The female singing group En Vogue, released a song in 1992 entitled “Free Your Mind.” The lyrics of this song is about sterotypes and how we are judged by the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the color of our skin, the texture of our hair, who we might date, and how we spend our money. The refrain is:
“Why, oh why must it be this way?
(Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh, ohhh)
Before you can read me
You got to learn how to see me!
Free your mind
And the rest will follow
Be colour-blind
Don’t be so shallow
Free your mind
And rest will follow
Be colour-blind
Don’t be so shallow”
Last month we celebrated Juneteenth and today we celebrate Independence Day. Before we can truly celebrate and understand what freedom is, all of us must experience some form of freedom. I contend that freedom begins in the mind. Freedom from sterotypes, freedom from past pain and hurt, freedom from limiting beliefs, freedom from whatever is holding your down or holding you back. Like the song says, “Free your mind, and the rest will follow.”
This song was written by Denzil Delano Foster, Gerald Edward Levert, and Thomas Craig McElroy. The message is timeless, at least for now. Society still judges us all on race, beliefs, dress, hair, music, money, lifestyle, gender, etc.
Maybe one day, it won’t all matter and we will actually allow each other to just be, to just live freely without painting the picture of someone else’s situation based on our own biases.
It may take my lifetime and yours, so we can’t wait until others see us as free, we must see ourselves as FREE!
Independence Day, commonly referred to as the 4th of July, is an annual celebration that commemorates the passage of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The passage of this vote and signing of the Declaration of Independence declared that North American colonies where free from Great Britain’s control.
Whether you observe the holiday with a family cookout, an airshow, a leisure vacation, parades or fireworks, reflect on what freedom means to your and what you need to free yourself from. Freedom begins in the mind. So, free your mind FIRST and the rest will follow.
Happy Independence Day!
