“Woke” is not a new idea, and it is not a flaw.

Long before the modern debate over wokeness, Quakers were early adopters of its core values. We recognized the abomination of slavery and spoke against it. We rejected racism. We affirmed that women’s gifts and contributions were essential to society. We understood that equality is a virtue, not a threat. We have long practiced tolerance and care for those labeled as “other.”

All of this happened centuries before the word woke ever entered the conversation.

In its modern usage, the term was embraced to describe a basic moral awareness: paying attention to injustice and refusing to ignore it, being aware of your privilege, trying to maximize equality, being anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti- homophobic. That should have been uncontroversial.

Instead, those who benefited from inequality and impunity like the billionaire class, along with racists and the openly homo- and trans-phobic, decided they were tired of being challenged. To protect their privilege and their rhetoric, they turned “woke” into a slur.

It worked only because too many people accepted the framing.

We shouldn’t.

Being woke simply means being awake to suffering, injustice, and exclusion, and choosing not to look away. That is not radical. It is moral. It is faithful. It is human.

Quakers should not apologize for this tradition. We should be proud of it.

And for those who insist this is some modern excess, it’s worth remembering that Jesus consistently stood with the marginalized, challenged entrenched power, and called out hypocrisy wherever it lived.

If that’s wokeness, then it’s been on the right side of history for a very long time.