What is it to be “woke” and why would someone be tired of it? According to the dictionary, it is the past tense of “wake”—to cease to sleep; to be brought into a state of awareness. My American Heritage Dictionary was published in 1982, so it was long before the current informal definition of “to be alert to injustice in society.” I, for one, am in no way tired of being woke. Why would you not want to be in a state of awareness? There is a moral imperative to call out injustice. All people have a right to dignity, and by claiming their dignity and their story, they do not lessen mine. They expand it.