The word “woke” has been co-opted in recent years and is now used as a pejorative to criticize anti-racism and social justice activism and the teaching of factual U.S. history. But what are the origins of the word? A very brief 🧵 of what “woke” actually means: In a 1942 edition of the Negro Digest, J. Saunders Redding used the term in an article about labor unions. A black, unionized mine worker told him: “Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer.”