Michael Eric Dyson

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Michael Eric Dyson (born October 23, 1958) is an American academic, author, Baptist minister, and radio host. He is a professor in the College of Arts and Science and in the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University.[1] Described by Michael A. Fletcher as "a Princeton Ph.D. and a child of the streets who takes pains never to separate the two",[2] Dyson has authored or edited more than twenty books dealing with subjects such as race, religion and politics, as well as biographies on Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Marvin Gaye, Barack Obama, Bill Cosby, Tupac Shakur and Jay-Z.

Early life and education

Dyson was born on October 23, 1958, in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Addie Mae Leonard, who was from Alabama. He was adopted by his stepfather, Everett Dyson, who married Leonard in 1960.[3] He attended Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on an academic scholarship but left and completed his education at Northwestern High School.[2] He became an ordained Baptist minister at nineteen years of age.[4] Having worked in factories in Detroit to support his family, he entered Knoxville College as a freshman at the age of twenty-one.[5] Dyson received his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Carson–Newman College in 1985.[2] He received a Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University in 1993 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled Uses of Heroes: Celebration and Criticism in the Interpretation of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.[6]

Career

Professor

Dyson has taught at Chicago Theological Seminary, Brown University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University, DePaul University, and the University of Pennsylvania.[2] From 2007 to 2020, he was a professor of sociology at Georgetown University.[7] In 2021, Dyson moved to Vanderbilt University where he holds the Centennial Chair and serves as University Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies in the College of Arts and Science and University Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society in the Divinity School.[1] Between 2016 and 2018, he was a visiting professor at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont.

Author

His 1994 book Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X became a New York Times notable book of the year.[8] In his 2006 book Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster, Dyson analyzes the political and social events in the wake of the catastrophe against the backdrop of an overall "failure in race and class relations".[9][10][11] In 2010, Dyson edited Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas's Illmatic, with contributions based on the album's tracks by, among others, Kevin Coval, Kyra D. Gaunt ("Professor G"), dream hampton, Marc Lamont Hill, Adam Mansbach, and Mark Anthony Neal.[12] Dyson's own essay in this anthology, Template:"'One Love', Two Brothers, Three Verses", argues that the current US penal system disfavors young black males more than any other segment of the population.[13][14] His last three books appeared repeatedly on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Commentator

Dyson hosted a radio show, which aired on Radio One, from January 2006 to February 2007. He is also a commentator on National Public Radio, MSNBC and CNN, and is a regular guest on Real Time with Bill Maher. Beginning in July 2015, Dyson became a political analyst for MSNBC.[15] In May 2018, he participated in the Munk debate on political correctness, arguing alongside Michelle Goldberg against Stephen Fry and Jordan Peterson.[16] In August 2018, Dyson spoke at the funeral of Aretha Franklin.[17]

The Michael Eric Dyson Show radio program debuted on April 6, 2009, and was broadcast from Morgan State University. The show's first guest was Oprah Winfrey,[18] to whom Dyson dedicated his 2009 book Can You Hear Me Now? The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson. The show appears to have been discontinued, with its last episode being in December 2011.

Dyson served on the board of directors of the Common Ground Foundation, a project dedicated to empowering urban youth in the United States.[19]

Beliefs

Dyson's general philosophy is that American black people are continuing to suffer from generations of ongoing oppression. On Fox News with Tucker Carlson, Dyson suggested that white Americans looking for ways to counter white privilege could make individual efforts to contribute time and money to support local black communities.[20]

Bibliography

Title Year ISBN Publisher
Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism 1993 Template:ISBN University of Minnesota Press
Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X 1995 Template:ISBN Oxford University Press
Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line 1996 Template:ISBN Addison Wesley
Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture 1997 Template:ISBN Oxford University Press
I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. 2000 Template:ISBN Free Press
Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur 2002 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy 2002 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
Why I Love Black Women 2002 Template:ISBN Perseus Book Group
The Michael Eric Dyson Reader 2004 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye 2005 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? 2005 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
Pride: The Seven Deadly Sins 2006 Template:ISBN Oxford University Press
Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster 2006 Template:ISBN Perseus Book Group
Debating Race 2007 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip Hop 2007 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King's Death and How it Changed America 2008 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
Can You Hear Me Now? The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson 2009 Template:ISBN Basic Civitas Books
The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America 2016 Template:ISBN Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America 2017 Template:ISBN St. Martin's Press
What Truth Sounds Like 2017 Template:ISBN St. Martin's Press
JAY-Z: Made in America 2019 Template:ISBN St. Martin's Press
Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America 2020 Template:ISBN St. Martin's Press
Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America 2021 Template:ISBN St. Martin's Press
Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote 2024 Template:ISBN Little, Brown and Company

Editor

Awards and nominations

Year Association Category Work Result Ref.
2007 American Book Award Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster Template:Won [21]
2004 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction Why I Love Black Women Template:Won [22]
2006 Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? Template:Won [23]
2007 Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster Template:Nom [24]
2008 Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip-Hop Template:Nom [25][26]
2021 Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America Template:Nom [27]
2018 Southern Book Prize Non-Fiction Tears We Cannot Stop Template:Won [28]

Interviews

References

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External links

Template:Sister project

Template:NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction Template:MSNBC Personalities Template:Civil rights movement

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  1. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ a b c d Michael A. Fletcher (Spring 2000). "Michael Eric Dyson: A Scholar and a Hip-Hop Preacher.", The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Marie Arana (August 24, 2003). "Michael Eric Dyson. Telling It Any Way He Can", The Washington Post.
  5. ↑ Dyson, Michael Eric (April 2, 2011). "Manning Marable: A Brother, a Mentor, a Great Mind", The Root. Template:Webarchive.
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Michael E Dyson, Department of Sociology, Georgetown University
  8. ↑ Calvin Reid (February 21, 2000). "Interview. Michael Eric Dyson: Of Her s and Hip-hop. The real challenge of King's heroism is to make it a useful heroism", Publishers Weekly.
  9. ↑ Considine, Austin (February 5, 2006). "Disparities revealed in Katrina's wake / Race, class central to analysis of how nation failed victims", San Francisco Chronicle.
  10. ↑ Staff (April 2006). "The center of the storm", Ebony.
  11. ↑ Staff (January 16, 2006). "Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster", Publishers Weekly.
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Porco, Alessandro (May 2009). Template:"'Time is Illmatic': A Critical Retrospective on Nas's Groundbreaking Debut", Postmodern Culture – Volume 19, Number 3.
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  18. ↑ Prince, Richard (April 1, 2009). "Oprah to Inaugurate Michael Eric Dyson Radio Show", Maynard Institute. Richard Prince's Journal-isms™. Template:Webarchive.
  19. ↑ Staff (2007). "Biography: Dr. Michael Eric Dyson" Template:Webarchive, Common Ground Foundation, board members.
  20. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  27. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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