PS - can somebody explain to me what the contemporary term "woke" means - in plain English?
Depends on who you're asking.
One group of people use it as a political dog whistle, it means anything they dislike or get told to dislike. This is why none of them can define it, it's not that they necessarily can't, it's just that if they do they expose who they really are. It's a way to express who they really are without saying who they really are.
The actual meaning refers to more or less watching your back because law enforcement has a (very) racial bias and doesn't really care who they pin a crime on.
BTW, this is why the solved murder rate percentage has actually gone down with the advent of DNA, fingerprints and other technology that should help law enforcement find the right person. It was not uncommon for the public and police to just blame a minority and off to jail someone went, more tech made them not just have to work harder to collect actual evidence but also absolved a lot of those falsely accused. When they claim law enforcement has gotten harder, yes it has, they now have actually do their job and try to find the right person. There is still a lot of innocent people in jail though either because they pre-date this tech or simply cannot afford to fight and prove their innocence so they take a plea deal.