200+ things that Fox News has labeled “woke” – By Helena Hind, Alicia Sadowski and Jane Lee (Media Matters) / June 8, 2023
For the past three years, Fox News has been obsessed with “wokeness.” Since the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by police in May 2020, Fox News personalities and guests have applied the label “woke” to a staggeringly wide array of topics. Few entities have escaped the network’s demonization, from the military to M&M’s, New York prep schools to NASCAR, social media to mall Santas.
The progression of “woke” from its origins in the Black community to its eventual status as a conservative dog whistle has been well-documented, yet right-wing media — including Fox News — can’t seem to settle on a definition. However, the lack of a clear definition hasn’t stopped Fox from indiscriminately throwing “woke” at hundreds of things.
The problem is a two-way street: Fox personalities struggle to define “woke” because they have attributed the term to nearly everything under the sun, stripping it of any meaningful definition and surrendering it to right-wing dog whistles. In doing so, Fox News has solidified the word’s status as a derisive catch-all for anything involving marginalized groups or progressive policies, arguably increasing its effectiveness as a means of inspiring outrage among its audience.
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