Erykah Badu Breaks Down The Meaning Of “Woke” And What Some People Mean By It

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Erykah Badu Breaks Down The Meaning Of “Woke” And What Some People Mean By It
Here's what Badu has to say about the term she sparked through her music and social media.
BY PREEZY BROWN
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erykah badu in red hat and black outfit

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Erykah Badu recently addressed what a certain segment of people mean when using the term “woke” to address social injustices and other matters. On Tuesday (March 28), the 52-year-old singer sat down for an interview with journalist Ari Melber on MSNBC’s The Beat. During the segment, Badu voiced her belief that a number of political pundits and others use “woke” as a substitute for “Black” and that it’s often used in a demeaning manner.
“I think they mean ‘Black,'” the Texas native told the host when asked about the word’s underlying intent. “It’s just another way to say ‘thug’ or something else, right?” Yet, when asked about the sudden popularity of the word, Badu appears unaffected, offering that the term has become fair game. “It is what it is. It doesn’t belong to us anymore. Once something goes out in the world it take a life of its own. It’s an energy of it’s own.”

Childish Gambino at 'Swarm' premiere, wearing a yellow shirt and yellow pants.
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She then went on to explain her definition of “woke,” noting that the word is applicable to many facets of life.
Erykah Badu Wearing Colorful Outfit

Erykah Badu attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
“I can tell you what it ‘woke’ means,” she said. “It just means being aware, being in alignment with nature, because if you’re in alignment with that, you’re aware of everything that’s going on. It’s not only in the political arena. That means with your heath, that means in your relationships, that means in your home, that means in your car, [and] that means in your sleep ”
According to Badu, she first used the term intentionally on the song “Master Teacher” from her 2008 album New Amerykah Part One (4th World War). “Even though you go through struggle and strife/ To keep a healthy life, I stay woke (I stay woke),” the songstress croons on the track, which served as a precursor to its surge in popularity after using the phrase in her 2012 tweet voicing support of Russian band Pussy Riot. “After that, woke took off,” Badu recalled.
The term “woke” and the phrase “stay woke” have both become popular within the American lexicon. In 2017, the term was added to the Oxford English Dictionary a year after first being included on Dictionary.com in 2016. It’s also made its way into speeches by the likes of former United States President Donald Trump, Childish Gambino’s 2016 single “Redbone,” and more.





Watch Erykah Badu’s MSNBC interview with Ari Melber below.
 

Piff Henderson

Stage Manager of Stage Managers
BGOL Investor
Erykah Badu Breaks Down The Meaning Of “Woke” And What Some People Mean By It
Here's what Badu has to say about the term she sparked through her music and social media.
BY PREEZY BROWN
Plus Icon
erykah badu in red hat and black outfit

YouTube Screenshot
Erykah Badu recently addressed what a certain segment of people mean when using the term “woke” to address social injustices and other matters. On Tuesday (March 28), the 52-year-old singer sat down for an interview with journalist Ari Melber on MSNBC’s The Beat. During the segment, Badu voiced her belief that a number of political pundits and others use “woke” as a substitute for “Black” and that it’s often used in a demeaning manner.
“I think they mean ‘Black,'” the Texas native told the host when asked about the word’s underlying intent. “It’s just another way to say ‘thug’ or something else, right?” Yet, when asked about the sudden popularity of the word, Badu appears unaffected, offering that the term has become fair game. “It is what it is. It doesn’t belong to us anymore. Once something goes out in the world it take a life of its own. It’s an energy of it’s own.”

Childish Gambino at 'Swarm' premiere, wearing a yellow shirt and yellow pants.'Swarm' premiere, wearing a yellow shirt and yellow pants.
Related Story
Childish Gambino Wins Plagiarism Lawsuit For "This Is America"

She then went on to explain her definition of “woke,” noting that the word is applicable to many facets of life.
Erykah Badu Wearing Colorful Outfit

Erykah Badu attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
“I can tell you what it ‘woke’ means,” she said. “It just means being aware, being in alignment with nature, because if you’re in alignment with that, you’re aware of everything that’s going on. It’s not only in the political arena. That means with your heath, that means in your relationships, that means in your home, that means in your car, [and] that means in your sleep ”
According to Badu, she first used the term intentionally on the song “Master Teacher” from her 2008 album New Amerykah Part One (4th World War). “Even though you go through struggle and strife/ To keep a healthy life, I stay woke (I stay woke),” the songstress croons on the track, which served as a precursor to its surge in popularity after using the phrase in her 2012 tweet voicing support of Russian band Pussy Riot. “After that, woke took off,” Badu recalled.
The term “woke” and the phrase “stay woke” have both become popular within the American lexicon. In 2017, the term was added to the Oxford English Dictionary a year after first being included on Dictionary.com in 2016. It’s also made its way into speeches by the likes of former United States President Donald Trump, Childish Gambino’s 2016 single “Redbone,” and more.





Watch Erykah Badu’s MSNBC interview with Ari Melber below.

I'm skeptical of the claim that she introduced "stay woke" to the world since it was said long before 2008 but she makes some good observations here.
 

Pack Rat

Imperturbable
BGOL Investor
The phrase “woke” and to “stay woke” is not new — it began appearing in the 1940s and was first used by African Americans to “literally mean becoming woken up or sensitised to issues of justice”, says linguist and lexicographer Tony Thorne.
Mr Thorne, a visiting consultant at King’s College London, told The Independent that the word is rooted in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and was used in American street and youth culture for a long time.


In 1971, the phrase was used in a play by American playwright Barry Beckham titled Garvey Lives!, in which he wrote: “I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon’ stay woke. And I’m gon’ help him wake up other black folk.”

It also entered popular culture thanks to singer Erykah Badu, who used the phrase “I stay woke” in her 2008 song Master Teacher. David Stovall, a professor of African-American studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago, told the New York Times that Ms Badu’s use of the phrase meant “not being placated, not being anaesthetised”.


It started becoming a politicised word in 2014, after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

“‘Woke’ was largely unknown in the UK until the BLM movement, but in the 2000s it was a popular word used by young people in America, especially in black communities,” said Mr Thorne.

It was only in 2017 that the word “woke” was aded to the Oxford English Dictionary, and was defined as “being ‘aware’ or ‘well-informed’ in a political or cultural sense”.

It evolved into an all-encompassing term to describe leftist political ideology, used as a “shorthand for people on the left” to signal progressiveness, but weaponised by those on the right as a “sneering, jeering dismissive term” to denigrate those who did not agree with their beliefs, said Mr Thorne.

 

Heavenlywings77

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Jesus Christ.. We as black people don't know our own culture? Who is this thread for?
If you've let white people redefine what a phrase we made your on their team and you need to get woke
 

datboi

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
I remember being Woke or staying Woke was used in the 80s around the time of School Daze. It was a response to how the system wanted us to continue this new wave of tribal wars (Light vs Dark Skin) Black Americans. Not was in conjunction with the saying and rejection of the notion of the version of the I have a dream speech that was taught. In order to dream you must be sleep, when you sleep your eyes are closed (3rd eye of knowledge). By staying Woke you are not falling for their bullshit programming.
 

footloose

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
No words do not take a life of its own. They belong to the dictionary. It still means what she meant it to mean.
 

gene cisco

Not A BGOL Eunuch
BGOL Investor
It's funny how there is so much talk about the word 'woke'. The community knows the origins and SOME can't comprehend how the word has become a political term for some who have absolutely no idea of how the word came to be. The word wasn't popular outside the community.

Meanwhile, in this same country, the word 'woman' can't even be defined by some. And if defined correctly as 'adult human female', a person might get hate or censored. So if the word 'Woman' can just be altered, what do people think can happen to words like 'woke'. :smh:
 
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