What does 'woke' actually mean?

Toward a definition.

“Woke” is everywhere these days.

“Florida is where woke goes to die,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has become fond of saying — in what sounds very much like a rhetorical preview of a coming 2024 candidacy.

“Change only happens if we plow fearlessly ahead and declare with one voice that the era of woke and weaponized government is over,” former President Donald Trump, already a 2024 candidate, told the CPAC crowd over the weekend. “We will demolish woke tyranny.”

“I’m running for president to renew an America that’s proud and strong, not weak and woke,” said former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley recently. “Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic, hands down.”

But, what, exactly does “woke” mean? A new poll from USA Today/Ipsos suggests that it means very different things to different people — dependent, at least in part, on their party affiliation.

Let’s start with the big finding: 56% of those surveyed said “woke” meant to be “aware, informed and educated on social injustices” while 39% said that it was “to be overly politically correct and police others’ words.”

Breaking it out into partisan terms, the picture becomes clearer. Almost 8 in 10 Democrats (78%) say that “woke” is about being aware of social injustices; a majority (56%) of Republicans say it is about being too politically correct.