Sleeping with one eye open: The origin of woke!
Sleeping with one eye open has been part of African American survival skills since we landed on American shores as black enslaved people. Woke is to be awake, aware, on guard. Therefore, I am not surprised when certain politicians attack the idea. What they are saying is go to sleep. Do not pay attention to what is happening. Ignore the past. After all if you know your history you can prevent it from being repeated. To white people they are saying, if you woke up in the wake (pun intended) of George Floyd’s murder, forget it. Go back to sleep.
In terms of education, let the children sleep through twelve years of pablum that ignores the evils of slavery, Jim Crow, the taking of native lands, institutional racism, sexism, homophobia, not because knowing the truth will make them feel bad but because they might work to make democracy a reality for everybody. A truthful education will enable them to connect the dots and work for equity and inclusion for all. Well that might surely bring about the downfall of so many isms and fear. That is so frightening to politicians against woke because it would mean the end of their power. If you are asleep you will not see that the richest people don’t pay their fair share of taxes. If you are sleeping you will miss the fact that in a rich country where so many profess to be Christians, people suffer and die from the lack of affordable health care. If you wakeup you might demand health care for all people as a human right. Christians might remind politicians of the charge from their savior not the MAGA madman but the man of Galilee who said “Heal the sick . . . . You received without having to pay. Therefore, give without demanding payment” (Matthew 10: 8). If you wake up you will see freedom of choice, the right to vote, and the freedom to read books of your choice being abolished.
If you are a woman and have freedom of choice to control your own body you might plan your life and family in a most beneficial way. You might choose to become educated. You might go to law school and challenge unjust laws. You might choose to limit the number of children you produce and be able to educate the ones that you do have. If you are asleep you might dream that politicians love children and mothers. When you wakeup you will discover that they are attempting to cut programs that support children and mothers. So where is the love?
Politicians against woke would love for you to sleep right through the upcoming election. Think there is no perfect choice, turn over and snore. Maybe there is no perfect choice, but there is something better than a dictator. If you are asleep you will miss the coded language expressed in red and white, displayed on hats and shirts saying Make America Great (meaning White) Again.
The Florida Governor shouts, Stop Woke! and bans books because banned books will wake you up. Martin Luther King, Jr. woke up and led the movement to destroy Jim Crow. Rosa Parks woke up and sat down for change. College students woke up and marched for freedom. For all people being awake determines the quality of their lives, but for black people woke means staying alive and has meant sleeping with one eye open to avoid the slave-drivers whip, to know when to run to escape the rapist and the Klan. The origin of woke in the USA is in a 1619 slave ship. Woke has been here for over 400 years and it’s here to stay.