The Great Awokening
By David Steffen
When a new word arrives—new to the person hearing it for the first time—it can be confusing or perplexing until you understand how to comfortably use the word in conversation. I recall times when my brother, who is 7 years my senior, could be a chameleon to a 12-year old. Some days he appeared to me to be a teenage juvenile delinquent, other days a member of the beat generation, and on still other days he seemed to be normal, whatever normal was in 1959. He joined the Navy the next year and subsequently mainstreamed his life.
The “beat generation” was not, as I thought back then, a happy, free-thinking label applied to 18-28 year olds during the post-world War II years. If you accept that writer Jack Kerouac was the one to define the ‘Beats’, you need to dig into his own words—and those of John Clellon Holmes—from a November 1952 Sunday New York Times Magazine piece: “'You know, this is a really beat generation' ... More than mere weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of mind, and ultimately, of soul: a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness. In short, it means being undramatically pushed up against the wall of oneself.” So much for my relatively uninformed conclusion that “beat” was a positive, suggesting an aware and open-minded member of society, albeit at the dawn of the counter-culture.
Changes in language are ongoing. Jazz saxophonist Lester Young has long been credited with helping change the meaning of the word “cool”. Prior to the age of Jazz, “cool” was literally or metaphorically about ambient temperature. After Young (and others) embraced the word, “cool” became a positive critique, as in a compliment to a fellow musician: “that riff was cool.”
Like “cool”, “hipster” is a derivative word from the language of Jazz musicians of the 1940s. The musicians of the BeBop era might have used both ‘hepcat’ and ‘hep’ to acknowledge the music of their time, referring to those within the jazz or avant-garde music scene. “Hep” transitioned to become an acknowledgment of one’s (yours or mine) personal knowledge, especially about Jive or Jazz. By the 1960s and 1970s, it morphed again. “I’m hip” emerged as a rhetorical (and sometimes quick) response to almost any question or assertion.
Working in Chicago in the 1970s I met Cheech and Chong during their first “concert” tour. It was farce, hilarious, and contained numerous moments when Tommy Chong would simply utter the phrase: “I’m hip, man.” In subsequent decades the phrase receded to a great degree as a somewhat everyman application of Chong’s straight-line.
Hipster, on the other hand, is most often applied to individuals whom some might call “want-to-be’s”, or “wannabe’s”. While I make no assertion of an absolutely correct definition, I suggest that in the 21st century, a hipster is less about knowledge—music or otherwise—and instead is all about projecting conspicuous consumption in an effort to be much more than they really are, intellectually, financially, socially.
History records a number of large (some might say “mass”) religious “revivals” in our country’s history. The Great Awakening in the American colonies during the mid-18th century, was made up of descendants (along with more recent arrivals) of multiple European states and the British Isles. No single religion or sect was central to this other than protestantism; individuals may have seen themselves as Anglican, Baptist, Calvinist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Quakers or Reformed. Beyond that, the Awakening was non-denominational and a revival was on. Those willing to listen heard that all people are born sinners, sin without salvation is a ticket to hell, confession was more than good for the soul, mere mortals can connect with God, and religion was personalized. The early 18th century, late 18th century, mid-19th century and mid-20th century were all times of similar Awakenings.
Within the past ten years or so, another word has emerged. Shedding some light on the origin is Jon Pareles, who has written about music and the arts for the New York Times for three decades. This month he published a column about Georgia Anne Muldrow. Muldrow’s 21st album hits the streets this month, but she’s more than a songwriter and musician. As Pareles writes, “Muldrow has also produced other performers and made EPs, singles and numerous guest appearances with, among others, Mos Def (who reworked Muldrow’s song “Roses”), “Bilal”, Dev Hynes and, most notably, Erykah Badu in their 2008 collaboration, “Master Teacher”. That song popularized the phrase “Stay woke,” which had been Muldrow’s admonition to herself at a low point in her life.”
I can’t remember the first time I heard “woke” spoken by someone with authority. After a decade of use I still find myself reluctant to utter the word publicly. It reminds me of the random use of the word “bro”. Depending on the speaker, it either sounds authentic or maybe pretentious. I feel compelled to assert that it’s not like I’ve lived my entire adult life in a Caucasian bubble. I lived and worked in large cities with diverse populations, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. I’ve talked with, worked with, and enjoyed the music of Quincy Jones, Billy Preston, The Brothers Johnson, Janet Jackson, McCoy Tyner, George Benson and many more.
For those who aren’t sure, a woke person is someone who has "woken up”. Yes, woke is a derivative of “awake”. Instead of talking about sleep and (simply) waking up, “woke” is about becoming aware of discrimination and social issues in our culture writ large. The injustice can be based on culture, race, society or class. Being woke is recognizing the injustices and understanding that we cannot pretend racism does not exist in America, and that it is time—beyond time, really—to call it out. Guilt is not required. What’s required is a real acknowledgement of the American idea since inception, a melting pot: E Pluribus Unum.
We must remember that we’ve lived this “reality” before. The Irish were despised, the Italians were despised. The Chinese were exploited and legislated against. The Japanese were interned. Mexicans have been a source of cheap labor, exploited by American employers beginning (most notably) in the half-century after World War II. And there were the recent killings in Atlanta.
Using the word woke is not about race, and not about color, and not about being hip or cool. It's simply about recognizing the truth around us, the truth among us. Being ‘woke’ is an acknowledgement, but also something greater. A determination, as Michael Jackson wrote, to look at the “man in the mirror” and change. I have not graduated (matured, I guess) to the point where I would use “woke” in conversation. But I am happy to be woke, and hope to stay woke. We all need to reach “wokeness”, and perhaps then we can all push this country into a Great Awokening.
Image: Beat poets including Allen Ginsberg (center) at Cafe Trieste, San Francisco.
