woke
adjective (US - informal)

- aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality

Cambridge Dictionary

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ORIGIN

Old English (recorded only in the past tense wōc ), also partly from the weak verb wacian ‘remain awake, hold a vigil’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch waken and German wachen.

WOKE as a political term of African American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social and racial justice and is derived from the African-American expression "stay WOKE".

Oxford Dictionaries records early politically conscious usage in 1962 in the article "If You're Woke You Dig It" and in the 1971 play Garvey Lives! by Barry Beckham:

"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."

Garvey had himself exhorted his early 20th century audiences, "Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!"

The first modern use of the term WOKE appears in the song "Master Teacher" from the album New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (2008) by soul singer Erykah Badu. Throughout the song, Badu sings the phrase: "I stay WOKE." Although the phrase did not yet have any connection to justice issues, Badu's song is credited with the later connection to these issues.

WOKE's widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

SOURCES

- Stay Woke: The new sense of 'woke' is gaining popularity". Words We're Watching. Merriam-Webster.

- Garofalo, Alex "What Does 'Stay Woke' Mean? Black Lives Matter Movement". International Business Times.

- How 'woke' fell asleep, OxfordWords blog