You're talking about the word's usage as a verb (the past tense of "wake", ie "I woke this morning"), the article mentions its usage as an adjective ("to be woke").
I realise the section heading is talking about the very modern adjectival slang usage - I just disagree that the 'older than you might think' argument that follows is correct, or that if so it has any value (since even the article seems to acknowledge its a different usage to the modern slang).
Yes, but it uses it in "stay woke" not "I woke this morning".
> I just disagree that the 'older than you might think' argument that follows is correct, or that if so it has any value (since even the article seems to acknowledge its a different usage to the modern slang).
I agree, it's not the modern usage as it doesn't have the same meaning, but I think the article means that its usage as an adjective is old, not that the usage with its current meaning is old. Which I guess makes it very debatable if "the word" has been around for that long.
It seems you're right though, it's a 'predicative' adjective, as in 'he is sat over there' or 'he is awake'.
Anyway, Wiktionary's first entry for it is literal adjectival usage, in the 'African-American vernacular, or slang', which assuming correct would make for a more compelling (to me anyway) 'older than you might think' argument, if it presumably just crossed over from that into the figurative usage, and only that took off more broadly.