Now I have to confess this word has been sitting in my script for some time. I've been having the hardest time trying to decide whether I wanna talk about this word or not.

其實這個詞我一直都想講, 但一直都在猶豫, 主要是因為這個詞后面的爭議太大, 而且它的傾向性和內涵一直都在變遷。

雖然它是美國乃至英語國家, 甚至整個西方都在談的一個熱詞, 但是你問10個人10個人都可能給它下不同的定義, 會告訴你不同的看法。

But anyhow, I'm gonna take a step at it.

01 Woke的起源

First of all, what does it mean literally?

Woke is not standard English. 首先它不是標準英語, it is an adjective derived from AAVE, African American Vernacular English.

它是非裔美國人, 也就是美國黑人他們的口語表達里面的一個詞。只要你學過小學英語, 你都學過 wake, wake up, wake醒過來, 這個詞的過去式是woke, 它的過去分詞是woken.

But in some varieties of African American English, woke is used in place of woken.

它最早的字面意思就是在African American的英語里面, 他們會用woke來代替woken這個詞; 后來這個詞就逐漸的從過去分詞的一個變體變成了一個adjective, equivalent to awake.

像我們說stay awake就是保持清醒的狀態, 現在woke它的字面意思, 你可以把它理解為清醒狀態, 但是我們一般把它翻譯成 “覺醒/警醒”.

The phrase “stay woke” has been present in African American English since the 1930s.

In some context, it refers to an awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans.

這個詞在逐漸的演化中, 就從最早的簡單的awake, “清醒的覺醒的”詞的本意延伸到美國黑人文化里對系統性種族歧視 “ systemic racism”保持清醒和警惕, 這也是為什么我們把它翻譯成 “警醒”或者 “覺醒文化”.

But that's not all of it.

During the 2014 Ferguson protests, the phrase was popularized by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists seeking to raise awareness about police shootings of African Americans.

本來這個詞它是沒有進入mainstream主流的英語語境, 僅限于在黑人群體中的小范圍使用;

但到了2014年, Ferguson protest是因為有一位美國黑人被白人警察射殺, 這個事件掀起了弗格森地區的抗議浪潮, 所以當時在社交媒體上#staywoke, “#保持警醒”話題標簽就開始火了起來.

當時主要是為了呼吁人們關注這樣的一個系統性種族歧視的現象.

Over time, it gained so much popularity, it became increasingly connected to matters beyond race, such as gender and identities perceived as marginalized.

不過隨后woke這個含義從簡單的 “黑人反抗種族壓迫” 進一步擴大, 它的政治和社會意義內涵, 開始從 “種族不平等”延伸到 “性別、跨性別者、環保主義、墮胎、性騷擾”等等社會話題,

在美國逐漸就演變成了一場文化戰爭, 這也是為什么英語里有wokeism, 可以把它理解為 “覺醒主義”或者 “覺醒運動”.

Now the term became popular with millenniums and members of Genz, 特別受千禧一代和Z世代的歡迎, 相當于中國的85后、90后、95后、00后這么幾代人。

As its use spread internationally, woke was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.

Wokeism也逐漸超越了美國的國境, 蔓延到其他英語國家乃至世界上很多其他的國家。

所以2017年它也被作為形容詞, 收入了牛津字典。

So far, this is understandable. But this is when it gets tricky.

02 Woke發生的微妙變化

但是在woke這個詞進入主流英語之后, 它的感情色彩卻發生了很微妙的變化。

By 2020, many on the political right and some in the center in several Western countries began using the term sarcastically as a pejorative for various leftist and progressive movements and ideologies.

Wokeism或者Woke這個概念本來就是比較偏激進派、偏左的這樣的一個思潮, 所以到了2020年, 很多偏右甚至偏中間的這些組織或者黨派, 他們開始用woke這個詞來諷刺一些過于激進或者是這種過度追求政治正確的人。

Some argue that this is because the term has been co-opted by mainstream culture and stripped off its original meaning and power.

有的人就說這是因為Woke的內涵, 它迅速的泛化, 進入主流社會, 致使很多人雖然不清楚這個詞本來表示什么；

但是他們會把這個詞泛泛地用在他們自己認為的各種歧視或者不公現象, 這個時候他們就可以高舉 Wokeism警醒的這面大旗, 并且對于他們認為不夠woke的人占據moral high grounds, 道德高地。

正是因為這種概念的泛化和woke追隨者的這種self righteousness, 自以為是道德高地的這種態度, 反而令woke這個本來應該很有力量的詞引發了大量的反感.

People are starting to watch out for what they say so that they don't get blamed and attacked for not being woke enough, especially in the United States where this concept of woke originated.

It has been used in political fights, 特別是在美國這個詞還被用來作為黨爭的工具, the Republican Party representatives, including Trump, and some senators, they are actually calling people who embrace wokeism as the woke mob.

甚至共和黨里的一些言論, 他們會把 wokeism覺醒主義的這些人稱為woke mob, 叫做所謂的 “覺醒暴民” 。

所以可以說短短幾年間曾經被眾多的美國年輕人用作覺醒號角, 在社交媒體上充當進步徽章的這個詞woke, 如今很多時候都會在貶損和戲謔的語境里才會被使用。

03 Woke的衍生

This word is not just used in the political arena, derivative terms such as woke washing, and woke capitalism has been coined to describe activities in the business world.

而由這個詞也延伸出來一些非常有意思的概念, 比如說woke washing.

大家都聽過white washing...洗白, woke washing, 你可以把它理解為覺醒洗白。

This is basically companies, businesses, if they want to sell products to the general public, they feel like they have to appear more woke.

也就是說他們通常會用一些廣告或者用一些宣傳來展現自己有多么的woke, 有多么的 “左”, 多么的激進, 多么的覺醒, 但實際上它的最終目的也就是為了跟風討好大眾, 這樣能賣更多的東西。

This is why you also have the idea of woke capitalism. 這也是為什么后來甚至出現了woke capitalism覺醒資本主義這個概念, 不過在這個問題上, 企業也非常容易翻車, 稍不注意就會引起強烈的backlash抵制.

所以當時還有句話叫做get woke, go broke.

Now, I'm not going to share my personal opinion on the matter.

Let's just say that even till now, wokeism remains a highly divisive word in the United States as well as many other Western countries.

例句示范

Sample Sentence：

-The concept of “being woke” can be a double-edged sword.