The adjective “woke” has been through a lot since it was created. The linguist Anatol Stefanowitsch explains how a term of resistance of the black civil rights movement could become a swear word.
Interviewed by
Violetta Simon
When a US police officer shot and killed a black youth in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, the hashtag #StayWoke became a resistance buzzword on social media. In the course of this, the adjective woke has also entered the German language, albeit with a more negative context, as an insult for “woke leftists” who pose as morally superior. The linguist and Anglicist Anatol Stefanowitsch, professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, is reminded of terms such as moralizers or do-gooders. The politically correct language expert explains why nobody wants to be woke anymore.