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Amidst a chorus of cheers, boos and "Let her finish" chants, conservative political commentatorAnn Coulter walked off the Whittenberger Auditoriumstage before college student Tara Layous finished asking her question.

Prior toits slightly fiery conclusion, the student action against Coulter'sappearance at Indiana University earlythis month was relatively restrained.There were no protesters picketing outside theevent. The nearby sidewalk's chalk work, sporting"Racist gathering" in bright pink letters with an arrow pointing toward the IMU, was the only prominent sign in the surrounding area. During Coulter's speech on the history of conservatism, the crowd's interruptions were sparse and far between.

More: IU waiting for instruction on Trump's campus speech order

It was only during the event's Q&A portion, when Coulter said Layous was taking too long to ask a question, that the mood shifted.

After a brief back and forth with a few audience members, Coulter left the stage. When asked why she was in such a hurry to shuffle along questions, Coulter responded she had a plane to catch. She noted the event, which was scheduled for 60 minutes, had already run over its allotted time.

Coulter later tweeted the event was "the funnest (sic)event I've done since COVID," with many questions from "the liberals, who were perfectly polite" until Layous' turn.

Immediately following the event, Layous, a senior at IU, told The Herald-Times she didn't come to the event as a protester. Layous said she didn't intend to prompt Coulter to leave and was disappointed the people after her didn't get to ask their own questions.

While Layous said she can't speak on whether free speech at Indiana University is protected as a whole, "I don't think it was (protected)today."

That's something state lawmakers sought to change during the most recent session of theIndiana General Assembly.Legislators intensified free speech protection oncollege campuses by passingHouse Bill 1190, which was later signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb.

Under this legislation, universities must create and publish clear policies on free speech rights and protections for students, faculty members and staff. Universities cannot prohibitprotected expressive activities atan outdoor, accessible area on campus,though they canenforce restrictions on the time, placeand manner.

The new law also requires universities to submit an annual report ofcomplaints to a higher education commission. If a student or student organization claims their right to free speech hasbeen violated on campus, theycan seek legal action, which could grant them upto $50,000, court costs andattorney's fees.

While the new law's stated purposeis to better protect speech, some have questioned whether its fine print will preserve or hinder a person's constitutional rights.

"The statute, whatever the intent of it might be, might actually chill protected speech instead of protect speech," said Joseph Tomain, a lecturer at IU's Maurer School of Law.

The legislation has drawn negative reactions from some IU faculty members, including Tomain.He describes himself as a fierce protectorof free speech and has dedicated his time both as a lawyer and educator to the topic.

"It's better to have some false speech be protected than it is to risk having truthful speech be unprotected. There is a cost to the United States' strong free speech protections, but ultimately, I think it's a cost worth paying in order to ensure that we have a functional democracy," Tomain said, noting that democracies work best when there's a free marketplace of ideas.

There are some aspects of the new law Tomain appreciates, such as requiring universities to have accessible free speech policies and attempting to bar counter-protesters from using a "heckler's veto,"which happens when a person or group who disagrees with a speaker's message is able to silence them through disruptive intervention.

Those positives aside, Tomain said he has some issues with the bill's language.

For example, the law defines"harassment" as speech or conduct that is unwelcome, severe, pervasive and "subjectively and objectively offensive" and results in a student being denied equal access to educational opportunities or benefits provided by the institution.

"The definition of harassment is most likely in violation of the First Amendment," Tomain said. According to Tomain, the First Amendment protects speech that is unwelcome, severe and pervasive while also noting "offensive" is too subjective to be used in this context.

The legislation also prohibits universities fromrequiringleaders or members of a student organization tocomply with that organization's beliefs orstandard of conduct.

"Once you start to put these kind of limits, these requirements that anybody can join any organization, thatcould be a unconstitutional interference with freedom of association," Tomain said.

Under the First Amendment's freedom of association, an organization canaccept or decline membership based on certain criteria.

"Say, for example, you have a pro-life organizationand you have pro-choice members that start totake it over. They become the president (and) they become members. Well, should we really require the pro-choice or the pro-life organization to include (members that havethe inverse belief)?" Tomain said.

Tomain isn't the only one who has voiced reservations about the law. Speaking with Indiana education-focused publicationChalkbeat,Sheila Kennedy, a professor emeritus of law and public policy at IUPUI's Paul H. ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said the legislation could encourage additional litigation and complicatethe legal precedent of the First Amendment.

Tomain also took issue with the law's granting of legal proceedings if a student or student organization feels their right to free speech has been violated.

"The remedial provision here has the potential to chill speech if people start to be afraid that they're going to be sued, and not only have to pay for their own lawyers, but also potentially pay for the lawyers of the other side and the court costs," Tomain said.

While the statute explicitly states the university wouldcover the plaintiff's attorney fees if proven to be at fault,the statute does not limit who can be sued, according to Tomain.

While constitutional rights are protected against federal or state infringement, such as police, schools or Congress, Tomain noted it's possible for claims of free speech violationsto be brought against private citizens or groups.

"I'm not certain that this is the best way to protect free speech," Tomain said.

IU's free speech policy is posted onlineatfreespeech.iu.edu. The webpage features a note about campus diversity as well as a separate page answering frequently asked questions. Students can also contact faculty members who are considered experts on the First Amendment.

IU spokesman Chuck Carney said the webpage has been up for several years and was created after IU students began asking similar questions about their rights on campus.

"We wanted to have a central location to point people to in case they had questions," Carney said.

Since 2017, IU has enlisted the Demonstration Response and Safety Team, which includes volunteerfaculty members and student affairs professionals, to attend demonstrations, rallies andprotests held on campus.

At least two team members try to be at any demonstration on campus. The team members are passive observers who are there to answer any questions about a person's rights to free speech. They also ensure there arenodisruptions, such as a heckler's veto, that preventfreedom of expression.

DRST is currently led byKathy Adams Riester, associate vice provost for student affairs and executive associate dean of students, and Katie Paulin, assistant dean for student support and outreach. John Summerlot, the university coordinator of military andveteran services, previously led the team and still acts as a volunteer.

According toSummerlot, the team's formation was inspired by political scientistCharles Murray'scontroversial visit to IU's campus in April 2017. Murray, who identifies as a libertarian, has been accused of promoting racist views.

More: The price of free speech: Murray's visit and accompanying protests cost IU nearly $15,000

"We didn't have anybody versed in freedom of speech on campus,"Summerlot noted.

According to Carney, the new law won't lead to any major changes at IU. The university already has some of the legislation's stipulations in place, such as the published free speech policy. The university also regularly updates its free speech policies and procedures to stay in adherence to best practices and guidelines, he said.

According to Carney, IU was ultimately supportive of the new law.

"We felt like this was something that we certainly were comfortable with, because we knew that we were already implementing many of the things that were put in place," Carney said.

Though the law could conceivably be challenged in court later on, it is currently in place foruniversities in Indiana.

Contact Rachel Smithat rksmith@heraldt.com or @RachelSmithNews on Twitter.

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New Indiana law is meant to protect free speech at universities. It may do the opposite. - The Herald-Times

Levi Herrera-Lpez| Guest Opinion

Was Clay Clark and Gen. Mike Flynns Reawaken America Tour, held in Keizer on April 1-2, an event filled with love, as some have stated?

Does love include saying the war in Ukraine is not a war, but a false-flag operation to dismantle the deep state sites and schemes in Ukraine And that Putin may actually be the good guy fighting against the same global elite that holds us all hostages , as stated by John Michael Chambers and Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano?

Thousands of people cheered the statement by Pastor Mark Burns that, there is no such thing as trans kids only abusive parents

Is that love?

Speaker Mel K and tour organizer Clay Clark both said a Jewish person was responsible for masterminding COVID-19.

Clark at one point turned to his colleague, Aaron Antis, and asked him what he thought The hospitals of today are being turned into? Antis responded, Id say that those are the gas chambers of America Once they are in the grips of the hospital is like theyve gone to the gas chambers and they dont come back.

Another speaker, Scott McKay, used a code word at a different stop of the tour to claim a Jewish global mafia is responsible for killing you in hospitals; theyre killing you in the streets; they launched antifa and BLM. In Keizer, he added he would like to punch the people who demonstrated against the tour.

Some on social media argued these are anti-Nazi statements.

Organizations such as the American Jewish Committee lists many of the words used at this event as antisemitic code words or phrases e.g., globalists, cabal, elitists or elites, direct references to Jewish puppet-masters, etc. The Anti-Defamation League says, Comparing something that bothers you to the Holocaust, like what was said by Clark and, later on, by speaker Leigh Dundas, is deeply inaccurate, insulting and troubling. There is simply no comparison between the systematic murder of over 13 million people, including 6 million Jews, and the efforts to save lives and keep communities safe amidst a raging global pandemic.

Non-Christians didnt get much love, either, as one pastor said, Were taking this state and this country back in the name of Jesus Christ. That sounds distinctly anti-First Amendment in its aspiration to establish one movement of Christianity as the faith of the state.

There were no riots. But thousands attended a rally and cheered anti-Semitic, transphobic and anti-democratic code words and phrases. Read that again. And some of them attended an anti-LGBTQ+ rally in Salem on April 11.

If you hurt a man, in time his wounds would heal. If you break windows, those windows can be replaced. But when some of our neighbors question how safe they are to be themselves in this town, that is real violence and loss of safety.

And our top civic leaders in Keizer rolled out the red carpet to this and didnt say a word.

Levi Herrera-Lpez is executive director of the Mano a Mano Family Center, whose mission is to strengthen families by promoting hope and reducing toxic stress. He also serves as Chair of the Salem-Keizer School Districts Budget Committee. You may reach him at levi@manoamanofc.org

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Our leaders rolled out the red carpet for hate with Reawaken America Tour - Statesman Journal

AMENDMENT TO

AMENDED AND RESTATED EMPLOYMENT AND

SEVERANCE PROTECTION AGREEMENT

This AMENDMENT TO AMENDED AND RESTATED EMPLOYMENT AND SEVERANCE PROTECTION AGREEMENT (the "Amendment") is made and entered into as of the 14th day of April, 2022, by and between CROWN CRAFTS, INC., a Delaware corporation (the "Company"), and E. RANDALL CHESTNUT, an individual resident of the State of South Carolina (the "Executive").

WITNESSETH:

WHEREAS, the Company and the Executive have entered into that certain: (a) Employment Agreement, dated July 23, 2001, as amended by that certain First Amendment to Employment Agreement, dated as of November 6, 2008; and (b) Amended and Restated Severance Protection Agreement, dated as of April 20, 2004, as amended by that certain First Amendment to Amended and Restated Severance Protection Agreement, dated as of November 6, 2008 (together, the "Original Agreements");

WHEREAS, the Company and the Executive have entered into the Amended and Restated Employment and Severance Protection Agreement, dated as of December 16, 2020 (the "Agreement"), to amend the Original Agreements and to facilitate the transition of the management of the Company;

WHEREAS, in connection with such transition, the Board of Directors of the Company appointed Olivia Elliott as President and Chief Operating Officer, effective January 4, 2021, and appointed Olivia Elliott as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective March 1, 2022;

WHEREAS, the Company and the Executive wish to amend the Agreement as provided herein in furtherance of the transition of management of the Company and the Executive's retirement from the Company; and

WHEREAS, capitalized terms used but not otherwise defined herein shall have the same meanings given to such terms in the Agreement;

NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the foregoing and the mutual covenants and agreements herein, the parties hereto do hereby agree as follows:

1.

Executive's Retirement. The Executive and the Company hereby acknowledge and agree that the Executive shall retire from the Company as of May 1, 2022, and, in connection therewith, the Executive hereby resigns his position as a director of the Company and all other positions he holds with the Company and its subsidiaries, effective May 1, 2022. The Executive acknowledges that the Company has provided to him the disclosures that the Company is making on Form 8-K in connection with his resignation, and the Executive agrees with such disclosures. The Company and the Executive agree that effective May 1, 2022, the Executive will no longer be an employee of the Company.

2.

Remaining Payments. In connection with the Executive's retirement as set forth herein, and in lieu of any other payments, compensation or benefits that the Executive would be entitled to receive pursuant to the Agreement or otherwise (including, without limitation, pursuant to Section 5 of the Agreement) relating to his employment with the Company, the Company agrees as follows:

(a) The Executive shall continue to receive the payments he is currently receiving from the Company pursuant to Section 3 of the Agreement through May 1, 2022;

(b) The Company will pay to the Executive $155,692.15 in a lump sum payment no later than May 2, 2022 (subject to any required payroll and withholding tax obligations), which payment shall be in lieu of compensation and benefits that the Executive would otherwise have been entitled to receive through April 2, 2023; and

(c) The Executive's grant of 8,033 shares of restricted stock dated August 11, 2021, shall become vested at the end of the Term on May 1, 2022, and accrued but unpaid dividends with respect to such shares will be paid to the Executive within three (3) days thereof. In accordance with the provisions of Section 7(a)(ii) of the Restricted Stock Award Certificate with respect to such shares, Executive authorizes, and the Company shall, withhold shares to satisfy any tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of such shares.

3.

Amendments to Agreement. In furtherance of the foregoing, Sections 1, 2.2(b), 2.3 and 3.1 of the Agreement are each hereby amended by deleting "April 2, 2023" and replacing it with "May 1, 2022".

4.

Restrictive Covenants. Executive and the Company acknowledge and agree that the restrictive covenants set forth in Section 6 of the Agreement remain in full force and effect except that the Restricted Period is hereby amended by deleting Section 6.2(c)(vi) of the Agreement and replacing it with the following: "Restricted Period" means a period of time that is one (1) year following the expiration of the Term on May 1, 2022.

(a) Existing Terms. The existing terms and conditions of the Agreement shall remain in full force and effect except as such terms and conditions are specifically amended by, or conflict with, the terms of this Amendment.

(b) Choice of Law. This Amendment shall be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware without giving effect to the conflict of laws principles thereof.

(c) Legal Fees. The Company shall pay the reasonable legal fees of the Executive in connection with this Amendment.

(d) Counterparts. This Amendment may be executed in one or more counterparts, each of which shall be deemed to be an original, but all of which together shall constitute one and the same instrument.

2

(e) Severability. If any term or provision of this Amendment is held by a court of competent jurisdiction or other authority to be invalid, void or unenforceable, the remainder of the terms and provisions of this Amendment shall in no way be affected, impaired or invalidated.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have caused this Amendment to be executed by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized as of the date first written above.

CROWN CRAFTS, INC.

By: /s/ Olivia Elliott

Name:Olivia Elliott

Title:President & CEO

/s/E. Randall Chestnut

E. RANDALL CHESTNUT

3

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Crown Crafts : AMENDMENT TO AMENDED AND RESTATED EMPLOYMENT AND SEVERANCE PROTECTION AGREEMENT - Form 8-K - Marketscreener.com

It is Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. In this week Christians around the globe remember the last week of Jesus of Nazareths life, his death, and his resurrection. This week began with a pop-up parade where we see Jesus riding into the temple complex in Jerusalem, the seat of power for both the religious authorities and the Roman occupation. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of average, everyday people heralded his arrival shouting Hosanna! which means Save us!

The ones crying out were mostly those who society deemed unimportant for some reason or another: ability, illness, gender, occupation, ancestry, nationality, age, marital status. They were the ones who were told they didnt matter again and again. But they were also Jesus friends. They heard and believed his message: The way things are is not the way things have to be. A better way is possible. Lets discover it together.

On June 18, 2022, thousands of people who have been told they dont matter again and again will parade themselves by car, bike, coach bus, train, plane, and foot to the seat of power in this country. Their voices are the ones who just might save this nation from its deadly trajectory.

They will demand this country live up to the ideals enshrined, but never fully realized, in the Constitution. And through their courage, we will have to see the truth: Another way is not merely possible, it is absolutely necessary to secure a vital future for this country and the world we live in. Their message will threaten those who gain the most from the world as it currently is. It may even provoke violence. But like Jesus, they will meet any violence that tries to silence them with the power of love and a commitment to nonviolence, and they will not back down.

The Poor Peoples Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is a nationwide grassroots movement calling our nation to a revolution of values at every level of our society. Using non-violent direct action like the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, it is continuing the work started by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 calling our nation to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. We understand that as a nation we are at a critical juncture that we need a movement that will shift the moral narrative, impact policies and elections at every level of government, and build lasting power for poor and impacted people.

The Poor Peoples Campaign is about engaging what the Wisconsin Council of Churches calls holy imagination. If a more just world cant be imagined, then it cant be realized, either. When you read through the policy priorities of the Poor Peoples Campaign, you can begin to see a picture of a different kind of world: one that criminalizes poverty, not poor people. One that privileges people and life over the accumulation and hoarding of money. One that does not abide massive levels of unjust incarceration. One in which our national and state governments can and will provide for the common welfare which includes access for all to clean water and nutritious food, quality education, meaningful work that pays a living wage, adequate and affordable housing, and healthcare for all. Not only does the movement call out for these seemingly dreamy things, it has real ideas and practical plans to make it happen!

One way that the Wisconsin Council of Churches is observing Holy Week is by raising funds for the Wisconsin Poor Peoples Campaign. (You can hear Pastor Ari Douglas discuss his work with the Wisconsin Poor Peoples Campaign at the WCCs Facebook page.)

Our goal is for $6,600 to Raise a Bus to offset travel costs of people who will travel from Wisconsin to Washington D.C. in just a little over two months from now for the June 18 Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. We will continue to raise money through the end of May.

There are some who may say that it is not the place of the Church to engage injustice in this way. They will claim that supporting this movement violates the separation of church and state. This is both a misunderstanding of the establishment clause of the First Amendment and a distortion of the Christian faith. As the Freedom Forum Institute states, The establishment clause prohibits all levels of government from either advancing or inhibiting religion. The establishment clause separates church from state, but not religion from politics or public life. Individual citizens are free to bring their religious convictions into the public arena.

Christians are not merely free to bring their religious convictions into the public arena, they are compelled to do so as followers of Jesus example. In the stories of Holy Week we see just how public Jesus ministry was. It was so public it built enough of a committed following that the state and religious authorities plotted to kill him! Then they carried out their plan. Violence and death won that day.

For too many people in this country, violence and death win the days. Poverty is violence. In the wealthiest nation on the planet, 140 million people are poor; 39 million of them are children.

Holy Week ends with Easter Sunday, the day Jesus was raised from the dead. This is the day Christians proclaim that in and with God, violence and death are forever and ultimately defeated.

The stories of this week are the central story of the Christian faith. They lead us to remember and hope and imagine Salvation, wholeness for all. The Poor Peoples Campaign does the same.

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Why Wisconsin churches are aligning with the Poor People's Campaign - Wisconsin Examiner

Florida Legislature: How are teachers supposed to teach history with 'anti-woke' laws?

In this excerpt from Florida Pulse, reporters talk about the challenges schools and teachers will face with passage of "anti-woke" legislation.

Rob Landers, Florida Today

Are you woke? Have you been accused of being woke? Are you anti-woke? Just what is wokeness, anyway?

Black Americansand allies fightingto bring attention to racial injustice and police brutality urge others to get and stay woke. Some companies and politicians try to embody the concept, others hope to capitalize on the perception of it. Some conservatives fight against wokeness because they see it as performative and liberal indoctrination.

The Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (Stop WOKE) Act proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis this year empowers citizensto go after woke indoctrination. The bill blunts what he has warned isliberal ideology influencing the teaching of history in schools and coursing through corporate diversity training. Stop WOKEprohibits any teaching that could make students feel they bear personal responsibility for historic wrongs because of their race, color, sex or national origin, and blocks businesses from using diversity practices or training that could make employees feel guilty for similar reasons.

Were going to teach honest history, said Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland. But were not going to influence it with personal opinion.

Democratic critics called it a way to whitewash history and diminish the abuse and inequities faced by minorities in the country, as well as away for Republicans to satisfy their voting base.

This is the red meat they want, Sen. Annette Taddeo, D-Miami said. But this is not what our state needs.

Stop WOKE Act: New limits on talk of race in schools and work sent to Florida Gov. DeSantis

More: COVID-19 crusader Gov. DeSantis gets new title: Chief of woke police

Recently, after Bob Chapek, the CEO of Disney World criticized Gov. DeSantis over the "Parental Rights in Education" legislation critics dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, the governor lashed out against the company'swokenesswhileaccusing Disney of interfering with parents' rights and taking money from China.

"In Florida our policy's going to be based on the best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke corporations," DeSantis said.

Are we all talking about the same thing?

For a long time "woke" just meant "not sleeping."But recognizing its changing common usage, Meriam-Webster added a new meaning in 2017:

U.S. slang meaning "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)."

They took their time. "Woke" has been around for much, muchlonger than that in Black communities.

"It can be hard to trace slang back to its origins since slangs origins are usually spoken," Merriam-Webster's update says, "and it can be particularly difficult to trace a slang word that has its origins in a dialect."

The earliest recordedusage of wokenessthat can be interpreted to mean stay aware, rather than wake up, is in a collection by Jamaican philosopher and Harlem activist leader Marcus Garvey in 1923 which included the call, "Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa" in a plea for Black people across the world to open their eyes to racial subjugation and get involved in politics.

'Fight for your own liberation': From Jamaica's Marcus Garvey came an African vision of freedom

A few years later, in a recorded spoken afterword to the1938 song "Scottsboro Boys" by blues musician Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) about nine Black teenagers accused of raping two white women, he says,"I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there best stay woke, keep their eyes open."

In Black communities in the early tomid-20th Century as the Ku Klux Klan re-emerged, mob justice and lynchingswere not uncommon, and segregation and Jim Crowlaws were often harshly or fatally enforced, "stay woke" came to mean to stay vigilant in a world stacked against you.

The word eventually spreadoutside the Black community along with other African-American Vernacular English(AAVE) slang. In 1962 Black novelist William Melon Kelley wrote about white beatniks appropriating African American slang in an article for theNew YorkTimes Magazine titled, "If You're Woke You Dig It."

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. touched on the feelingin 1965 during acommencement address at Oberlin College:There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution. … The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake.

In a 1972 play "Garvey Lives!" playwrightBarry Beckhamwrote: I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, Im gon stay woke.

The word reached a wider audience in 2008 when Grammy-award-winning singer Erykah Badu covered Georgia Anne Muldrow's song "Master Teacher" for her albumNew Amerykah Part One(4th World War), changing the chorus from "I stay awake" to "I'd stay woke." In 2012 Badu used "stay woke" in a tweet supporting the imprisoned Russian feminist rock group Pussy Riot.

Black social media users began using "stay woke" more often to point out racial issues,but it also was stillused to mean "watch out for a cheating partner," to not fall asleepor to jump on a rising hashtag bandwagon to get attention.

Also in 2012, neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed 17-year-old student, Trayvon Martin. The hashtag #staywoke was used to spread awareness of the shooting, and of the outrage of Zimmerman'sacquittal the next year. With the public outcry, #blacklivesmatter became a hashtag and a movement that only increased as more reports and videos of the shootings of unarmedBlack people spread rapidly across social media. #staywoke once again became an urgentwarning.

Then, a police shooting brought wokenessinto the mainstream.

Less diversity: DeSantis' 'Stop WOKE' Act could force Florida businesses to rethink diversity training

Two years later when police officers shot and killed Michael Brownin Ferguson, Missouri, Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists used #staywoke as a rallying cry to raise awareness about police shootings of Black Americans, along with hashtags for each new incidence of an unarmed Black person killed by law enforcement.

Protests and marches grew nationwide, rising up again with every new name:Eric Garner (who died after being put in an illegal chokehold by police),12-year-old Tamir Rice (shot immediately and killed by police after officers mistook his toy gun for a real weapon), George Floyd(died in custody after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eightminutes), Sandra Bland (found dead in a Texas jailhouse after a confrontational jail stop),Daunte Wright (killed during a traffic stop). Breonna Taylor (shot while sleeping during a no-knock raid) and many more.

#SayHerName: Breonna Taylor and hundreds of Black women have died at the hands of police. The movement to say their names is growing.

Adam Toledo, Daunte Wright and George Floyd: Would more de-escalation training stop police from killing people?

"The word woke became entwined with theBlack Lives Mattermovement; instead of just being a word that signaled awareness of injustice or racial tension, it became a word of action," according to Merriam-Webster. "Activists were woke and called on others to stay woke." The 2016 BET documentary on the BLM movement was called "Stay Woke."

60 years of activism: From the Freedom Rides to BLM, generations discuss work, parallels

As BLM protests rose up across America "stay woke" rapidly became extremely popular on Twitter and became an internet meme. In May 2016, MTV News included it in 10 words teenagers should know. In 2017, it was added to Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary.Essence magazine named its Woke 100 in 2020 and Hulu premiered the TV series "Woke"with Lamorne Harris as a cartoonist who always avoided heavy issues awakening to racial inequality (and getting talks from inanimate objects) after getting slammedto the ground by aggressive police officers.

'That's not bringing about change': Obama advises 'woke' young people not to be so judgmental

"Woke" continued to evolve.White allies of the BLM movement also used the term to signal their support but manygradually began using it to call attention to other progressive issues as well as race such as the #MeToo and #NoBanNoWall movements, which brought accusations from Black commentators of co-opting the term or using it merely to gain activistcredibility.

Most people who are woke aint calling themselves woke. Most people who are woke are agonizing inside, Muldrow told Okayplayer news and culture editor Elijah Watson. Theyre too busy being depressed to call themselves woke.

Conservative commentators who saw the rising BLM protests as violent or anti-police and opposedthe movements "woke"was being associated with began using it sarcastically, the newest replacement for previous derogatory terms about what they called hypersensitive identity politics like"social justice warriors," "snowflake," "race card," "virtue signaling" or the earlier "political correctness."

Progressive arguments or legislation were dismissed as woke and therefore defined and dismissed by conservatives as either insincere plays for attention or overzealous efforts to undermine American values with liberal indoctrination. Many complained of "woke mobs," "woke culture," the "woke police," the "woke brigade," and referred to people with conservative views as "anti-woke."

Sen. Rick Scott warned Woke Corporate America that a backlash was coming. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said there would be serious consequences if businesses kept acting likea woke parallel government.Former President Donald Trump mocked "woke" military generals for being weak and ineffective.Rep. Matt Gaetz kicked off his re-election campaign promising to fight against woke-ism.

"Woke" also was tied in conservative media to the phrase "cancel culture," as public figures who said insensitive or racial things (not woke, in other words) faced a backlash and occasionally loss of income or influence because of it, something conservative commentators considered a violation of First Amendment rights and an infringement of their personal freedoms.

"So in addition to meaning aware and progressive, many people now interpret woke to be a way to describe people who would rather silence their critics than listen to them," according to Michael Ruiz of Fox News.

'You will be happier elsewhere, as will we': Palm Beach Police investigating letters warning 'woke' New Yorkers to leave Florida

'Your woke sky': Dictionary.com jabs Republican lawmaker's tweet criticizing 'millennial leftists'

Both terms refer to companies that showcase theirpublic support for progressive causes but fail to actually do any genuine reform.

That really depends on who's saying it. By 2021 woke seemed to mostly come from conservative commentators and as part of Republican Party campaign talking points, along with "cancel culture" and "critical race theory."

CNN called "wokeness" the biggest threat to Democrats in the 2022election.

It didn't help that "woke" was quickly pulled into pop culture to be further watered down and sanitized. SaturdayNight Live presented "Levi's Wokes" in 2017. There were How Woke Are You? quizzes on Facebook. The New Yorker asked, "What's in a Woke McRib?" BuzzFeed named Hasan Piker the "woke bae on your Facebook Feed."

Some Black thought leaders consider "woke" to be problematic, weaponized against them, and largely meaningless now.

"As is disturbingly often the case, White people (or any racial group outside the terms origin) will sometimes begin using a term that originated in a community of color often as a term of pride, endearment, or self-empowerment years or decades later," saidDana Brownlee in an article for Forbes, "while either willfully or inadvertently distorting the original meaning of the term."

"It is extremely convenient from a culture-war perspective, to be able to use a word likewoketo signal at approximately seven different things," said Slate's Rachelle Hampton. "When you say that wokeness is a political ideology, youre not talking about anything. Youre talking about people who talk about race. And that just immediately brands them as a member of the wokerati."

Many still use "woke" in its original meaning, though, despite the changes.

Contributor: John Kennedy, Capitol Bureau, USA TODAY - FLORIDA NETWORK

C. A. Bridges is a Digital Producer for the USA TODAY Network, working with multiplenewsrooms across Florida. Local journalists work hard to keep you informed about the things you care about, and you can support them by subscribing to yourlocal news organization.Read more articles by Chris here and follow him on Twitter at @cabridges

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What does it mean to be 'woke,' and why does Florida Governor Ron DeSantis want to stop it? - Palm Beach Post