# Woke Historical Corpus Audit

Offline audit of exact word-boundary `woke` and `wokeness` occurrences in `historical/comments_with_articles_2017_2018.parquet`. No network requests were made. No original source files, normalized master datasets, or website files were modified.

## Rule

A candidate token was counted first only if it matched `\b(woke|wokeness)\b`, case-insensitive. It was retained as categorical when the local grammar used the word as a noun, label, slogan, adjective, quoted cultural term, group label, or political/cultural awareness phrase. Ordinary wake/sleep verb phrases were excluded, including `woke up`, `woke me/us/them`, and `woke this morning`. Four quoted or adjectival-looking rows were manually excluded after review because they were still ordinary awakening or nonpolitical personal-awareness uses.

Output convention: `WOKE_CATEGORICAL_USES.csv` has one row per reviewed categorical comment-level use. If a single comment contains multiple categorical tokens, the row records that in `categorical_occurrences_in_comment` and `matched_contexts`.

## Headline Findings

- Exact candidate comments: 1,437
- Exact matched tokens: 1,494
- Reviewed categorical comment-level uses retained: 391
- Categorical matched tokens inside retained rows: 418
- Manual exclusions after rule review: 4
- Date span of retained uses, by comment timestamp: 2017-01-04 to 2018-05-01

The evidence supports mixed categorical use from the beginning of the available corpus, with a much denser set of uses in the 2018 months available. It does not support a clean 2017 -> 2018 -> 2026 historical arc by itself. The term appears positively/self-descriptively, pejoratively, as a group label, and as a meta-discussed cultural word within the 2017 material already.

## Counts by Month

Months are based on comment timestamps, not source-file names; that is why a small number of retained comments fall in June 2017 and May 2018.

| month | categorical_use_count | total_recommendations |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2017-01 | 12 | 843 |
| 2017-02 | 13 | 152 |
| 2017-03 | 13 | 113 |
| 2017-04 | 19 | 381 |
| 2017-05 | 23 | 178 |
| 2017-06 | 2 | 10 |
| 2018-01 | 66 | 1077 |
| 2018-02 | 94 | 1019 |
| 2018-03 | 75 | 3177 |
| 2018-04 | 72 | 773 |
| 2018-05 | 2 | 3 |

## Usage Types

| usage_type | count |
| --- | --- |
| POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | 148 |
| POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | 87 |
| CULTURAL_DESCRIPTION_OR_AMBIGUOUS | 78 |
| META_OR_TERM_DISCUSSION | 45 |
| NEGATIVE_OR_PEJORATIVE | 19 |
| IDENTITY_OR_GROUP_LABEL | 14 |

## Earliest Clear Categorical Uses

| date | article_publication_date | article_title | comment_id | comment_order | recommended_count | usage_type | excerpt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2017-01-04 | 2017-01-04 | Michael Eric Dyson Believes in Individual Reparations | 20983239 | 2.0 | 20 | META_OR_TERM_DISCUSSION | Could be "woke", but I'd say "awakened". I guess you consider the Koch brothers racist? Even after a big gift? Is Thomas Sowell racist? |
| 2017-01-05 | 2017-01-04 | Expecting Trouble, California Picks Up Some Legal Muscle | 20995642 | 382.0 | 1 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | "To safeguard the values of the people of California" Californians have values? "a very clear and present danger to the economic prosperity of Califo… |
| 2017-01-05 | 2017-01-05 | The Anti-Inauguration | 20997726 |  | 2 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | What about the folks torturing special needs people on Facebook live? Are they in need of articles like this? Or because they'e already vigorously pr… |
| 2017-01-07 | 2017-01-07 | Arms  and  the Trump | 21020376 | 123.0 | 0 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | "trying to determine whether he was inspired, even in a totally deranged way, by ISIS" You mean there is a not totally deranged way to be inspired by… |
| 2017-01-07 | 2017-01-04 | Michael Eric Dyson Believes in Individual Reparations | 21024564 | 71.0 | 11 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | As a white--and trying to get woke--pediatric hospitalist, I spend extra time with my black (and other minority) patients and families, try to be ext… |
| 2017-01-15 | 2017-01-14 | Who Says I Might Not Steal Your Girl? | 21106558 | 45.0 | 64 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | My husband is Asian and I'm white; we've been together for more than 30 years. This issue is one we've confronted on and off since we first got toget… |
| 2017-01-21 | 2017-01-21 | Unknown | 21176330 | 161.0 | 707 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | I think it is very likely that January 21, 2017 will go down as the day that the women's movement (as those of us born in the 20th century have known… |
| 2017-01-23 | 2017-01-23 | Dissidents! We Are  Legion | 21191031 | 75.0 | 22 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | Mr. Blow suggests that Trump may have tapped into a unified, mission-driven left that puts bodies in the street -- something he acknowledges neither… |
| 2017-01-27 | 2017-01-23 | Unknown | 21259140 | 1240.0 | 5 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | How did it happen, is this some kind of joke, if this is a nightmare, when will we be woke? How did we lose a fight we were winning, how will it end,… |
| 2017-01-28 | 2017-01-23 | Unknown | 21263931 | 1304.0 | 0 | META_OR_TERM_DISCUSSION | Woke . . . Day seven I am not haunted by sin And death But #Icantkeepquiet Keeps running through my head The wages of sin Is death It’s been said But… |
| 2017-01-28 | 2017-01-23 | Unknown | 21263950 | 1305.0 | 0 | CULTURAL_DESCRIPTION_OR_AMBIGUOUS | Woke . . . day five Rising Rising We are rising Against the great tide Of hate and corporate bait Organize Take the hand of your neighbor Take a Stan… |
| 2017-01-29 | 2017-01-28 | The Fog of Trump | 21275316 | 91.0 | 11 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | It's almost cute how you cling to the notion that Trump is capable of sane governance, if only he'd just get his act together. When will you get "wok… |

## Highest-Recommended Categorical Uses

| date | article_publication_date | article_title | comment_id | comment_order | recommended_count | usage_type | excerpt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2018-03-02 | 2018-03-02 | Go Ahead, Millennials, Destroy Us | 26180370 | 18.0 | 1245 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | Listened to the author on NPR and was enraptured with his stark realism wrapped in wit. As the Baby Boomer-mother to four Millennials, I am thrilled… |
| 2017-01-21 | 2017-01-21 | Unknown | 21176330 | 161.0 | 707 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | I think it is very likely that January 21, 2017 will go down as the day that the women's movement (as those of us born in the 20th century have known… |
| 2018-03-23 | 2018-03-22 | Speaking as  A White  Male … | 26445556 | 76.0 | 429 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | Speaking as a black male... Mr. Brooks is correct. As a black American, if I do not go along with my pack, if I do not engage in groupthink, I will i… |
| 2018-03-28 | 2018-03-28 | The World Is Evolving and Ricky Gervais Isn’t | 26519584 | 111.0 | 269 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | Criticizing Gervais for not being woke enough is like criticizing Steph Curry for not scoring any touchdowns. It's not the job of the comedian to emb… |
| 2018-01-08 | 2018-01-08 | TV Party Is Part Gala, Part Protest | 25469231 | 1.0 | 243 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | Nothing quite says “resistance” and “woke” quite like spending $5,000 on a gorgeous black gown. It would have been far more daring for all those wome… |
| 2017-04-05 | 2017-04-05 | Pepsi Drops Ad Accused of Trivializing Protesters | 22047669 | 44.0 | 189 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | I have worked in advertising and this sort of thing is rampant. Advertisers want to capitalise on whatever is trending in the market, which at the mo… |
| 2018-01-23 | 2018-01-23 | ‘The Shape of Water’ Tops Oscar Nominees | 25665112 | 24.0 | 162 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | I'm delighted to see Get Out receive some nominations. I thought it was provocative, powerful, and incredibly creative like good art should be, and I… |
| 2018-01-01 |  | Unknown | 25393109 | 15.0 | 141 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | Completely absent from the Times' reporting is the fact that many of the protesters are, correctly, expressing their frustration with the Iran mullah… |
| 2018-03-12 | 2018-03-12 | Melania Knew | 26284568 | 269.0 | 134 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | I always get a queasy feeling whenever a pundit, especially a male pundit, presumes to gallantly defend generic womanhood by impugning the character… |
| 2018-01-17 | 2018-01-17 | Aziz, We Tried to Warn You | 25591808 | 26.0 | 122 | CULTURAL_DESCRIPTION_OR_AMBIGUOUS | Aziz Ansari is the ultimate in 'woke' feminist men. He sent a forthright apology and seems to have been genuinely shocked that Grace wasn't happy. If… |
| 2018-03-23 | 2018-03-23 | Bolton’s PAC Reaped Harvest of Facebook Data to Target Voters | 26451711 | 34.0 | 112 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | Its impossible to understand why this country has such old insane people who have to be in charge. They create there own doomsday scenario and other… |
| 2018-03-28 | 2018-03-28 | The World Is Evolving and Ricky Gervais Isn’t | 26520959 | 190.0 | 108 | NEGATIVE_OR_PEJORATIVE | Ms. West seems to be charging Ricky Gervais with "punching down" at transgendered people. He is not. He is punching up at those oh-so-enlightened peo… |
| 2018-02-22 | 2018-02-21 | The Boys Are Not  All Right | 26079655 | 1205.0 | 106 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | Yeah, you don't say they are struggling and angry, let me count the ways. - Their very identity "white male" has been turned into a trendy pejorative… |
| 2018-03-28 | 2018-03-28 | The World Is Evolving and Ricky Gervais Isn’t | 26519079 | 73.0 | 93 | NEGATIVE_OR_PEJORATIVE | Lindy West skates over the primary point Ricky Gervais is making in her request that we all succumb to woke culture and think just like her; he argue… |
| 2018-04-18 | 2018-04-18 | Scam I Amn’t: Voters and the Tax Cut | 26788362 | 23.0 | 92 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | May we suggest that Bush just appeared to be a nicer guy. That clan got a pass on a One Billion Dollar bank bail out, insider trading, a deal w/ Bin… |

## Named Example Checks

- 2017 `We will stay woke`: confirmed. Comment date `2017-01-21`; article date `2017-01-21`; article title field `Unknown`; URL `https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/womens-march.html`; commentID `21176330`; top-level order `161.0`; recommendations `707`; recognition rank among retained categorical uses `2`. The normalized headline is weak/unknown, but the stored URL identifies the Women’s March article path.
- 2018 `the woke intellectual elite and the Great Unwashed`: confirmed. Comment date `2018-02-15`; article date `2018-02-15`; article `Why Is It So Hard for Democracy to Deal With Inequality?`; commentID `25973583`; top-level order `17.0`; recommendations `23`; recognition rank among retained categorical uses `50`. A lower-recommendation reply quoting the phrase also appears in the same discussion, but the top-level row is the substantive use.

## Representative Examples

| date | article_publication_date | article_title | comment_id | comment_order | recommended_count | usage_type | excerpt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2017-01-04 | 2017-01-04 | Michael Eric Dyson Believes in Individual Reparations | 20983239 | 2.0 | 20 | META_OR_TERM_DISCUSSION | Could be "woke", but I'd say "awakened". I guess you consider the Koch brothers racist? Even after a big gift? Is Thomas Sowell racist? |
| 2017-01-07 | 2017-01-04 | Michael Eric Dyson Believes in Individual Reparations | 21024564 | 71.0 | 11 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | As a white--and trying to get woke--pediatric hospitalist, I spend extra time with my black (and other minority) patients and families, try to be extra comforting to the children and extra… |
| 2017-01-21 | 2017-01-21 | Unknown | 21176330 | 161.0 | 707 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | I think it is very likely that January 21, 2017 will go down as the day that the women's movement (as those of us born in the 20th century have known it) came of age. I've been watching the… |
| 2017-01-29 | 2017-01-28 | The Fog of Trump | 21275316 | 91.0 | 11 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | It's almost cute how you cling to the notion that Trump is capable of sane governance, if only he'd just get his act together. When will you get "woke" to the fact that he's mentally unstab… |
| 2017-02-03 | 2017-02-03 | French Nepotism Scandal Incriminates Political Elite | 21352023 | 55.0 | 10 | CULTURAL_DESCRIPTION_OR_AMBIGUOUS | "The sense of entitlement, and indeed nepotism, is an inheritance of the country’s monarchical culture, political experts and historians say." It's about time the French public gets "woke"… |
| 2017-02-12 | 2017-02-11 | Trump’s  Gold Lining | 21450454 | 313.0 | 49 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | I'm so delighted that Maureen Dowd is so happy that Donald Trump has brought forth the progressive agenda. It's just that from the cheap seats out here in the rest of the country things don… |
| 2017-02-21 | 2017-02-21 | This  Century  Is Broken | 21549358 | 729.0 | 2 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | Wow. I'd say this was the most insightful, thoughtful, dare-I-say "woke" column David Brooks has ever written. But even that would be an understatement. I actually had to double-check the b… |
| 2017-03-19 | 2017-03-18 | The Horror of Smug Liberals | 21852485 | 53.0 | 42 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | "woke" didn't make sense to me until I listened to Jordan Peele on the radio a couple of days ago (NPR, Trump beware!). I remember my own "woke" experience in the 1970s, when I was slapped… |
| 2017-03-22 | 2017-03-22 | Calling on a Few  Good Men | 21884964 | 293.0 | 20 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | It is not up to the "few good men." It is really up to the American people. Stay woke and don't send the spineless Republicans back to Congress. We have the power but we must use it. They r… |
| 2017-04-05 | 2017-04-05 | Pepsi Drops Ad Accused of Trivializing Protesters | 22047669 | 44.0 | 189 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | I have worked in advertising and this sort of thing is rampant. Advertisers want to capitalise on whatever is trending in the market, which at the moment happens to be a spirit of protest a… |
| 2017-04-24 | 2017-04-24 | What ‘Snowflakes’ Get Right About Free Speech | 22251878 | 129.0 | 56 | NEGATIVE_OR_PEJORATIVE | The opinion piece states that: "The recent student demonstrations... should be understood as an attempt to ensure the conditions of free speech for a greater group of people, rather than ce… |
| 2017-05-02 | 2017-05-02 | Chef at a Crossroads | 22347506 | 35.0 | 76 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | It is interesting that Mr. Keller thinks "hard work and dedication to the craft" will right systemic discrimination in his industry. Did anyone else find this response extremely unsatisfyin… |
| 2017-05-23 | 2017-05-23 | The  Alienated  Mind | 22593958 | 45.0 | 12 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | To be 'woke' in its original and fundamental meaning is to accept the reality of racism today and to recognize it when it is being expressed or acted out. Do not demean it's meaning by redu… |
| 2018-01-08 | 2018-01-08 | TV Party Is Part Gala, Part Protest | 25469231 | 1.0 | 243 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | Nothing quite says “resistance” and “woke” quite like spending $5,000 on a gorgeous black gown. It would have been far more daring for all those women in black to show up in street clothes… |
| 2018-02-15 | 2018-02-15 | Why Is It So Hard for Democracy to Deal With Inequality? | 25973583 | 17.0 | 23 | NEGATIVE_OR_PEJORATIVE | Very interesting to learn that the parties of the left in Europe have also abandoned the working class. But in the US? Old news? The civil rights movement of the 60s was important and do re… |
| 2018-02-19 | 2018-02-19 | Attacking the ‘Woke’ Black Vote | 26023710 | 27.0 | 11 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | So 80 Russian trolls posting on Facebook were powerful enough to sway the "Woke" black vote? Not very woke after all. |
| 2018-03-02 | 2018-03-02 | Go Ahead, Millennials, Destroy Us | 26180370 | 18.0 | 1245 | POSITIVE_SELF_OR_ALLY_DESCRIPTION | Listened to the author on NPR and was enraptured with his stark realism wrapped in wit. As the Baby Boomer-mother to four Millennials, I am thrilled by what I see and hear from this generat… |
| 2018-03-28 | 2018-03-28 | The World Is Evolving and Ricky Gervais Isn’t | 26519079 | 73.0 | 93 | NEGATIVE_OR_PEJORATIVE | Lindy West skates over the primary point Ricky Gervais is making in her request that we all succumb to woke culture and think just like her; he argues that joking about a topic or people is… |
| 2018-04-19 | 2018-04-18 | Scam I Amn’t: Voters and the Tax Cut | 26794149 | 79.0 | 21 | META_OR_TERM_DISCUSSION | Hopefully, Paul. I have one bone of contention, however. Could we all just walk back the term "woke." It's ungrammatical and inarticulate. Come on, man, you're a Nobel laureate and a journa… |
| 2018-04-25 | 2018-04-24 | Unknown | 26862320 | 689.0 | 12 | POLITICAL_BEHAVIOR_OR_AWARENESS | For every young woman who embraces a “woke” perspective, there are 2 to 3 men who realize the Democrats no longer offer anything of value, just identity politics. |

## MRI-002 Recommendation

USE CAUTIOUSLY. The full corpus confirms that categorical uses of “woke” were present in 2017 and became more numerous in the 2018 months available, including self-descriptive, pejorative, identity-label and political-behavior uses. The two observed examples are real: “We will stay woke” is a high-recognition 2017 Women’s March-linked use, while “woke intellectual elite and the Great Unwashed” is a 2018 inequality-discussion group label. But the audit does not justify a neat semantic-progress narrative. The best MRI-002 use is as a narrow example of category portability and contested category ownership, not as evidence that “woke” moved linearly from one meaning to another.