The word “woke” has been a word that has flown around the media and in circles working for racial and social justice. You can simply Google the word, “woke,” and you’ll find quite a few definitions and understandings. You’ll find the idea of emerging from a state of sleep or the past tense of ‘wake,’ but what we’re really talking about when we discuss being woke in circles working for justice is the idea of being alert to racial and social injustice and discrimination. From a blog on Healing Minnesota Stories, “One early use of “woke” came in 1940 during a Negro United Mine Workers’ strike in West Virginia, cited by the Legal Defense Fund. A Black union leader learned that Black miners were earning less than white miners. “We were asleep,” he said. “But we will stay woke from now on.””[1]
Being woke takes risk because you are questioning the norms of white supremacy and the ingrained culture in the world. As we’ve seen, the word woke is threatening to some people that they’ve tried to ban the word altogether and turned the word into a slur.
As we move into the Lenten season, we remember a man who risked being woke, ultimately to his death. He saw the injustice and oppression happening in the world, and he didn’t sit back and stay silent. He openly rejected the ways of the world and the government’s power of the time, bringing healing and wholeness to people who had been greatly isolated, beaten down, and oppressed.
This Lenten series, Nourished will be in a series exploring the risk of being woke, pulling from a book by Curtiss Paul Deyoung with the same name. Together, as we explore the story of Jesus’ life, ministry, and ultimately his crucifixion, we’ll ask ourselves the same question Deyoung invites us to ponder, “What is the resurrection witness in the United States that Black Lives Matter?”
We hope you will join us for this important and INCREDIBLY timely conversations! For more information, email Pastor Kristina at kristina@nourishedcr.org.