Woke people wear locs or baby fros and use coconut oil, olive oil, and hemp soap. Woke people are smart-they are normally educated with at least one bachelor's degree, keep a copy of a James Baldwin or bell hooks book on their person, have a passport, are fluent in all forms of social media, and have been to Cuba at least once since Obama lifted the embargo. Woke people know the origins of everything that hurts black people, the policies that allow these systems to function, and have the most effective language when given the opportunity to explain these issues, mainly online or during the intermission at spoken-word readings. I shot a peace sign at him and left the store.Įverybody's woke now, right? I wonder how that's working out? The term 'woke' simply refers to not being asleep, not being ignorant to the issues that plague black America-racism, poor schools, food deserts, crooked cops, our broken justice system, unfair hiring practices, and the banks that bury us with vicious Black Taxes like unfair interest rates on mortgages. He laughed, 'You betta wake up, man, it's a jungle out there! Stay woke!' His shop is just a little ways away from my neighborhood and he always has a nice selection.ĭude bagged my goods, I paid him and proceeded to walk away as he grabbed me by the sleeve of my hoodie to show off his new merch. 'Big bruh, I got these #StayWoke shirts for twenty dollars!' said the dude I've bought my incense from for over five years now. Reprinted with permission from the author.

Excerpted from ' We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America' by D.

Woke up like this movie review