The story of woke's journey from African-American street slang to politically conservative catchcry is both long and complicated so, for the first part, I'm going to direct you to the experts:
As English Language students, however, we are concerned with the term's use in an Australian context, so let's take a look.
Many Australian conservative media outlets have adopted the adjective 'woke' or nominalisation 'wokeness' as a kind of catch-all term for denouncing any ideas associated with progressive or left-wing politics. It is used to express a conservative political identity, to show solidarity and build rapport with those who hold similar values and beliefs.
In January 2021, Daily Telegraph journalist Tim Blair declared Cricket Australia 'woke' and 'in need of a third umpire' for its decision to not use the label 'Australia Day' for the Australian team's test match on January 26. The lexical choice of 'woke' here has clear negative connotations; it immediately implies that Cricket Australia's actions are wrong. For more information on the debate about Australia Day vs Invasion Day, see our related blog post.
Similarly, The Australian newspaper used the noun phrase 'the woke' in an article about the perceived threat of political correctness and 'cancel culture'.
It is worth noting at this point that the The Daily Telegraph, The Australian, and the Herald Sun newspapers are all owned by News Corp Australia. For this reason, you will often observe some similarity in the politically-charged language featured in their articles.
The Age newspaper does not seem to have taken up 'woke' as a descriptor for progressive policies. (Nor, interestingly, has the Sydney Morning Herald, also owned by Fairfax Media.) Note how this article (right), featured in The Age in April 2021, places 'wokeness' in quotation marks, suggesting that its legitimacy is being questioned.
And of course, satirical online publication The Betoota Advocate has caught on to conservative commentators' use of the term, making fun of the manner in which it is thrown around.
If you Google conservative Sky News commentator and Herald Sun journalist Andrew Bolt's name with the word 'woke', chances are you might get a few hits.
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