I once asked my now deceased but then 87-year-old grand-father if he thought he was “woke”. His answer was: “Well, I am not asleep, so yeah, I’m woke”. At the time, I thought this answer was funny, and that hidden in his cold but witty answers, there laid some very sensitive, intelligent, and open-minded man trying to understand a world that was so foreign to him. Now, his answer resonates differently with me. It does not only resonate differently, but it also reflects a certain historical truth that I had never imagined.
It is interesting to think that the “woke” movement, something traditionally attributed to today’s youth generation, can be traced back to many elections ago. In fact, even the nomenclature, the idea of being “awake” can be connected to certain other youth movements of the time.
In 1860, for example, there was a significant youth vote backing Abraham Lincoln, and this might be, in part, what made him win. Here’s a quick history lesson. In 1860, the ballot was mainly divided up between Abraham Lincoln, anti-slavery republican, and Stephen Douglas, pro-slavery democrat in the north and John C Breckenridge and John Bell in the South. What is particularly interesting about this election is that Lincoln won, by both popular vote and electoral college majority, even though his name did not figure on the ballot in the southern states. As most of us know, this election led to the Civil war, the abolishment of slavery, etc. What I am interested in however is not the events that followed this contentious election, but more the role of the group of young men who called themselves the Wide-awakes and acted as a sort of political grassroots for Lincoln. They organized torchlight processions (yes, I know this sounds weird to our modern ears, but they were the good guys), rallies, and marches to promote Republican ideals and Lincoln’s candidacy. They were, in many ways, the birth of youth movements in the United States, and it is so fascinating that they called themselves the “Wide-awakes”. The concept of being awake seems to be an important one for people our age I suppose. We definitely seem to be keen on proving that we are not asleep.
More importantly than their name though, is what they showed the country. They were the pioneers (not the Grinnell kind) in terms of bringing importance and political significance to the youth crowd. Since then, many politicians, not only in America, have understood the value of including the young population in their campaigning. Harris has definitely understood that as she runs on issues that she knows appeal to young people (reproductive rights, climate change, …).
I don’t think my grandpa would have wanted to say that he was woke, in a political sense, even though he loved affirming that he was a democrat. I think he would not have wanted to admit that he was associating with the young generation of the 21st century. The thing is though, he didn’t have to associate with us, he could just as easily have associated with the Wide-Awakes of the nineteenth century, whose morals and values obviously differ from those of “woke” youth movements today, but whose message remains the same. We are awake to the problems, and we see them for what they are, and for what they will be for us when they become ours to deal with. I think my grandpa would have found some comfort in that definition of woke-ism, and in any case, he did say he was woke!
