insane to not like fried chicken and watermelon. Cadillacs are a stand up and solid luxury car. Gold teeth are not something I like but to each his own. I see it as cultural differences spreading to the masses. The things I listed are probably still joked about in private settings. I have a dear friend who is Black but she is very pale. I will call her T. T told me that when she was working in settings where others didn’t know she was black, that they made racist jokes on the regular. I never experienced this because I clearly have brown skin. Obviously we do come in all shades but everybody isn't smart enough to know the difference. Thanks for that insight T :)
People that I think of as being woke include some pretty cool humans. Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King, W.E.B. Du Bois, John Lewis and Frederick Douglass. There are many more, but these people top my list. Also there are people who are definitely NOT woke. This list includes 45, Senator Tim Scott,, Candace Owens, Clancy Thomas, J.C. Watts and Kathy Barnette. ie. people who deny the existence of racism. I will devote an entire post to these strange humans who are black but don’t seem to know it. I am reluctant to shine too much attention on them but I will deal with them in a later post .
Peace out. Stay woke, Reclaim!