WOKE! — a book by ronGanger
A Book by ronGanger

Woke!

Because everybody's doing it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Because everybody believes it doesn't necessarily mean it's true.

eBook 979-8-90533-882-3 Paperback 979-8-90533-883-0 Hardcover 979-8-90533-884-7
Woke! book cover by ronGanger, showing a monarch butterfly emerging from a chrysalis

About the Book

What if the greatest obstacle isn't a lack of information —
but a reluctance to question what we've been taught?

In Woke!, ronGanger challenges readers to think beyond accepted narratives and engage in honest, thought-provoking conversation about history, race, religion, politics, leadership, and culture.

Drawing on personal experience, historical research, philosophy, current events, and decades of observation, he pushes readers to examine evidence, ask difficult questions, and arrive at their own conclusions rather than simply accepting conventional wisdom.

Provocative, unapologetic, and deeply reflective — this is not a book written to tell you what to think. It's an invitation to explore ideas, challenge assumptions, and embrace the value of critical thinking in an increasingly complex world.

Whether you agree, disagree, or find yourself somewhere in between, Woke! will inspire you to look beyond headlines, question familiar beliefs, and pursue truth with an open mind.

The Premise

Most of us begin life accepting what we're told — by parents, teachers, ministers, and anchors. Woke! asks what happens when we never return to test those lessons as adults.

The Method

To be woke, in ronGanger's plainer sense, is to be alert — to notice contradictions, question convenient stories, and refuse to confuse repetition with truth.

The Terrain

Twenty-five chapters move through religion, race, politics, history, economics, leadership, and culture — grounded in the author's own memory and experience, not distant theory.

The Ask

Not agreement. ronGanger argues, repeatedly, for questioning, testing, and thinking independently — including about his own conclusions.

The Cover, Explained

Comfortable. Cocooned. Cracking open. Awake.

The wraparound cover traces a monarch's metamorphosis — the same arc Woke! asks of its reader. Four stages, one transformation.

01

The Caterpillar

Accepting what we're handed — from parents, pulpits, and headlines — without yet asking whether it's complete.

02

The Chrysalis

Sitting inside the discomfort — where old certainty dissolves before a new understanding has fully formed.

03

The Break

Cracking the shell of a story that no longer fits — the moment ronGanger calls "cracking the code."

04

Woke

Alert, independent, unwilling to mistake repetition for truth — free to think for yourself.

Inside the Book

25 chapters, six conversations

ronGanger doesn't move in a straight line — he circles a set of questions from every angle. Here's how the chapters cluster.

Try It Yourself

Sample a provocation

Woke! is built on real questions the author has sat with — some posed to him, some he poses to you. Pull one at random.

A question from the book
Click below to draw a question.
 

In His Own Words

From the pages

"To be woke is to be alert — to notice contradictions, question convenient stories, and refuse to confuse repetition with truth."
From the Foreword
"Decide where the evidence leads rather than where habit tells you it should lead."
From the Foreword
"Because everybody's doing it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Because everybody believes it doesn't necessarily mean it's true."
From the Back Cover
"I will spend the rest of my life debunking miseducation and negative propaganda — and passing on as much as I can to those willing to listen."
From the Conclusion
"Make Footsteps, Don't Follow Them."
Ronnie L. Rice — Personal Philosophy

Chapter 24 — Do You Believe in Miracles?!

A short list of descendants of the enslaved

ronGanger devotes a chapter to inventors, physicians, mathematicians, and leaders too often left out of the record. A few of the names inside:

Harriet Tubman

Returned to the South again and again as an Underground Railroad conductor, guiding over 70 people to freedom without ever losing a passenger.

Dr. Charles R. Drew

Pioneered blood plasma preservation — every blood bank in the world traces back to his research.

George Washington Carver

Developed over 300 products from the peanut alone, helping revive the South's agricultural economy.

Lewis H. Latimer

Patented an improved, longer-lasting carbon filament that made the light bulb practical for everyday use.

Benjamin Banneker

A self-taught astronomer whose photographic memory helped preserve the survey plans for Washington, D.C.

The Hidden Figures

Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Christine Darden — the calculations behind America's first journeys into space.

Dr. Gladys West

Her mathematical modeling of the Earth's shape became foundational to the Global Positioning System.

David Steward

Founder of World Wide Technology and one of the wealthiest Black Americans, with a company generating over $20 billion in annual revenue.

…and many more, including Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, Dr. Ben Carson, Elijah McCoy, Garrett Morgan, Granville Woods, Percy Julian, Vivien Thomas, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Barack Obama.


About the Author

Ronnie L. Rice, writing as ronGanger

Ronnie L. Rice, M.A., ATM-B
Author · Motivational Speaker · Leadership Coach

Ronnie L. Rice is an author, motivational speaker, former adjunct college instructor, and leadership coach, and the founder of R2 Enterprises, LLC — a company dedicated to leadership development, learning enrichment, and personal growth.

With a career spanning Human Resources, Training and Development, Sales, Marketing, and Organizational Leadership, Ronnie has spent decades helping individuals and organizations reach their full potential through education, mentorship, and professional development.

As an author, Ronnie explores topics that intersect history, culture, leadership, faith, and social issues. His writing encourages readers to think critically, ask deeper questions, examine the world from multiple perspectives — and to follow his own guiding philosophy.

B.S. Workforce, Education & Development — Southern Illinois University M.A. Management & Leadership — Webster University Founder, R2 Enterprises LLC
"Make Footsteps, Don't Follow Them!"
Get the Book

Read it. Question it. Talk about it.

Woke! is available in eBook, paperback, and hardcover. Invite ronGanger to speak, or reach out about bulk and book-club orders.

eBook979-8-90533-882-3
Paperback979-8-90533-883-0
Hardcover979-8-90533-884-7
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