Jeremy Vine has been chastised for totally changing the meaning of the term “woke.”
The 57-year-old presenter insisted that the real dictionary meaning of the word, which Collins defines as “being aware of social issues,” was incorrect.
Instead, while presenting his Channel 5 programme on Friday, the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant falsely stated that woke has “come to mean something else.”
The Eggheads host made the controversial remarks when questioned for his meaning of woke by his guest, novelist and activist Natasha Devon.
He responded: ‘Well, woke is, you know, you kind of read The Guardian and this and that, yeah.’
Jeremy continued: ‘I’m woke about three or four days a week, to be fair.’
‘I love that for you,’ Natasha said, before explaining that woke is an African-American term meaning to be ‘awake to injustice in society.’
She added: ‘It just means you’re not racist, homophobic or misogynist, so I’d say you’re a woke person.’
Jeremy said: ‘Well it does in your definition it means that, but not to everyone.’
Correcting him, Natasha said: ‘Well that’s the dictionary [definition],’ but Jeremy interrupted: ‘No, no, not to everyone. It’s come to mean something else.’
‘Leave that aside,’ he desperately tried to change the topic of conversation.
Viewers rushed to Twitter to slam Jeremy’s ‘definition’, including comedian Kathy Burke, who wrote: ‘“It’s come to mean something else” from Vine there. No it hasn’t, it’s just been hijacked by thickos and patronising old white men.’
‘He gives a really wishy-washy example of what he thinks it means and then completely dismisses her when she tells him what it actually means,’ one of her followers replied.
Another shocked viewer added: ‘I almost fell off my chair when I heard this. Absolutely shameful display.’
Many people concurred with Katy, calling her assessment “spot on.”
Amanda Holden was also recently chastised for saying that what she ‘loved’ about the late Paul O’Grady, a pioneer and LGBT hero, was that he was ‘not enlightened in any way.’
Conservative MP Dominic Raab caused outrage when he incorrectly referred to the late presenter as ‘Paul Grayson,’ claiming that O’Grady and his alter persona Lily Savage “would have had no time for wokery” and “the limitations on comedy.”
It comes just a week after Jeremy’s daytime programme received over 2,000 Ofcom complaints about remarks made about junior physicians.
‘These are the first few years, where I won’t call them trainees, but they’re very much finding their feet. They’re very much junior doctors here or foundation job doctors we call them,’ he said.
In a TikTok explaining the situation, one person said: ‘You use foundation doctor and junior doctor interchangeably there, that’s not how it works. If you were a doctor you would know that.’
Jeremy Vine airs weekdays on Channel 5 from 9.15am.
