The first time I heard the phrase “stay woke” was in Erykah
Badu’s song Master Teacher that
appears on her album New Amerykah. “I stay woke” or “stay woke” is
repeated over 40 times. To me, the
phrase in the context of the song means that people should stay alert and aware
to what is happening around them regarding politics, the government, racism,
education, etc. To stay woke means
to stay informed, but not just to be informed. Stay informed to use one’s
knowledge to challenge systems and ideologies that seek to oppress people.
I stay woke.
More recently, I was reading Assata Shakur’s, Assata an Autobiography, and at one
point in the text, she basically talks about the need to “stay woke,” even
though she doesn’t use this phrase exactly. Assata had left the east coast and headed to California to
be a part of a larger Black Liberation struggle. While there, she noticed that different groups of people of
color were banding together to fight similar systemic battles. So she wanted to meet Red Guard, a
group of revolutionaries who were struggling in Chinatown, San Francisco.
Assata had a chance encounter one day when she was getting
high in a park with folks from Black Students Union. Two Asian members of the Red Guard picked up Assata and her
friends and took them out of public view.
In the car everyone was talking about the revolution and next steps, but
Assata was so high, she could barely communicate clearly. In her reflection, Shakur, notes:
I was feeling guilty and stupid,
silly and politically backward. I
was embarrassed to be bumbling down the street in the middle of the day not in
full control of my faculties, too high to deal with reality, much less change
it . . . I had heard somebody say that revolutionaries get high on revolution
and that it was the best high in the world.
Basically, Assata was asserting that in order to attack the
system and bring about change, she couldn’t be caught slipping. She had to stay woke, or else she would
miss opportunities to be involved in the revolution.
I stay woke.
Before Erykah Badu and Assata Shakur, though, there was
Paul. In 1 Thessalonians 5: 2-8,
Paul called Christians to “stay woke.”
Like Shakur, he did not use the exact phrase. Paul talked about Jesus’ unexpected return, likening it to
“a thief in the night,” catching people off guard, and allowing disaster to
fall. But, Paul argues that
believers will not be surprised nor will they be caught in the dark. So he
charges them to not sleep “like the others” and to “stay alert and be sober.”
He adds further, “to let [those]
who live in the light think clearly, protected by the body armor of faith and
love, and wearing as [their] helmet the confidence of [their] salvation.” Paul
is calling people to stay woke and remain focused on the ultimate goal – to
enter into God’s kingdom. So
whether you’re involved with the revolution or living for Christ’s return, you can’t
let your guard down.
I stay woke.
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