Actually, AOC, Woke 1.0 Did a Lot of Good Things for This Country

The congresswoman’s remarks Sunday ignored that things like Me Too and Black Lives Matters were positive developments. But it’s clear why she said what she did.

State Representative Francesca Hong, the frontrunner in tomorrow’s Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial Wisconsin primary, has been dogged by tweets she wrote back in 2020, most notably those calling for defunding and abolishing the police and no longer celebrating Thanksgiving. (She no longer holds those stances.) In an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was asked about Hong’s old positions. “I have a local city councilman that has this saying, ‘Woke One was crazy,’” she said with a smile, leading to a laugh from anchor Jonathan Karl. The congresswoman then explained that many politicians and activists no longer use the rhetoric they did six years ago.

Actually, there is no such thing as Woke One, and it would be almost impossible to define such a time, era, or set of positions. And even if you try to define Woke One, much of what happened was crazy—crazy awesome. If Ocasio-Cortez wants to be elected president in 2028 (and it really seems like she’s running), perhaps she has to distance herself from whatever she thinks people understand Woke One to be. But her comments underscore an important duality: We need a strong progressive movement pushing progressive ideas, including some that are essential but not yet popular; and also progressive politicians focused largely on popular ideas so that they can win elections and power. And those are separate tasks not accomplished by the same people.

The origins of “woke” aren’t totally agreed upon, but the general consensus is some Black activists first used it in the twentieth century as a call for African-Americans to remain vigilant in the fight against racism. The term became more frequently invoked by both Black people and non-Black supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement during the early 2010s.

Then, conservatives and even some on the center-left and left in the early 2020s started using the word to mock what they felt were performative or over-the-top displays of race or gender politics. There is no universal definition of woke. That makes it a useful term for politicians (who are often trying to be........

© New Republic