Al Sharpton Floats His New Nickname For Anti-Woke Republicans: ‘Well What’s The Opposite?’

If you don’t fall into the “woke” column, then you belong to a separate “sleep” group, as nicknamed by Al Sharpton during a Friday MSNBC appearance.

Sharpton also accused Republicans of weaponizing words like “woke” for political gain, something he claimed the party also did with the Defund the Police movement. A new poll from USA Today/Ipsos found that 56 percent of respondents viewed the term woke as a positive, meaning to be “aware of social injustices.” A majority of Republicans, according to the data, meanwhile believe the term means to be “overly politically correct” and to police the speech of others.

While discussing the poll, Sharpton excitedly shared a go-to argument he has with people who view the word woke negatively.

“What I say to people when they start talking about woke is, well what’s the opposite, sleep? You’d rather be asleep? And I think you change the argument. Do you want to be woke or do you want to be sleep?” Sharpton said.

According to Sharpton, critics of “woke” are redefining the term. Notable Republicans like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have made targeting “wokeism” in public schools and businesses centerpieces to their platforms. DeSantis even previously declared that Florida the state where “woke goes to die.”

“You have to define what sleep means and what woke means and you can’t let them define it. Whoever defines you confines you, Jesse Jackson used to say,” Sharpton said.

11th Hour host Stephanie Ruhle asked if the GOP’s battle against “woke” was similar to the battle against the Defund the Police movement, something Sharpton said a number of Democrats like himself were tied to despite a lack of support. He also admitted it was an effective strategy.

“It is and defund the police worked with a lot of elections around the country,” he said.

Watch above via MSNBC.