Mike McHargueJul 26, 2023

I don't know who needs to hear this, but the term "woke" didn't start with kids on Twitter.

The was first recorded by Lead Belly in the 1930s in a song called "The Scottsboro Boys," about the dangers Black Americans faced traveling through states in the Deep South. The original line was "best stay woke," as in, "remain aware of the dangers of racism."

Black communities shortened the term to "stay woke," over time, and eventually added "woke" as a state of being--or constant awareness.

Show threadHakei
@mike @soatok After recently learning about the Green Book, this certainly adds a lot more context, too — and it’s a fascinating piece of history from a rather dark part of our not-too-distant past. (There was a piece Vice did on Route 66, for those who prefer a visual depiction… and one topic they discussed were the all-too-real difficulties Black motorists felt traveling, and how the Green Book helped change that — and now some of those sites are being lost to time. https://youtu.be/tedJdhb6QJI)
Why Did America Abandon Route 66? | Abandoned (Full Episode)

Once touted as the Mother Road, Route 66 is a shadow of its former self. Rick & co-pilot Frank Gerwer take the journey to find out what remains along this no...

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Jul 29, 2023 at 12:26amWeb