Fact Check: Harris' 2017 Remark 'We Have to Stay Woke' Stripped of Context. Here's the Transcript

Claim:

Then-U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris once said, "You know, we have to stay 'woke.' Like, everybody needs to be 'woke.' And you can talk about if you're the 'wokest' or 'woker' but just a more 'woke' than less 'woke.'"

Rating:

Correct Attribution ( About this rating? )

Context:

Harris made this remark during Recode's Code Conference on May 31, 2017. In August 2024, users on X shared the brief quote in a roughly 13-second video clip. However, as we've documented below with an examination and a list of sources, the full and original video revealed the context of her "woke" usage. The Associated Press, Merriam-Webster and Fox News all previously published that the term has evolved in meaning over the years, including between 2017 and 2024.

In the months leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, online users shared a brief, years-old video clip showing U.S. Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris saying the words, "You know, we have to stay 'woke.' Like, everybody needs to be 'woke.' And you can talk about if you're the 'wokest' or 'woker' but just a more 'woke' than less 'woke.'"

For example, in early August, multiple users on X shared slightly different versions of the roughly 13-second video clip with little to no additional details to help better inform their loyal followers. At least one X user repeatedly shared a 27-second clip that showed Harris twice saying the same remark. The existence of this longer clip begged the question of why that user couldn't have simply shared more of Harris' words in that same span of time.

Sky News also published an article and YouTube video about Harris' "woke" remark. The article and video offered no further context, nor did they provide links to a longer video or a transcript that might better inform their readers of the truth.

Further, the Fox News TV channel several times aired fairly short versions of Harris' remark. Additionally, FoxNews.com published at least two versions of the clip and an article. One video clip ( archived ) on the Fox website lasted a mere 11 seconds. The other clip ( archived ) spanned 16 seconds. The Fox article — a story republished by the New York Post — failed to inform readers in its headline, subheading or the text of its Facebook post of the existence of some larger context behind Harris' words. The body of the article did, however, explain some context.

The reason why users and publishers shared the old remark just months before the November election was to apparently stoke fears of a purported radical liberal "woke" agenda — the idea of upending various aspects of society in a way negatively viewed by conservatives —should Americans elect Harris as the nation's 47th president. After all, the Post's headline noted that the unearthed remark "may haunt her campaign."

In this story, we've presented the context behind Harris' words, provided information about the evolution of the term "woke" and included a transcription of her answer just above our list of sources.

The Context of Harris 'Woke' Remarks

The video clip of Harris repeatedly saying the word "woke" came from a much longer video of then-U.S. Sen. Harris' appearance at Recode's Code Conference on May 31, 2017. Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, appeared during the same discussion. Tech journalist Kara Swisher moderated.

The discussion occurred months after then-U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration. Swisher's question leading up to Harris' "woke" remark asked, "What's it like in Washington right now? What is the mood? I mean, obviously healthcare is a big issue right now in the Senate. What's it like being there right now? How do you feel?"

Harris provided a lengthy answer, all of which we transcribed and presented later in this story. In summary, Harris talked about how she believed of Americans that "the vast majority of people have so much more in common than what separates us." She also said, "The problem with Washington, I think, is that some people have been, you know, we have as a country perhaps accepted a false premise which is that there are partisan issues and there are Democrats' priorities and Republicans' priorities instead of core priorities."

During her answer, she mentioned her opposition to several ideas proposed by Trump, who is a Republican. For example, Harris mentioned Trump's failed effort to repeal former U.S. President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, which at the time of the discussion provided healthcare for some 20 million Americans . She also referenced the Trump administration's ban on travelers coming from several predominantly Muslim-faith countries, among other topics.

Swisher then asked Harris what she and other Democrats planned to do in order to counter these proposals. In response, Harris urged people listening to "speak truth" and "be active," saying seconds later, "We have to stay active, and you know, we have to stay 'woke.' Like everybody needs to be 'woke.' And you can talk about if you're the 'wokest' or 'woker' but just a more 'woke' than less 'woke.' And, know that your vo-, and we all have to know our voice matters. And so, you know it's not just whistling in the wind. It does matter. And maybe the one of the many silver linings: Whatever you believe, whoever you support, it's good for our democracy when people feel engaged and they feel passionate. However you feel, again, whoever you vote for."

Harris also posted ( archived ) on the same day on one of her Twitter accounts, " We have to stay active. We have to stay woke. #codecon."

The Evolution of the Definition of 'Woke'

The Associated Press' (AP) Stylebook defines "woke" in a way that provides partial context regarding the nature of Harris' more than seven-year-old remark. That definition reads, "A slang term that originally described enlightenment or awakening about issues of racial and other forms of social justice." Then, AP separates the original definition from its more modern meaning. The definition continues, "Some people and groups, especially conservatives, now use it in a derogatory sense implying what they see as overreactions."

We previously reported the history specifically of the decades-old phrase "stay woke." The first documented usage of the phrase possibly occurred in 1938 and involved Black folk singer Lead Belly discussing his 1931 song "Scottsboro Boys," a tune about nine Black teens wrongfully convicted for allegedly raping two white women.

For insight on the term from a different perspective, we turned our attention to a Fox News article published in May 2021 titled, "What does 'woke' mean?" The article noted Merriam-Webster did not add a definition for the term until September 2017 — months after Harris' remark. That definition identified the word as U.S. slang, and read, " aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)." Merriam-Webster also added , "It originated in African American English and gained more widespread use beginning in 2014 as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. By the end of that same decade it was also being applied by some as a general pejorative for anyone who is or appears to be politically left-leaning."

After describing another stepping stone for the evolution of the term in 2018 — again, a time occurring after Harris made the "woke" remark later shared in August 2024 — the same Fox News article stated, "But the meaning of woke evolved again with the rise of 'cancel culture' — as the two terms saw increased use, they became intertwined in the public consciousness. Often, someone gets canceled after they say something insensitive – something not woke."

The 2021 Fox article ended with, " Now it's not so much a racial term as an ideological one."

In our research, we noted that, according to the Internet Archive's TV News Archive website , a search of text captions on Fox News channel displayed only around three total mentions of "woke" used in a political sense from Jan. 1, 2017 through May 31, 2017. Several of the results shown in our search came from a Progressive insurance commercial aired by Fox News, in which two men debated the words "woke" and "awoken." The fact that such a large corporation chose to air the ad in the commercial in a nonpolitical sense showed once again the term "woke" did not mean in 2017 the lightning-rod term it later evolved into.

One person The Guardian published as advancing an agenda opposing "wokeness" was conservative activist Christopher Rufo . The Guardian reported of Rufo, in part, "He has been credited with mobilizing conservatives against communities of color, first with a distorted version of critical race theory; then by linking LGBTQ-inclusive education practices to pedophilic 'grooming.'"

According to a search of X, Rufo joined Twitter in 2015 but did not tweet the word "woke" until 2019. On a similar note, Wikipedia did not begin hosting a page for "woke" until late December 2016. The page has since received thousands of submitted edits.

Video and Transcript of Harris' Answer

The Recode YouTube channel hosts the complete video from the Code Conference discussion.

We transcribed much of Harris' answer. The following remarks begin at the 35:14 mark in the video. ( The very brief bolded portion near the end of this transcript indicates the only part of Harris' answer included in some of the video clips shared by the aforementioned publishers and X users in August 2024.)

SWISHER: Now, Senator Harris. We have just a little more time and then we're going to get some questions. What's it like in Washington right now? What is the mood? I mean, obviously healthcare is a big issue right now in the Senate. What's it like being there right now? How do you feel?

HARRIS: Yeah, you know one of the things that captures it is, so my husband and I, we have a seven- no, she just turned 18 this weekend. 18-year-old graduating high school. And she asked me to come and speak to her class. And I did. And one of these smart seniors asked me, "What are we going to do about a divided America?" And I looked at her and I thought for a moment and I said, "I actually reject the premise. I don't believe we are a divided America. And I'll tell you why. When the vast majority of people wake up at 3:00 in the morning with that thought that is rattling us, with that thing that is worrying us, when we wake up at a cold sweat worrying about that thing at 3:00 in the morning, we are never thinking about that thing through the lens of being a Democrat or a Republican. And for the vast majority of people, when we are thinking that thought at 3:00 in the morning, it usually has to do with one of just a very few things: our personal health, the health of our children, the health of our parents, can we get a job, can we keep a job, can we pay the bills by the end of the month, can we retire with dignity. For the vast, for the vast majority of people."

...

So, the point is that the vast majority of people have so much more in common than what separates us. And, you know, so let's just think of it in the context of universal values and universal truths. And I think that what has happened in Washington D.C. over the years is we have accepted this premise that is a false premise that we are a divided country. And the only way that I think we're going to come out of this is to acknowledge that there are these universal truths and to acknowledge that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. And we can just go back to one of the first questions you asked.

The parents of those "Dreamers" have the same dreams for those children, those kids, that any other parent has. And we've got to get away from seeing so many issues that are core issues, that are fundamental issues, through the lens of party affiliation or ideology, when in fact there are just some issues that are not even bipartisan. They're nonpartisan. The problem with Washington, I think, is that some people have been, you know, we have as a country perhaps accepted a false premise which is that there are partisan issues and there are Democrats' priorities and Republicans' priorities instead of core priorities. And, I will tell you in my relationships and interactions, and I'm making a very, very serious and, I think, productive effort, to work across the aisle on just that point. When I'm sitting down with someone who is, you know, Lindsay Graham.

...

SWISHER: The thing is, I get your emails and they're pretty mad. I get Kamala Harris' emails all the time, and they're like, "We got to win back the House, we gotta win this back, and Clinton the secretary ..."

HARRIS: Yeah, well we do when you have a House of Representatives that is trying to kill the Affordable Care Act, which is going to result in 23 million people losing healthcare, and when they're trying to get rid of Planned Parenthood for political and ideological reasons, when every day that Planned Parenthood stays al- stays in force, 8,100 people every day go there and the vast majority of them are not there for abortion. In fact, only like, yeah, but for family planning.

SWISHER: And family (inaudible).

HARRIS: So yes. I get upset about that. Yes, I get upset when someone says that it's ok to ban people coming from countries based on the god they worship. Yes, I get upset when we say we're going to shut our door to refugees who are fleeing such atrocities and have been standing in line for two years to qualify for refugee status. And they arrive here and we turn them them away. Yes, I'm going to get mad about that. Yes I'm going to get mad, when we have, I'm going to get mad when we have an attorney general who is trying to resuscitate the war on drugs!

SWISHER: Yes, can we talk about that?

HARRIS: And he thinks the greatest evil that mankind has ever seen is marijuana! Like, I've said this, and you've seen this in my emails. Leave grandma's medical marijuana alone! Just leave it alone!

SWISHER: So, so, what are you going to do about that? How are you gonna... what did the Democrats do?

HARRIS: I think one thing is we just have to speak truth. We have to be active. You know some people say to me, a lot of people ask me, "Kamala, what can I do? What can we do? Does it matter?" And it does matter. The reason the Affordable Care Act, the first time they tried to get it out of the House, it failed, was because people were speaking up and saying, "Don't play politics with public health." Same on, in terms of what's happening around, you know, what we're doing around immigration, what we're doing, you know, people speaking up. And so, even though they've not committed to keeping DACA in place, they've not done away with it yet.

We have to stay active, and you know, we have to stay woke. Like everybody needs to be woke. And you can talk about if you're the wokest or woker but just a more woke than less woke. And, know that your vo-, and we all have to know our voice matters. And so, you know it's not just whistling in the wind. It does matter. And maybe the one of the many silver linings: whatever you believe, whoever you support, it's good for our democracy when people feel engaged and they feel passionate. However you feel, again, whoever you vote for.

In short, around the time Harris used the word "woke" in 2017, the term reflected a general sense of awareness and being active regarding various facts and issues, especially those involving issues of racial and social justice. As AP published, the term later took on a different meaning, with Fox News noting in its 2021 article the subsequent addition of "cancel culture" and Merriam-Webster saying the usage of "woke" by the end of the 2010s constituted a "general pejorative for anyone who is or appears to be politically left-leaning."

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