Book of the Day: Debating Race by Michael Eric Dyson

It ain’t easy being Michael Eric Dyson. In addition to being a tireless advocate for the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, the Penn professor has produced 14 books in 14 years. From the groundbreaking Reflecting Black, to the classic bio-criticism I May Not Get There With You, to the elegantly written and brilliantly argued Is Bill Cosby Right? and Come Hell or High Water, Michael Eric Dyson has managed to provide rigorous, accessible, and timely analyses at a remarkably productive rate. As if that werent enough, Dyson has participated in important conversations in all corners of public and counter-public life, from Tigger’s Basement to the Senate floor.

It is this tireless scholarly activism that informs Dyson’s latest tome, Debating Race. The book, a collection of conversations with a dazzling array of interlocutors, demonstrates Dyson’s remarkable improvisational wit, intellectual depth, and rhetorical dexterity. Some of the book’s highlights include: an interesting conversation on segregation with Mara Tapp, Gary Orfield, and Arturo Vargas; a spirited exchange with Elliot Ratzman about Black/Jewish love; a respectful but tense debate about loving Black women on ABC’s The View; a thoughtful and principled conversation about Black youth with John McCain and John Kerry while giving Senate testimony; a loving mini-debate with Jesse Jackson about the role of Black intellectuals; and a hilarious encounter with Stephen Colbert about Hurrican Katrina. The only thing missing from the book’s 27 chapters was Dyson’s highly engaging and rigorous discussion with Princeton’s Eddie Glaude regarding Bill Cosby.

While this book will certainly satisfy Dyson fans, it is highy recommended for anyone interested in the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and contemporary politics. Highly readable, consistently entertaining, and thoroughly informative, this book will only fortify Dyson’s well-deserved reputation as the leading public intellecutal of his generation.

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