Affirming the term "woke" and its historical connection to Black history, Black liberation movements, and social justice.

Bill: 118-hres-1513
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Lee, Barbara [D-CA-12]
Introduced: 2024-09-25
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Latest action: action_date: 2024-09-25
text: Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Summaries:

tv_txt: IV 118th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1513 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 25, 2024 Ms. Lee of California submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability RESOLUTION Affirming the term woke and its historical connection to Black history, Black liberation movements, and social justice.

Whereas Black history is a critical aspect of United States history and has shaped United States culture, including the evolution of language; Whereas the words wake up and woke have served as a call to action as conveyed by social activist Marcus Garvey who stated, Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa , and the Negro Mine Workers who in 1940 issued the statement, We were asleep. But we will stay woke from now on , in advocating against discriminatory pay; Whereas the term woke was first highlighted in the 1962 essay, If You’re Woke, You Dig It , featured in the New York Times by Harlem-based writer William Melvin Kelley, who documented the cultural appropriation and distortion of language, resulting in certain idioms being abandoned by their original Black creators; Whereas the term woke has been similarly misused, as traditional media have reframed woke as trendy new slang, eroding its cultural connection and separating the term from its historical grounding in social justice; Whereas, six decades later, right-wing extremists have engaged in a similar exercise of cultural appropriation to weaponize and misdefine the term woke , as evidenced by the Stop W.O.K.E. Act , specifically targeting the teaching of United States history and Black educators; and Whereas Black educators are more likely to teach subjects that incorporate an inclusive view of history, and legislation like the End Woke Higher Education Act threaten to undermine both diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and nondiscrimination protections: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1) affirms the term woke and its historical connection to Black history, Black liberation movements, and social justice; (2) encourages a historically accurate and correct use of the term woke when its misuse is identified; and (3) condemns cultural appropriation, misuse of Black idioms, and specific efforts to revise history and to distort and redefine the specific term woke .