Latest Michael Eric Dyson Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• A lot of the commercial expression of hip-hop leaves a lot to be desired - but then, there's a lot of whack gospel music, but I'm not leading a crusade against it. Of course, the vices of hip-hop are far more influential, I understand. But the good that hip-hop transmits, the power of the culture to rally the best of our protest, and uplift, and resistance, traditions, is often unfairly overlooked.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Uplifting, Culture, Influential

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Of course, I could never suggest that only poor people are misogynistic; too many rich folk are just as hateful of women as any poor person might be. I don't know if social problems are only circular; perhaps other geometric metaphors might better describe the triangular effects of social vulnerability, political oppression, and racial disadvantage. I think you're right - we've got to focus on both analyses and solutions. And sometimes, an adequate analysis goes far along in suggesting a suitable solution.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Thinking, People, Focus

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Black women must help black men understand their full potential lies not in denying black women full access to their humanity and opportunity, but in working diligently to overcome the odds that hamper our progress. Yes, some of that is self-imposed, and we must confront it; and much of it comes from outside. But without courageous and brilliant black women, our communities are greatly diminished.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Lying, Opportunity, Men

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• You must address the historical and political differences in race and ethnicity in this country before you hold tenaciously to insubstantial, and unsubtantiated, beliefs.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Country, Political, Historical

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• There are many things that black women can continue to do to help black folk. First, black women have historically been among the most vocal advocates for equality in our community. We must take full advantage of such courage by continuing to combat the sexism in our communities. Black women, whether in church, or hip-hop, don't receive their just due. Second, when black women are in charge of child-rearing, they must make ever so sure to raise black children who respect both men and women, and who root out the malevolent beliefs about women that shatter our culture.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Children, Men, Community

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Black women must challenge black men to live up to their best in every arena of the culture -
  at job, at home, in school and in religious arenas.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Religious, Home, School

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• There is not a history of black intellectuals being allied with dominant forces to hold white people in social and cultural subordination for a few centuries. Second, the "our" of black folk has always been far more inclusive that the "our" of white folk. For instance, there would have hardly been a need for "black" churches if "white" churches had meant their "our" for everybody - and not just white folk. But "our" black churches have always been open to all who would join. The same with white society at every level.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  People, Black, Church

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Ironically, there is a history of black/Irish communion here in the states; Irish and African American brothers and sisters have often found common cause in fighting the bigotry both communities faced earlier in the 20th century. However, white skin privilege among the Irish separated them from blacks, who had no such advantage to fall back upon. The solution is to fight bigotry and racism wherever they appear, and to root out the forces of oppression as conscientiously as possible.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Brother, Fall, Fighting

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Bigotry is surely an exportable American commodity, especially when it comes to race.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Commodity, Bigotry

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• The demonizing of black identity is much more of a global phenomenon than many would like to admit. I've traveled abroad extensively, and it's hard to ignore the subordination of darker peoples to lighter peoples the world around.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Black, Identity, World

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I think that the over-incarceration of black and brown folk is one of the great crimes of American society.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Thinking, Black, Crime

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Furthermore, the financial and social investment in prisons means that black and brown youth become, essentially, fodder for the machinery of capitalized incarceration. The steady supply of guns in the U.S. makes an already untenable situation even more dangerous, and all of us must raise our voices, write to Congress, hit the streets in protest, attend budget meetings of local municipalities - all to state our opposition to such criminal procedures and practices for our youth.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Writing, Mean, Gun

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I don't think that an emphasis on the peculiar plight of black males at all suggests that others are not suffering, or that such attention suggests that black men and women feel sorry for themselves.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Sorry, Men, Thinking

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• It is extremely interesting to me that black males, and other black folk, are viewed as self-pitying, by either other blacks who have failed to accurately calculate their own diminished status as a result of racial animosity - both individual and systemic - or by whites who fail to comprehend how, after forcing black folk into subservience for hundreds of years, they now whine about small privileges that pale - so to speak - in comparison to the untold advantage of centuries of benefit.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Interesting, Black, Speak

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• The emphasis on personal responsibility is something we've had in black America from the get-go. Every major leader and intellectual worth her salt has advocated for black folk to better ourselves and push ourselves to the limits of our abilities and gifts. At the same time, we've got to focus on creating a society that recognizes our worth, regardless of race and other factors.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Responsibility, Focus, Leader

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• If your experiences suggest to you that poor black folk are lazy, then you must be true to those experiences - except, however, as your experiences are pressured by empirical investigation of complex phenomena. I suspect that even when you control for variables of individual laziness, you'll see that what you see before you masses of black poor people unwilling to work hard to get better will not be as simply concluded as you might at first believe. Continue your good work.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Believe, Hard Work, People

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Perception, after all, is not simply a matter of what you believe about yourself, it all encompasses what others think about you, and what has been thought of you historically. I say we can pay attention to those other dimensions of our identity - class, gender, sexual orientation, geographical region - while at the same time understanding how our historically produced racial identity continues to serve, or undercut us.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Believe, Thinking, Understanding

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Blackness also has positive dimensions, those that bear the political meanings of African American people, among other blacks, who have struggled for self-determination and freedom for centuries. The absence of such an identity doesn't automatically guarantee that we will be free of the images and ideals that fuel stereotypes about black identity. Changing the name will not alter the reality.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Reality, People, Political

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• It is true that race is a social fiction, a myth perpetuated by a variety of peoples throughout the modern period, especially, to further their own gains at the expense of others.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Modern, Myth, Variety

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Blackness is not simply a reactionary title or identity; that is indeed the "negative" way of characterizing African American identity.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  African American, Identity, Negative

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• We come from a proud tradition of people who have insisted that none of us can be truly successful until at least the barriers to such success and thriving are completely removed. I think the black narcissism that prevails, along with the stylish materialism and self-satisfied, smug attitudes among many of our upwardly mobile brothers and sisters should be identified and criticized.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Brother, Attitude, Successful

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• We must continue to insist to our better off brothers and sisters that they are in the same racial boat as their less better off kin. Even elevated class status and superior financial standing cannot ward off the effects and consequences of racism.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Brother, Racism, Financial

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I have written 5 books that address major figures in our culture: books on Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Tupac Shakur, Marvin Gaye and Bill Cosby. But even in the books that take up major figures, I hope to provoke conversation, insight and understanding about these personalities by providing new, fresh and vital information and analysis about them.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Book, Personality, Understanding

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I do believe that it is quite necessary for us as a people to reach back, over and down to help the less fortunate of our number.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Believe, People, Helping

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• We should all be about the business of finding, discussing and furthering solutions to our problems. But none of that can be done without at first speaking honestly about the problems we confront, with whoever in our ranks will listen and respond.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Done, Problem, Honestly

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com