Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes told us to Wake Up Everybody. That wasn’t just a song. It was instruction. Teachers, teach with care. Doctors, heal with compassion. Builders, build with vision. “The world won’t get no better, if we just let it be.” That lyric was prophecy. A better world is made by us, for us, through us.
Marvin Gaye asked, What’s Going On? He didn’t shout. He questioned. He named war abroad and war at home, poverty, brutality, mothers crying, children with no peace, and still held space for hope.
Two songs. Two prophecies. Two roadmaps. And here we are, living in the very time they warned us about.
Look around. Texas is redrawing maps to weaken black and brown voices. That is not theory. It is happening now, in plain sight.
And yet, too many of us cling to an illusion of safety. We tell ourselves that if we stay quiet, if we don’t make noise, if we just keep our heads down, this will pass. But while we wait, our healthcare is stripped, our jobs cut, our children’s history erased, our voices muted. Safety that depends on silence is not safety. It is surrender.
Here is the truth: it starts in the mind.
Before we can move as a people, we must think differently as a people. Too many of us have decided to “sit this one out.” That decision does not start in the streets. It starts in our minds. Years of distortion have taught us to doubt our power, to wait for someone else to save us, to believe that quiet is protection.
That is why I wrote my forthcoming book, Liberated Mind. Because black mental health is not just about coping. It is about clarity. It is about unlearning the lies we inherited, reclaiming the truth about who we are, and making disciplined, intentional choices for ourselves and our communities.
Your First Step
Start with your mind. Unlearn the belief that you are powerless. Unlearn the idea that nothing can change. Clarity begins when we challenge the noise and remember who we are. From there, action flows. Conversations in our homes, plans in our communities, movement that is grounded and focused.
We owe this to the ancestors who walked through the night guided by moss on trees, who risked everything for a future they would never see.
We owe it to our children. They will inherit what we decide. If we fold, they inherit chains. If we rise, they inherit wings.
This is no time to sleepwalk.
This is no time to be quiet.
This is the time to wake up.
Wake up. Say it again. Wake up. Say it louder. Wake up.
Rise up. Assemble. Move.
• • •• • •
M o r e:
The Big Beautiful Lie
The War for Your Mind is Being Televised
AI and Black Influence
The Quiet Dismantling
Dr. Tim Goler is Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban Affairs at Norfolk State University. He is Chair of the Department of Sociology and also serves as the Director of Research at NSU's Center for African American Public Policy. A native Clevelander, he hails from the city’s Glenville neighborhood and is co-founder of PolicyBridge.