woke, adj.

[marnanel]

I'm putting together an OED submission for the AAVE adjective woke, as in politically conscious. If anyone could suggest citations or defintiions, I'd appreciate it.

woke, adj. (orig.US, AAVE) aware of current events; politically conscious. Often in phrase stay woke.

Citations I have so far:

• [ 2008  Erykah Badu, Master Teacher   Even though you go through struggle and strife to keep a healthy life, I stay woke. ]
• 2012  Erykah Badu, Twitter Truth requires no belief. Stay woke. Watch closely.
• 2012  @Sankofa Brown, Twitter    The last time Black life was valued in America we were just considered 3/5ths of a person. #StayWoke
• 2012  @SaudaAinra, Twitter  There are people white people who stink and wear flip flops all year round that think like her. Stay woke. Stay woke.
• 2014  @LeboLola, Twitter     Stay woke is somewhat equivalent to stay paranoid n not confident.
• 2015 Kara Brown, jezebel.com    (title) In the aftermath of Ferguson, stay angry and stay woke. [thanks to realinterrobang ]
• 2016  MTV News, Teen Slang 2016   [definition] Being aware — specifically in reference to current events and cultural issues.
• 2016  Candace Simpson, For Harriet. (title) Woke ain't enough: towards collective consciousness building.

An especially useful overview: http://fusion.net/story/252567/stay-woke/

Comments

[kaberett]

(no citations; lots of support.)

[marnanel]

support always welcome!

[realinterrobang.livejournal.com]

Kara Brown, In the Aftermath of Ferguson, Stay Angry and Stay Woke, Jezebel.com, but I can't tell what the date on it is, since it seems to be dated "08/15/14," which makes no kind of sense to me.
http://jezebel.com/in-the-aftermath-of-ferguson-stay-angry-and-stay-woke-1622364931

[marnanel]

Oh, useful! Thank you. Isn't 08/15/14 == 15th August 2014, in the American mm/dd/yy format?

Edit: which makes it a mid-2015 citation, which is good because there's a gap there atm.

[lnr.livejournal.com]

Sorry in this context what is AAVE?

[marnanel]

African-American vernacular English.

[marnanel]

Hurrah!
https://www.nylon.com/articles/woke-oxford-english-dictionary-addition-2017