Works by
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
(Baptist Minister, Writer)
[October 23, 1958 - ]

Audio

• Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line (1996)
  As a former welfare father who is also an ordained Baptist minister and a Princeton Ph.D., Michael Eric Dyson is one of those rare intellectuals who act not only as interpreters between black and white America but as bridges between the academy and the street. In this brave, bracing, and vastly readable book, he identifies the hidden rules that govern interactions between the races and within black communities, poisoning our language, our politics, and our thinking.
  
  From the O. J. Simpson trial to the generational politics of gangsta rap, and from Colin Powell to Louis Farrakhan, Dyson takes on the most contentious issues of the 1990s. Again and again he shows us that, in a society that prides itself on being color-blind, race is more important--and more pernicious--than ever. Filled with eloquence and erudition, wit and moral common sense, Race Rules is an invaluable guide to the America we really live in as well as a redemptive vision of the one we want for our children.

Non-fiction

• April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Death and the Transformation of America (2008)
  To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, America's most versatile and vital cultural critic reexamines King's importance and influence, and the ways in which his death changed America.
  
  On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 P.M., while he was standing on a balcony at a Memphis hotel, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and fatally wounded. Only hours earlier King--the prophet for racial and economic justice in America--ended his final public speech by saying, "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land."
  
  Acclaimed public intellectual and best-selling author, Michael Eric Dyson uses the fortieth anniversary of King's assassination as a starting point for a comprehensive reevaluation of the fate of America, specifically Black America, over the ensuing years. Dyson ambitiously, and controversially, investigates the ways in which we as a people have made it to the Promised Land that King spoke of and shines a bright light on the many areas that we still have a long way to go.
  
  Rather than only looking back, April 4, 1968 takes a sweeping 360-degree view of King's death--remembering all the toil, triumph, and tribulation that led to that fateful date while anticipating the ways in which the legacy of King's death will affect the future of this country.

• Born to Use Mics (2008) by Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai
  The best and brightest writers of the hip-hop generation reflect upon the era's landmark album: Nas's Illmatic.
  
  From the moment then nineteen-year-old Nasir "Nas" Jones began recording tracks for his debut album the hip-hop world was forever changed. Released in 1994, Illmatic, was hailed as a masterpiece and is one of the most influentialalbums in hip-hop history. In Born to Use Mics, Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai have brought together the brightest minds to reflect upon and engage one of the most incisive sets of songs ever laid down on wax.
  
  Contributors include: Adilifu Nama, Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., Imani Perry, James Peterson, Kyra Gaunt, Marc. Lamont Hill, Mark Anthony Neal, Michael Eric Dyson, and more

• Debating Race (2007)
  Bestselling author Michael Eric Dyson collects his previously unpublished intellectual encounters--cordial and combative-- with some of today's most influential thinkers and politicians.
  
  Whether chronicling the class conflict in the African American  community or exposing the failings of the government response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Michael Eric Dyson has never shied away from controversy. No stranger to intellectual combat, Dyson has always been ready to engage friends and foes alike in open conversation about the issues that matter. Debating Race collects many of Dyson's most memorable encounters and most poignant arguments.
  
  Dyson shows that he is as eloquent off the cuff as he is on the book page, and Debating Race gives readers a front row seat as he spars with politicians, pundits, and public intellectuals. From John Kerry and John McCain to Ann Coulter and the hosts of television's "The View"--Dyson shows the mental agility and rhetorical tenacity that have made him one of America's most astute intellectuals, and with topics ranging from civil rights, the legacy of the O. J. Simpson trial, and the authenticity of Colin Powell there is something in Debating Race to touch a nerve in all of us.

• Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop (2007)
  America's foremost "hip-hop intellectual" and acclaimed biographer of Marvin Gaye and Tupac Shakur weighs in on the past, present, and future of hip-hop music.
  Whether along race, class or generational lines, hip-hop music has been a source of controversy since the beats got too big and the voices too loud for the block parties that spawned them. America has condemned and commended this music and the culture that inspires it. Dubbed "the Hip-Hop Intellectual" by critics and fans for his pioneering explorations of rap music in the academy and beyond, Michael Eric Dyson is uniquely situated to probe the most compelling and controversial dimensions of hip-hop culture.
  
  Know What I Mean? addresses salient issues within hip hop: the creative expression of degraded youth that has garnered them global exposure; the vexed gender relations that have made rap music a lightning rod for pundits; the commercial explosion that has made an art form a victim of its success; the political elements that have been submerged in the most popular form of hip hop; and the intellectual engagement with some of hip hop's most influential figures.
  
  In spite of changing trends, both in the music industry and among the intelligentsia, Dyson has always supported and interpreted this art that bloomed unwatered, and in many cases, unwanted from our inner cities. For those who wondered what all the fuss is about in hip hop, Dyson's bracing and brilliant book breaks it all down.

• Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster (2006)
  What Hurricane Katrina reveals about the fault lines of race and poverty in America-and what lessons we must take from the flood-from best-selling "hip-hop intellectual" Michael Eric Dyson
  
  Does George W. Bush care about black people?
  
  Does the rest of America?
  
  When Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, hundreds of thousands were left behind to suffer the ravages of destruction, disease, and even death. The majority of these people were black; nearly all were poor. The federal government's slow response to local appeals for help is by now notorious. Yet despite the cries of outrage that have mounted since the levees broke, we have failed to confront the disaster's true lesson: to be poor, or black, in today's ownership society, is to be left behind.
  
  Displaying the intellectual rigor, political passion, and personal empathy that have won him fans across the color line, Michael Eric Dyson offers a searing assessment of the meaning of Hurricane Katrina. Combining interviews with survivors of the disaster with his deep knowledge of black migrations and government policy over decades, Dyson provides the historical context that has been sorely missing from public conversation. He explores the legacy of black suffering in America since slavery, including the shocking ways that black people are framed in the national consciousness even today.
  
  With this call-to-action, Dyson warns us that we can only find redemption as a society if we acknowledge that Katrina was more than an engineering or emergency response failure. From the TV newsroom to the Capitol Building to the backyard, we must change the ways we relate to the black and the poor among us. What's at stake is no less than the future of democracy.

• Pride: The Seven Deadly Sins (2006)
  Of the seven deadly sins, pride is the only one with a virtuous side. It is certainly a good thing to have pride in one's country, in one's community, in oneself. But when taken too far, as Michael Eric Dyson shows in Pride, these virtues become deadly sins. Dyson, named by Ebony magazine as one of the 100 most influential African Americans, here looks at the many dimensions of pride. Ranging from Augustine and Aquinas, MacIntyre and Hauerwas, to Niebuhr and King, Dyson offers a thoughtful, multifaceted look at this "virtuous vice." He probes the philosophical and theological roots of pride in examining its transformation in Western culture. Dyson discusses how black pride keeps blacks from being degraded and excluded by white pride, which can be invisible, unspoken, but nonetheless very powerful. Dyson also offers a moving glimpse into the teachers and books that shaped his personal pride and vocation. Dyson also looks at less savory aspects of national pride. Since 9/11, he notes, we have had to close ranks. But the collective embrace of all things American, to the exclusion of anything else, has taken the place of a much richer, much more enduring, much more profound version of love of country. This unchecked pride asserts the supremacy of America above all others--elevating our national beliefs above any moral court in the world--and attacking critics of American foreign policy as unpatriotic and even traitorous. Hubris, temerity, arrogance--the unquestioned presumption that one's way of life defines how everyone else should live--pride has many destructive manifestations. In this engaging and energetic volume, Michael Eric Dyson, one of the nation's foremost public intellectuals, illuminates this many-sided human emotion, one that can be an indispensable virtue or a deadly sin.  See also: The Seven Deadly Sins Set: Consisting of Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Sloth, Anger, and Pride

• Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Minds? (2005)
  The best-selling book that sparked a national debate about the class divide in black America
  
  Michael Eric Dyson took America by storm with this provocative expose of the class and generational divide that is tearing black America apart.

• Word Is Bond: The Tradition of Testimony (2005)

• Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye (2004)
  Twenty years after his murder at the hands of his own father, Marvin Gaye continues to define the hopes and shattered dreams of the Motown generation. A performer whose career spanned the history of rhythm and blues, from doo-wop to the sultriest of soul music, Gaye's artistry magnified the contradictions that defined America's coming of age in the tumultuous 1970s. In his most searching and ambitious work to date, acclaimed critic Michael Eric Dyson illuminates both Marvin Gaye's stellar achievements and stunning personal decline--and offers an unparalleled assessment of the cultural and political legacy of R&B on American culture.
  
  Through interviews with those close to Gaye--from his musical beginnings in a black church in Washington, D.C., to his days as a "ladies' man" in Motown's stable of young singers, from the artistic heights of the landmark album What's Going On? to his struggles with addiction and domestic violence--Dyson draws an indelible portrait of the tensions that shaped contemporary urban America: economic adversity, the drug industry, racism, and the long legacy of hardship.
  
  Published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of Gaye's death in 1984, and infused with the soulful prose that has become Michael Eric Dyson's trademark, Mercy, Mercy Me is at once a celebration of an American icon whose work continues to inspire, and a revelatory and incisive look at how a lost generation's moods, music, and moral vision continue to resonate today.

• Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur (2002)
  Acclaimed for his writing on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as his passionate defense of black youth culture, Michael Eric Dyson is known as the "hip-hop intellectual." With his Blackboard best seller Holler If You Hear Me, Dyson has reached his widest audience to date, bringing to life the hopes and dreams of slain hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. Viewed by many as a "black James Dean," Tupac has attained cult status since his death six years ago, partly due to the posthumous release of several albums, three movies, and a collection of poetry. But Tupac lives on primarily because of the devotion of his loyal followers. Dyson helps us to understand why a twenty-five-year-old rapper, activist, poet, actor, and alleged sex offender looms even larger in death than he did in life. With his trademark skills of critical thinking and storytelling, Dyson examines the significance of Tupac Shakur for black youth, assessing the ways in which different elements of Shakur's persona--thug, confused prophet, fatherless child--are both vital and destructive. Deeply personal and sharply analytical at the same time, Dyson's book offers a wholly original way of looking at Tupac Shakur that will thrill those who already love the artist and enlighten those who want to understand him.

• Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion (2002)
  Essays and interviews from one of the most insightful and thought-provoking black intellectuals to emerge since the heyday of the civil rights movement.
  
  Here, collected for the first time, are interviews and essays representing Michael Eric Dyson's most important thinking on race and identity. Exploring such topics as "whiteness" as seen through a black man's eye, modernism and postmodernism in black culture, and the emancipating role of black music from the plantation to the ghetto, Open Mike is a perfect introduction to Dyson's work and a must-have for students and scholars in African American Studies and Cultural Studies.

• The Michael Eric Dyson Reader (2002)
  Acclaimed for his writing on Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Tupac Shakur, and many more, Michael Eric Dyson has emerged as the leading African-American intellectual of his generation. This collection gathers the best of Dyson's vast and growing body of work from the last several years: his most incisive commentary, the most stirring passages, and the sharpest, most probing and broadminded critical analyses. From Michael Jordan to the role of religion in public life, from Toni Morrison to patriotism in the wake of 9/11, the mastery and ease with which Dyson tackles just about any subject of relevance to black America today is without parallel.

• Why I Love Black Women (2002)
  In this open love letter to black women everywhere, Michael Eric Dyson celebrates the strength and beauty of African-American women. From Miss James, his grammar school teacher, to Linda Johnson Rice, who heads the communications empire that publishes Ebony and Jet; from Toni Morrison, whose novels inspired him, as a young welfare dad, to Debbie Bethea, the housecleaner whose labors remind him of his mother in Detroit; from civil rights widow Myrlie Evers-Williams to activist and scholar Angela Davis-and many more-the women in Dyson's pantheon inspire us to remember, "When we love black women, we love ourselves, and the God who made us."

• I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. (2000)
  A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr., was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. In this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy, provocative author, lecturer, and professor Michael Eric Dyson restores King's true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today's world.

• Boys to Men (1997)

• Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture (1996)
  A former welfare father from the ghetto of Detroit, Michael Eric Dyson is today a critic, scholar, and ordained Baptist minister who has forged a unique role: he is a compelling spokesman for the concerns of the black community, and also a leader who has a genuine rapport with that community, particularly with urban youth. In his essays, lectures, sermons, and books, he has emerged as one of the leading African-American voices of our day.
  
  Dyson's passion for contemporary black culture informs Between God and Gangsta' Rap, his latest foray into the ongoing debate about African-American identity which embraces the hopes of the church and the cool reality of hip-hop. Bringing together writings on music, religion, politics, and identity, and offering a multi-faceted view of black life, the book charts the progress of Dyson's own soul, from his roots in the Detroit ghetto, to his current status as a Baptist minister, professor, cultural critic, husband, and father. Dyson opens with a letter to his brother, who is serving life in prison on a murder charge. This painful piece reveals a violence in the author's own family that sets the tone for themes that will emerge throughout these writings: violence on the black body and soul; the redemptive power of hope through school, church, and family; sexuality as a source of anguish and of joy; and the struggle with entrenched white racism. There is a section of wonderful profiles Dyson calls "Testimonials"--studies of black men, from O. J. Simpson to Marion Barry, and from Baptist preacher Gardner Taylor to Michael Jordan and Sam Cooke. In "Obsessed with O.J.," Dyson offers an extremely personal and insightful series of reflections on the case. In "Lessons," Dyson takes up the subjects of politics and racial identity. Newt Gingrich and moral panic, Quabiliah Shabazz, Carol Moseley Braun, the NAACP, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X all figure in these insightful and accessible pieces. And "Songs of Celebration" draws from Dyson's writings for the popular press such as Rolling Stone and Vibe, and explores the joys and pitfalls of black expression, from the black vernacular bible to gospel music, R & B, and hip-hop. Dyson concludes with an essay framed as a letter to his wife, which offers a positive counterbalance to the opening address to his brother. The letter serves as a tribute to the redemptive powers of love, the black family, spirit, and change.
  
  Arguing that the richness of black culture today can be found in the interstices--between god and gangsta' rap--Dyson charts the progress and pain of African Americans over the past decade, showing that brilliance and beauty, pain and drudgery are components of this changing culture. As a compendium of his thinking about contemporary culture Between God and Gangsta' Rap will find a wide audience among black and white readers.

• Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line (1996)

• Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X  (1995)
  Malcolm X's cultural rebirth--his improbable second coming--brims with irony. The nineties are marked by intense and often angry debates about racial authenticity and "selling out," and the participants in these debates--from politicians to filmmakers to rap artists--often draw on Malcolm's scorching rebukes to such moves. Meanwhile, Malcolm's "X" is marketed in countless business endeavors and is stylishly branded on baseball hats and T-shirts sported by every age, race, and gender. But this rampant commercialization is only a small part of Malcolm's remarkable renaissance. One of the century's most complex black leaders, he is currently blazing a new path across contemporary popular culture, and has even seared the edges of an academy that once froze him out. Thirty years after his assassination, what is it about his life and words that speaks so powerfully to so many?
  
  In Making Malcolm, Michael Eric Dyson probes the myths and meanings of Malcolm X for our time. From Spike Lee's film biography to Eugene Wolfenstein's psychobiographical study, from hip-hop culture to gender and racial politics, Dyson cuts a critical swathe through both the idolization and the vicious caricatures that have undermined appreciation of Malcolm's greatest accomplishments. The book's first section offers a boldly original and penetrating analysis of the major trends in interpreting Malcolm's legacy since his death, and the fiercely competing interests and ideologies that have shaped these trends. From mainstream books to writings published by the independent black press, Dyson identifies and examines the different "Malcolms" who have emerged in popular and academic investigations of his life and career: Malcolm as hero and saint; Malcolm as a public moralist; Malcolm as victim and vehicle of psychohistorical forces; and Malcolm as revolutionary figure. With impassioned and compelling force, Dyson argues that Malcolm was too formidable a historic figure--the movements he led too variable and contradictory, the passion and intelligence he summoned too extraordinary and disconcerting--to be viewed through any narrow cultural prism. The second half of the book offers a fascinating exploration of Malcolm's relationship to a resurgent black nationalism, his influence on contemporary black filmmakers and musicians, and his use in progressive black politics. From sexism and gangsta' rap to the painful predicament of black males, from the politics of black nationalism to the possibilities of race in the Age of Clinton, Dyson's trenchant and often inspiring analysis reveals how Malcolm's legacy continues to spur debate and action today. A rare and important book, Making Malcolm casts new light not only on the life and career of a seminal black leader, but on the aspirations and passions of the growing numbers who have seized on his life for insight and inspiration.

• Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism (1993)

• A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer (2007)
  Selections from the “Until the Violence Stops” Festival
  
  Featuring writings by Abiola Abrams, Alice Walker , Anna Deavere Smith, Ariel Dorfman, Betty Gale Tyson, Carol Gilligan, Carol Michèle Kaplan, Christine House, Dave Eggers, Deena Metzger, Diana Son, Edward Albee, Edwidge Danticat, Elizabeth Lesser, Erin Cressida Wilson, Eve Ensler, Hanan al-Shaykh, Howard Zinn, James Lecesne, Jane Fonda, Jody Williams, Jyllian Gunther, Kate Clinton, Kathy Engel, Kathy Najimy, Kimberle Crenshaw, Lynn Nottage, Marie Howe, Mark Matousek, Maya Angelou, Michael Cunningham, Michael Eric Dyson, Michael Klein, Moises Kaufman, Mollie Doyle, Monica Szlekovics, Nicholas Kristof, Nicole Burdette, Patricia Bosworth, Periel Aschenbrand, Robert Thurman, Robin Morgan, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Sharon Olds, Slavenka Drakulic, Suheir Hammad, Susan Miller, Susan Minot, Tariq Ali, and Winter Miller.
  
  This groundbreaking collection, edited by author and playwright Eve Ensler, features pieces from “Until the Violence Stops,” the international tour that brings the issue of violence against women and girls to the forefront of our consciousness. These diverse voices rise up in a collective roar to break open, expose, and examine the insidiousness of brutality, neglect, a punch, or a put-down. Here is Edward Albee on S&M; Maya Angelou on women’s work; Michael Cunningham on self-mutilation; Dave Eggers on a Sudanese  abduction; Carol Gilligan on a daughter witnessing her mother being hit; Susan Miller on raising a son as a single mother; and Sharon Olds on a bra.
  
  These writings are inspired, funny, angry, heartfelt, tragic, and beautiful. But above all, together they create a true and profound portrait of this issue’s effect on every one of us. With information on how to organize an “Until the Violence Stops” event in your community, A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer is a call to the world to demand an end to violence against women.

• The Seven Deadly Sins Set: Consisting of Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Sloth, Anger, and Pride (2006)
  Seven engaging meditations on sin, written by some of our most eminent authors (Francine Prose, (Gluttony) Joseph Epstein (Envy), Michael Eric Dyson, (Pride), Phyllis A. Tickle (Greed), Robert A. F. Thurman (Anger), Simon Blackburn (Lust), and Wendy Wasserstein (Sloth))