Speaker 1: Hey, their folks sit. It's Tuesday, August the fifth. I
Speaker 1: got a question for you. Do you consider yourself woke?
Speaker 1: And do you consider woke a good thing or a
Speaker 1: bad thing? In fact, is it an insult or a compliment?
Speaker 1: If somebody says you're woke? Actually, let's go back a bit.
Speaker 1: Do you even know what it means to be woke?
Speaker 1: And with that, welcome to this very woke edition of
Speaker 1: Amy and TJ Rope. Somebody calls you woke, you immediately
Speaker 1: take that as what instinctively.
Speaker 2: I would instinctively take it as a compliment. I'm aware
Speaker 2: that I am interested in things outside of my world
Speaker 2: and my lens that I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Even with all that we hear about woke these days,
Speaker 1: you still would hear it and take it as a compliment.
Speaker 2: Well, it depends on who was saying it and why
Speaker 2: they were saying it. Yeah, that would be an important nuance.
Speaker 2: But I do think generally speaking, I would consider someone
Speaker 2: who is woke someone who is has been awakened, who
Speaker 2: recognizes that you don't know what you don't know, and
Speaker 2: that there are other people and other cultures and other
Speaker 2: just issues that maybe you don't consider that you've now recognized.
Speaker 2: So I guess in my head it's like it's a
Speaker 2: cultural awakening, it's a that's kind of how I would
Speaker 2: look at it. I understand it's thrown around in certain
Speaker 2: ways now politically that are intended to be insulting. I
Speaker 2: get that, But I still think, how is it a
Speaker 2: bad thing to wake up to recognize, even if it's
Speaker 2: what you don't know, How is that a bad thing?
Speaker 1: Oh, it's not a bad thing. Obviously, the word has
Speaker 1: been stolen, it's been co opted. It's been taken from us,
Speaker 1: I should say those of us, in particular the black community.
Speaker 1: It's been taken by and let's be specific, politicians, Republican politicians,
Speaker 1: white Republican men, to be specific, is where this word
Speaker 1: has and they have done a great job with their messaging,
Speaker 1: because I don't even feel like black folks have control
Speaker 1: of this word anymore, because in the I would say
Speaker 1: ten years, in the past ten years, at least, the
Speaker 1: majority of time I hear the word woke has been
Speaker 1: all negative. It has been all political. In the years
Speaker 1: prior to that, it was all black folks. It was
Speaker 1: a positive thing. It was you were almost it was
Speaker 1: almost an insult. If somebody considered you not to be woke,
Speaker 1: that's not where we are anymore. The word is such,
Speaker 1: it is thrown around as DII and it just it's
Speaker 1: all negative. And this came up Rover. It's probably daily,
Speaker 1: is it not that we end up doing a morning ryme,
Speaker 1: we're doing our podcast, we're doing the news, and the
Speaker 1: word woke comes up, and at some point sometimes I've
Speaker 1: done it on the podcast in just a moment, are
Speaker 1: certainly saying to you like, I'm so sick of this,
Speaker 1: I'm so sick of hearing the word woke. We should
Speaker 1: do something on it one day, And we finally got
Speaker 1: here because actually was Trump that got us to this
Speaker 1: point today with a very long, confusing post that he
Speaker 1: went woke and I didn't see it coming, and it's
Speaker 1: the Sidney Sweeney ad. We're still talking about that thing,
Speaker 1: but that has people are celebrating that as being anti woke.
Speaker 2: Which is I think assigning something to it that I
Speaker 2: would like to believe was never the intention. But okay,
Speaker 2: use that again as a political hot potato and use
Speaker 2: it to then push this messaging out that yes, white
Speaker 2: male politicians specifically have taken over and made to actually
Speaker 2: support an anti wokeness basically in a way, if that
Speaker 2: makes any sense. What is anti wokeness.
Speaker 1: Anti woke is pro white, anti wokeness is anti blackness.
Speaker 1: It's anti diversity if you are against that, and that's
Speaker 1: how it's being used.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: We can say this all day long, and we are
Speaker 1: not unlet We should make this clear, Robes. We are
Speaker 1: not trying to have a political discussion right now. We
Speaker 1: are not trying to get on the sides of people
Speaker 1: who think this is an ideology or not. I have
Speaker 1: my feelings about where it is when it comes to woke,
Speaker 1: but this is not We're not trying to have a
Speaker 1: political argument. All we were trying to do, Robes, And
Speaker 1: I've been begging folks to just stop for a second,
Speaker 1: take a beat, and examine what woke actually is and
Speaker 1: don't just accept the negative definition that's being heaped on you,
Speaker 1: because you're actually starting to think, and we're starting to
Speaker 1: believe that if you are woke, then you are for diversity,
Speaker 1: and that's bad. All. That's where the messaging now lie.
Speaker 1: And we talk about those robes all the freaking time.
Speaker 1: Do you even know if you walk down the street,
Speaker 1: what is woke? I just asked three kid downstairs, all
Speaker 1: white under the age of twenty two, about woke, and
Speaker 1: their answer was all the same. It's negative.
Speaker 2: It's an insult, which is crazy because so you've been
Speaker 2: wanting to do this podcast for some time, and I
Speaker 2: asked you to give me some of the just the
Speaker 2: the articles, the research that you were using to go
Speaker 2: back and really take a look at that word, where
Speaker 2: it began and how it basically was stolen, especially in
Speaker 2: the last few years. And I have to say I
Speaker 2: learned a heck of a lot about that word that
Speaker 2: I did not know, and I'm just fully admitting I
Speaker 2: did not know the origins and I did not realize that.
Speaker 2: I mean, even a few years ago, folks were saying,
Speaker 2: go ahead and just exchange the word woke for black,
Speaker 2: and that's basically what's being said, which is scary if
Speaker 2: you think about it in those terms. If you just
Speaker 2: replace woke with black, that's offensive as hell. With how
Speaker 2: it's being used right now by many politicians, it.
Speaker 1: Just drives me crazy that anytime it comes up, it's
Speaker 1: automatically it's a word, it's a catch all. It is
Speaker 1: a all encompassing phrase to represent anti diversity, it's this
Speaker 1: idea that any effort to be progressive, any effort to
Speaker 1: be inclusive, any effort to be anything other than heterosexual
Speaker 1: and white, is woke. And I hate that we are
Speaker 1: now using this as a word and using diversity itself,
Speaker 1: the idea that we want to be inclusive as a negative.
Speaker 2: That's scary when you start to see businesses and we
Speaker 2: have seen one by one by one dropping their DEAI departments,
Speaker 2: dropping their DEI policies. Period. It's having real life impact
Speaker 2: on a lot of folks, and we haven't even seen
Speaker 2: the reality of what that's going to look like. You know,
Speaker 2: we're seeing these businesses make these decisions now in real
Speaker 2: time over the last couple of months. But what is
Speaker 2: it going to look like? What are these businesses going
Speaker 2: to look like? What is what are their policies going
Speaker 2: to look like six months from now, a year from now?
Speaker 2: What impact is that going to have on the people
Speaker 2: who these companies are supposed to be serving?
Speaker 1: And I don't look, but it's not like all these
Speaker 1: companies are very diverse when it comes to their corporate
Speaker 1: leadership already. So now you take away a policy or
Speaker 1: an idea, or at least a belief or at least
Speaker 1: a declaration that we want to do better, that we
Speaker 1: want to be more diverse. We are now embracing it, seems,
Speaker 1: and yes, this Sidney Sweeney ad has a lot to
Speaker 1: do with it, seeming to embrace this idea of yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't give a damn and we're gonna boldface, We're
Speaker 1: gonna look right in your eye and say we don't
Speaker 1: give a damn about including you in our group. That
Speaker 1: is now where the Sidney Sweeney ad. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's what American Eagle was trying to do. Not knocking
Speaker 1: Sidney Sweeney for it, but it's become a bigger part
Speaker 1: of a conversation. And that's okay. I'm glad we are
Speaker 1: talking about And you know what was the most encouraging
Speaker 1: part of us doing this podcast right now, if nobody
Speaker 1: else gets anything out of it, you just said, Wow,
Speaker 1: I learned something I didn't know about a word you
Speaker 1: hear all the time, and you hear me talk about
Speaker 1: all the time, and you still learn by just taking
Speaker 1: a beat on your own. And I think most people
Speaker 1: aren't doing that.
Speaker 2: Oh god no, And I'm telling you right now, it
Speaker 2: was another one of those kind of humbling moments where
Speaker 2: you hear something, you reference something, you use the word,
Speaker 2: and then you realize, damn, I didn't know what I
Speaker 2: was saying. I didn't know what I was talking about,
Speaker 2: what the current use of it is, and I know
Speaker 2: generally what it means, obviously, but I did not realize
Speaker 2: the origins. And when you realize the origins, you will
Speaker 2: think twice about how you use that word, when you
Speaker 2: use that word, where you use that word, and why
Speaker 2: you use that word.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It what set us off today talking about woke
Speaker 1: is the President put on a long statement having to
Speaker 1: do with Sidney Sweeney, but he took a couple of
Speaker 1: swipes at other industries, not industries, other companies Jaguar and
Speaker 1: bud Light in particular. Jaguar had an ad not too
Speaker 1: terribly long a year ago, whole relaunch of their brand,
Speaker 1: but they used just models that seem to be what's
Speaker 1: the right way to put it dressed Androgyn's stress.
Speaker 2: I guess right, like non gender specific, yes, And.
Speaker 1: It was seen as a as a woke commercial company.
Speaker 1: He did terribly. CEO just resigned, so Trump jumped him
Speaker 1: for that. Bud Light, same thing. It was a year ago,
Speaker 1: two years ago had a campaign in which they featured
Speaker 1: a trans influencer. People went crazy about that. Trump jumped
Speaker 1: on him for that. He called Taylor Swift in the
Speaker 1: same post a woke entertainer and that her career is hurting.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. But the last line is the
Speaker 1: one that got me. Quote. The tide has seriously turned.
Speaker 1: Being woke is for losers. Being Republican is what you
Speaker 1: want to be. Ah, that's tough. That's the president saying
Speaker 1: that this idea of awareness, this idea of woke, or
Speaker 1: at least the way they are defining is that if
Speaker 1: you are any way in any way supportive of progressive
Speaker 1: ideas or being diverse in any way, then you're a looser.
Speaker 2: The frustrating thing about it is, I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people, and I'm guessing I'm gonna put Republicans and
Speaker 2: some of the folks who are behind this way of
Speaker 2: thinking that it's if you're woke, you're a loser. They
Speaker 2: might be going up against or fighting back or pushing
Speaker 2: back against overcorrection, like overcorrection like we have to nobody
Speaker 2: can say anything, or we're gonna offend somebody if we
Speaker 2: don't use the right pronouns, we're gonna offend something. So
Speaker 2: I guess my point is you could still have an
Speaker 2: argument for guys, let's everybody calm down. Let's not be
Speaker 2: so quick to overcorrect and to be overly inclusive that
Speaker 2: we end up alienating everybody. And I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people can understand that. But that's not what he's saying,
Speaker 2: and that's not what a lot of folks are saying,
Speaker 2: or even the legislation we saw in Florida is saying.
Speaker 2: Because I could understand that, I understand it. It's tough
Speaker 2: sometimes when we go out of our way to the
Speaker 2: point where we are trying to include everybody, but it
Speaker 2: ends up excluding a lot of other people. You can
Speaker 2: go too far, is my point. And I could get
Speaker 2: behind that. I understand that, and that would be perhaps
Speaker 2: maybe an appropriate lane to stay in. But that is
Speaker 2: not the lane he's ever even been in. It's completely
Speaker 2: all or nothing, and I don't think in any way
Speaker 2: you operate if is that. Okay, you can't be all
Speaker 2: or nothing. There has to be some middle ground. And
Speaker 2: so if they're upset about overcorrection or even any conversation
Speaker 2: about inclusion when it comes to people and wanting to
Speaker 2: be a part of things, to go to the other
Speaker 2: side of things and say, anyone who considers anyone who
Speaker 2: doesn't look like you, sound like you, believe what you
Speaker 2: believe in, if you try to then placate them, you're
Speaker 2: a loser. That's ridiculous. That's so sad to me. And
Speaker 2: I don't want to go and point the finger at
Speaker 2: them or anyone else who feels that way. But think
Speaker 2: about what you're doing and what you're saying. We're right,
Speaker 2: you're wrong, us versus them. Tribalism, it's to visit and
Speaker 2: it's we should be about trying to be inclusive and
Speaker 2: understanding and curious, but not demonizing the other side or
Speaker 2: demonizing someone who thinks differently than you. And that's exactly
Speaker 2: what we're seeing from this leadership.
Speaker 1: Was it the d D didn't they change? They took
Speaker 1: John Lewis's name off of a what was it?
Speaker 2: Well, they took I know they took Harvey Milk's name
Speaker 2: off of the off of the airt aircraft Carria.
Speaker 1: The very good example now in wanting to honor an
Speaker 1: LGBTQ plus icon by who had a military background.
Speaker 2: Whose parents were military, he was military, I.
Speaker 1: Told myself, I didn't want to use specific examples in
Speaker 1: this because it's going to go sideways, but you've made
Speaker 1: me think of it. There. If you just want to
Speaker 1: honor this guy who had a military connection and was
Speaker 1: an icon for the LGBTQ plus community, that's woke.
Speaker 2: No, That is showing people that there's presentation for people
Speaker 2: who look like you or perhaps act like you, who
Speaker 2: aren't like the others. That's important. And I can say
Speaker 2: this is as and I can say this is a
Speaker 2: white woman understanding that you can speak to it in
Speaker 2: a way that I can't. How important it is to
Speaker 2: see people who look like you, or act like you,
Speaker 2: or feel the same way you do reflected in some way.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean we have to go over the top.
Speaker 2: It just to take it away completely is so sad
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: So, folks, do you know right now? Folks, do you
Speaker 1: ask yourself, if you had to right now give me
Speaker 1: a definition of woke, could you do it? Well? It
Speaker 1: depends on who you ask. But today, most of the
Speaker 1: time that we hear the word woke, this is the
Speaker 1: definition that goes along with it. It is a negative.
Speaker 1: It's defined often by conservatives as an ideology being woke
Speaker 1: is to embrace progressive ideas that recognize social and racial injustices.
Speaker 1: That's a negative.
Speaker 2: How is that negative?
Speaker 1: Well, it is because no, no, no, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go with into their ideas, but it's that is what
Speaker 1: being woke is today, that you embrace progressive ideas. Now
Speaker 1: they want to go far their robes, and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to get into that. But the idea of you're
Speaker 1: actually embracing an ideology that suggests that America is systemically
Speaker 1: racist in many of its facets of society has been,
Speaker 1: and that black folks and people of color adding a
Speaker 1: disadvantage from white people. If you believe that you are
Speaker 1: wrong and you are woke, and you're embracing an ideology
Speaker 1: that is wrong. There are many people who do want
Speaker 1: to view this country as one that is completely fair
Speaker 1: to all sides, and there are no advantages if you
Speaker 1: are white and if you believe that you are woke
Speaker 1: and you are wrong. That is the definition. But there
Speaker 1: is another one, folks, that black folks have had for
Speaker 1: the world. It's much different, and it goes back over
Speaker 1: one hundred years. We continue now, folks, Robac and I
Speaker 1: here we gave you a minute you had a little
Speaker 1: break there. Did you come up with a definition of woke?
Speaker 1: There is another definition of woke Roabes, and it goes
Speaker 1: back some one hundred plus years. And I said, the
Speaker 1: way I have heard and used woke up until about
Speaker 1: ten years ago was all the time, you need to
Speaker 1: wake up, you need to be aware. You ain't woke,
Speaker 1: You ain't on this. It was a negative if you weren't.
Speaker 1: I've been in environments where if I wasn't aware of
Speaker 1: something going on, I was looked at and called out
Speaker 1: for not being woke. How can you not know this?
Speaker 1: How can you not be aware of this? That's how
Speaker 1: it was used against me. You remember I had a
Speaker 1: show with a black TV network. That show was called
Speaker 1: Don't Sleep. And I remember the executive at the time,
Speaker 1: we were trying to figure out what we should call
Speaker 1: the show. All these meetings went out he and it
Speaker 1: was a play on being woke. Don't Sleep.
Speaker 2: So I knew you were on that show. And I
Speaker 2: thought the name don't Sleep was used because it was
Speaker 2: late night.
Speaker 1: It was a play on that. But no, the idea
Speaker 1: is don't sleep. We're going to tell you what you
Speaker 1: need to be aware of. You need to be up on.
Speaker 1: Don't sleep.
Speaker 2: It's about you gotta be aware. Yeah, and I'm asking
Speaker 2: a question as a white girl, as a white person,
Speaker 2: the point being if you're asleep, it could be dangerous. Yes,
Speaker 2: that was.
Speaker 1: The origin of it. It was a warning you need
Speaker 1: to be aware of what's around you. In particular, we're
Speaker 1: going to get into it here in the South where
Speaker 1: some boys were actually falsely accused of doing something and
Speaker 1: ended up on trial and convicted of a crime they
Speaker 1: did not commit because they weren't aware of their surroundings.
Speaker 1: If you will, you wait, you and in Mississippi, you
Speaker 1: and Alabama, you don't know. We need to be woke,
Speaker 1: You need to be away in that crazy Yes, because
Speaker 1: that word and that thing is now being stolen, co
Speaker 1: opted by somebody else, and it's not ours anymore, at
Speaker 1: least in the public conversation. Because there's no way I
Speaker 1: should be going down there and talking to those three
Speaker 1: white kids and the only thing on their mind. Yeah,
Speaker 1: woke is a negative. That's terrible, it's bad. That shouldn't
Speaker 1: be the case. That means we are losing that.
Speaker 2: Battle, my goodness. Yes, because when you go back and
Speaker 2: look at what the origins are I It makes sense
Speaker 2: now that I know, but I was shocked at how
Speaker 2: much I didn't know. And I mean, look, you, we've
Speaker 2: talked about this a lot. Your head is always on
Speaker 2: a swivel, and it always was a little perplexing to me.
Speaker 2: I understood recently why your head was on a swivel
Speaker 2: because there were people who were trying to take our
Speaker 2: pictures and all of that, but I never really thought
Speaker 2: about it historically from the perspective of who you are
Speaker 2: as a black man, how you were raised, what you
Speaker 2: were taught, what you needed to know, and what you
Speaker 2: needed to do to be safe. And I never I
Speaker 2: never put two and two together because I've never had
Speaker 2: that experience as a woman. I've had other things, but nothing, nothing,
Speaker 2: nothing compared to what I see you do each and
Speaker 2: every day. And understanding that word now woke and understanding
Speaker 2: you a little bit better by doing this research. It's
Speaker 2: it's mind blowing to me how much I don't know
Speaker 2: and how much I haven't had to experience in the
Speaker 2: same way or in any only in a very small way.
Speaker 2: And it makes sense now, but it also is just
Speaker 2: incredibly gutting to me that not only has the word
Speaker 2: been stolen and used politically, but it's being used against
Speaker 2: the cause, against everything that your community has desperately tried
Speaker 2: to protect itself from.
Speaker 1: White folks always do this to us. I said that
Speaker 1: somewhat jokingly, but white power. That phrase that scares the
Speaker 1: hell out of you came from black power. It was
Speaker 1: taken from us. It was something that was a rallying
Speaker 1: cry of black power, black lives matter, that was taken
Speaker 1: from us. The same thing happened in this messaging and
Speaker 1: language to where black lives matter became a negative. All
Speaker 1: lives matter, Blue lives matter, So if you say black
Speaker 1: lives matter, it was seen as a negative. These things happen,
Speaker 1: and they have happened to us plenty, and once again
Speaker 1: the idea of woke. So we're gonna go back to
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three Marcus Garvey. Did you know that name?
Speaker 1: You may have, but he was a black nationalist, Jamaican
Speaker 1: brother who was on this idea of black folks here
Speaker 1: in America need to go back actually to Africa. But
Speaker 1: he is considered a hero of the movement. But he
Speaker 1: was one who so many years ago started using the
Speaker 1: phrase again. Nineteen twenty three is the first time he
Speaker 1: is attributed with saying it, but he was saying, wake
Speaker 1: up Ethiopia, wake up Africa. He was trying to it
Speaker 1: was a rallying cry. But that was one of the
Speaker 1: earliest times we heard people use so nineteen twenty three,
Speaker 1: Marcus Garvey a rallying cry for black folks. Today it's
Speaker 1: a total negative.
Speaker 2: I wonder what Marcus Garvey would be thinking right now.
Speaker 2: I mean what I say, he's turning over in his grave.
Speaker 2: But could he have even imagined maybe he could have baby?
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, that sounds about right. He probably would
Speaker 2: say that. Eh, figures I could have predicted that one.
Speaker 1: Sounds about right the next one. Though, we go from
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three to nineteen thirty eight, this is the
Speaker 1: first time, is believe this word woke appeared in a song.
Speaker 1: The song is called Scottsboro Boys. Now most of you
Speaker 1: probably never heard of it, but it plays a significant
Speaker 1: role because at the end of it, the singer led
Speaker 1: Belly goes his name, but he was speaking at the
Speaker 1: end and he's said, I advise everybody to be careful
Speaker 1: when they go down there, stay woke, keep your eyes open.
Speaker 1: The reference there was to these Scottsboro boys who had
Speaker 1: been charged falsely with raping two white girls, and he
Speaker 1: was speaking to them in this song, Scottsboro boys, be
Speaker 1: careful when you go down there, stay woke, keep your
Speaker 1: eyes open.
Speaker 2: It's well from what I understand, these boys were literally
Speaker 2: just on a train that happened to also have white
Speaker 2: women on it, and they couldn't They didn't realize that
Speaker 2: they were in danger or that they could stand to
Speaker 2: be accused of something just being in the presence of
Speaker 2: white women.
Speaker 1: Think about that, folks, stay woke. As you hear Governor
Speaker 1: DeSantis telling everybody, this is Florida's where woke goes to
Speaker 1: die and saying it's such a negative that this was
Speaker 1: a warning to black boys who ended up charged with
Speaker 1: a crime they didn't commit because they didn't heed the
Speaker 1: warning to stay woke, stay aware. It's all this was.
Speaker 2: You go.
Speaker 1: Then to nineteen forty Negro mind workers in West Virginia.
Speaker 1: They realized they weren't getting paid the same as their
Speaker 1: white counterparts. They wrote to their bosses, quote, we were asleep,
Speaker 1: but we will stay woke from now on. Nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: two ropes That is the one that I think most
Speaker 1: people point to as the first time, maybe in print,
Speaker 1: but I think this is the one that's credited with
Speaker 1: really almost coining the phrase.
Speaker 2: That article was fascinating, and you can google it and
Speaker 2: you can read it from start to finish, and it
Speaker 2: is I mean, it was eye opening, and I didn't
Speaker 2: realize he was talking about how the white beat nicks,
Speaker 2: the nineteen sixties folks who were in the jazz scene
Speaker 2: trying and taking on the language the music of black people,
Speaker 2: and specifically describing how all of a sudden, white folks
Speaker 2: start taking black phrases or black words, and then all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, the black community is like, yeah, we're
Speaker 2: gonna move on and get a different word. But it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, the black community, they've got great music, they've
Speaker 2: got cool ways of speaking. And then going into the
Speaker 2: fact that some of this language was created among black
Speaker 2: people who were slaves, enslaved so that their masters couldn't
Speaker 2: understand what they were saying, and that is part of
Speaker 2: the history, and the fact that you've got every group
Speaker 2: coming in going oh, that sounds cool. I'm going to
Speaker 2: start saying that, I'm going to start using that phrase.
Speaker 2: I'm going to start It was wild to see this
Speaker 2: written in nineteen sixty two.
Speaker 1: So if you all get a chance this, please please
Speaker 1: remember this. It's called if You're Woke, You dig It.
Speaker 1: If You're woke, You dig It. It's an essay from
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two by author William Melvin Kelly. William Melvin Kelly,
Speaker 1: If You're Woke, You dig It. I beg you all
Speaker 1: to go check that thing out. I think it should
Speaker 1: be required reading. If you were going to be engaged
Speaker 1: in politics these days, you should read that, because woke
Speaker 1: is everywhere, and unfortunately, I don't think most people uttering
Speaker 1: it have any idea.
Speaker 2: Oh they don't, they do not can I can speak
Speaker 2: for all of those people we did not know, We
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: I speak for the whites. But then in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, this was when it became I guess it
Speaker 1: was just a good song master teacher by Erica Bad
Speaker 1: and it was repetitive in there. Woke, woke, woke was
Speaker 1: said a whole bunch in there. But then in twenty
Speaker 1: fourteen Rogues, when finally Michael Brown and Ferguson was killed,
Speaker 1: that's when it became more a part of a modern
Speaker 1: day rallying cry. With so much we were seeing.
Speaker 2: And the Black Lives Matter movement also around that time
Speaker 2: as well, But it was it was interesting because it
Speaker 2: was Erica Badou who said at this point after that song,
Speaker 2: she said, you can go ahead and replace welk with black.
Speaker 2: And so when you're saying what you're saying, just imagine
Speaker 2: if you said black instead of woke, because that's what
Speaker 2: it feels like to us each and every time you
Speaker 2: say something. And that really stood out to me.
Speaker 1: That's a great way to put it. And that's how
Speaker 1: I feel every time I see somebody standing at a
Speaker 1: podium saying anti woke or woke agenda's bad, or we
Speaker 1: won't cater to this woke agenda. It's not the right.
Speaker 1: I understand politics as politics, but this one it feels
Speaker 1: personal and it feels like an insult, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel inclusive in the least bit. Look, plenty of things
Speaker 1: don't feel inclusive, but this is you're looking in my
Speaker 1: face and announcing we don't want you here, We don't
Speaker 1: want you to be a part of this. You are
Speaker 1: not a part of this. And even our products now
Speaker 1: we're not even going to pretend like we want you
Speaker 1: to use. We don't even want you to be a
Speaker 1: customer of ours that it's just it's starting to fit.
Speaker 1: It feels awful.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like I have a question for you.
Speaker 2: You that the woke the anti woke campaign, do you
Speaker 2: feel like it was more directed or seems to have
Speaker 2: gotten more legs based on the LGBTQ plus community, that
Speaker 2: that's when it really rose to another level. When you're
Speaker 2: talking about trans rights and you're talking about bathrooms and
Speaker 2: who get like. I feel like that's when it really
Speaker 2: took on a whole other level. And it wasn't even
Speaker 2: about the black community, which is another slap in the
Speaker 2: face in a way.
Speaker 1: Anything progressive, anything that's not the norm, and the norm
Speaker 1: is to some all American, white, conservative, heterosexual and if
Speaker 1: it's not that, then it's not really America. I don't
Speaker 1: owe your question again there.
Speaker 2: Well, my question was do you think that it even
Speaker 2: took on a whole other level with the LGBTQ plus community.
Speaker 1: I say that, I say yes, just because it gave
Speaker 1: folks another target. We have another option. First, we were just
Speaker 1: talking about you black folks. Now we can talk about
Speaker 1: you folks over here and you folks over here. Now
Speaker 1: we just got more groups we can we can actually
Speaker 1: discriminate against if you will. I think that just gave
Speaker 1: them another talking point and another agenda, and another and
Speaker 1: another way to divide us to win elections. To be honest,
Speaker 1: I think that's really all that wasn't just I do.
Speaker 1: This is not about politicians. This is not about a
Speaker 1: political issue. This is not us trying to get you
Speaker 1: to go this way or that way. It's just trying
Speaker 1: to get folks to be a little more aware of
Speaker 1: what you're hearing, what's being said to you, where it
Speaker 1: comes from, why, and just and make your own call
Speaker 1: about how you use that word, when you use that word,
Speaker 1: and how you feel when you actually hear it. It's
Speaker 1: not an insult to be woke, folks, It's just not God.
Speaker 2: No, I hope that that actually I mean, I feel
Speaker 2: like that resonates. Why would it ever be a bad
Speaker 2: thing to not be asleep at the wheel, to be awake,
Speaker 2: to understand, to do the research to understand history. There's
Speaker 2: a reason why we have history classes. The problem is
Speaker 2: we're not taught history. We're taught white history. We're taught
Speaker 2: very specific history. We're not given the full breadth of
Speaker 2: what and how we got to where we are.
Speaker 1: We didn't even mention the Stop Woke Act in Florida. Florida,
Speaker 1: they literally have passed a law to keep folks from
Speaker 1: learning about some of this stuff, some diversity, because they
Speaker 1: think if you learn about how the country started, then
Speaker 1: the little white kid that's six years old now is
Speaker 1: going to think he's privileged.
Speaker 2: Or he's or he's a bad person because people who
Speaker 2: came before him are pressed.
Speaker 1: Yes, I just I don't. It just drives me crazy,
Speaker 1: And I just hope folks that this came off the
Speaker 1: way we wanted it to come off, which was just
Speaker 1: to get you to think a little more about the
Speaker 1: word when you hear it, and you're going to hear
Speaker 1: it probably tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Maybe even tonight in a tweet, in a truth social post.
Speaker 2: But it is fascinating to understand the history of it,
Speaker 2: to understand its origins, and to understand its actual meaning
Speaker 2: versus how it's being used in politics today.
Speaker 1: I was about to say, just I'm gonna leave it
Speaker 1: though there's only one word I can think of. We
Speaker 1: took from white folks that they had first. And with that, folks,
Speaker 1: we always appreciate you taking a listen with us. I'm
Speaker 1: CJ on the behalf of my pard n Amy robot,
Speaker 1: who has a facing her.
Speaker 2: Hands because I know the word yes that you're referencing.
Speaker 1: We will, We'll see y'allsoo