Woke...

Robert Reich: Substack

 © December 2, 2022, the Griot Poet

Sources:

https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/woke-meaning-word-history-b1790787.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke

 

If you were enslaved in 1850,

You learned the skill of sending messages,

In songs that gave subtle instructions:

 

“Swing low, sweet chariot,

“Coming forth to carry me home,”

 

It sounds like a song sung by the enslaved at a wake or a funeral,

Until you get to stanzas like:

 

“I looked over [at] Jordan, and what did I see?

“Coming forth to carry me home,

“A band of angels coming after me,

“Coming forth to carry me home.”

 

It sounds bittersweet.

Unless you realize that there is a river nearby,

And the angels were conductors,

Like Harriet Tubman,

On the Underground Railroad,

1850 to 1860,

Thirteen trips from Canada to the United States, freeing seventy enslaved people,

Including members of her family,

 

Braiding hair,

Seen by overseers and plantation oligarchs,

As the habits of savages,

Unless you looked closely at the artistry:

The knotted maps guided them along the river and the Underground Railroad to Canada, Goshen, and freedom,

 

My ancestors did not write down The Coded One Hundred(s):

It’s an intricate way of communicating through,

Braided hair,

Gospel songs,

Drum beats,

Fiddle songs,

Talking jive,

And smoke signals,

My ancestors called upon the spirits of a people,

From Alkebulan - “Mother of Humankind,” “Garden of Eden,”

Before the Roman conquerors named the continent to describe the region of Tunisia, Africa,

Ancestors who they never met,

But created cryptography,

More intricate than Alexander Graham Bell’s telegraph,

 

“Stay woke.”

Something that the runners said to each other,

It meant staying alert in your surroundings,

Theirs were the river, trees, bloodhounds, and the precursor to the police called enslaved catchers,

Reading moss, which grows on the north side of trees,

Orienting the persons pursuing freedom,

To a celestial body, in Swahili, Nyota Uhura: Star of Freedom,

Which they followed to Canada,

And Gene Roddenberry thought it so intriguing,

He named Nichelle Nichols’ Star Trek character with it.

 

“Stay woke” is from,

People who they thought couldn’t read,

Because plantation oligarchs made it illegal,

Frederick Douglass’s enslaver said that it would “ruin” him,

And lashed his wife with a whip for introducing it to him,

At threat to his [own] life,

Frederick continued reading and writing,

Frederick became a Republican abolitionist,

The progressive party back then,

Now, they’re banning books about him, like Nazis,

Except, they would prefer that you not call them Nazis, please?

 

Ron Death Santis plans to run for president.

He thinks killing “woke” plays past the northern borders of Florida.

He’s lawyer enough to know that Donald will probably be in prison.

He’s not reforming the Republican system.

They’ve been playing footsies with extremism,

Since the ads, Bush Sr ran on Willie Horton.

 

For Death Santis,

Killing “woke” has nothing to do with the bruised feelings of so-called white children.

It has to do with the fact that he’s a white supremacist.

It has to do with the fact that he’s a sociopath.

Florida HID their Covid infections and death rates,

Death Santis used taxpayer money to ship asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas,

And he STILL got re-elected!

What criminal do you know that wants to see evidence of his ancestors’ crimes?

What criminal do you know that wants to be held accountable for crimes he committed in plain sight?

Culpability makes them responsible for reparations,

Paying for them has never been on the table.

They’re stressing about 2050 when the so-called “white” population shrinks to 47%!

 

It’s about control and continued dominance.

 

Once they lose it, we’ll have universal healthcare.

Once they lose it, we’ll have a few less useless billionaires.

Once they lose it, we’ll have less income inequality.

Once they lose it, crime rates will naturally decrease,

Once they lose it, we’ll have enough resources for decent living,

Once they lose it, the human species might not cease to exist!

 

Wars from sticks, stones, and nuclear weapons,

They have always started with words and phrases,

Obfuscations that “other” people,

Because history shows what you demonize, you can exterminate!

 

We have been “staying woke” since 1619, since 1850,

Ron Death Santis has a Nano penis,

We are going to keep spitting history, jokes,

Poetry, music,

We’re going to celebrate Black History Month,

Black Lives Matter,

LGBTQ, Women, and Hispanic History Month,

Because the new majority isn’t going back into the closet,

You’re banning books because,

 

Scientia potentia est

Knowledge is power

Francis Bacon wrote in “Meditationes Sacrae” (1597),

 

ipsa scientia potestas est

Science itself is power.

Thomas Hobbes wrote in “Levitation” (1651).

 

We frame Western society on the foundation of denying access to it,

After which, they gripe about “bootstraps,”

When most of them cheated on the SAT or bribed their way into college,

 

“It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his [own] bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his [own] bootstraps.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

So, spare me about your anti “woke” crusade,

Death Santis is going to find out about his escapades,

Won’t reach beyond his peninsula,

Just try after you lose not to start an insurrection!

 

To the Tea Party governor of Florida,

Grand Pooh-Bah of Death Santis-Stan:

 

We’re going to teach African American History,

We're going to teach Asian-Pacific Islander History,

We’re going to teach Native American History,

We’re going to teach Hispanic History,

We’re going to teach LGBTQ History,

We’re going to teach Women’s History,

Because it’s all HUMAN history!

Because the best disinfectant to fascism and disinformation is knowledge,

Because you don’t back down from bullies when they try to intimidate you,

 

Do you know what ELSE we’re going to do, Ron?

VOTE!

 

And

We’re going to “stay woke.”

And you’re going to stay a high water, knicker pants joke!