Letter: Being ‘woke’ fights oppression

“Woke” has become a pejorative term used by politicians and media outlets. While none can define it, they know it when they see it. I scoured history to find events they would call “woke.”

1. They would have decided the Declaration of Independence woke because it broke a sacred bond with the king, and the Constitution for not establishing a state religion.

2. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was woke. It’s an overreach of power.

3. The work of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to secure women’s right to vote must be woke.

4. Baseball had its own woke moment when Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to play for the Dodgers, breaking a decadeslong agreement among owners not to allow Blacks in the game.

5. Two presidents were woke. Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock and John Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to ensure Black students had access to education.

6. The Supreme Court was certainly woke when it decided same-sex marriage was legal in all 50 states.

Now I can define woke: “Any action that upsets the status quo and benefits a heretofore oppressed group.”