Filed under: Books, Eric, Race | Tags: April 4th 1968, Martin Luther King, Michael Eric Dyson
Editors Note: This is a review I did over the summer that was withheld due to a conflict of interests relating to the employment situation of one of our bloggers. I am publishing it now because it has been several months, and I doubt Dyson would give a shit about a scathing review of one of his books on a blog as irrelevant as this one. But, if you are reading this Dr. Rev. Mr. MC Dyson PhD (or whatever it is you call your bespectacled self), if you don’t like the harsh reviews, start writing better books. Translation: If you can’t stand the heat, get out the kitchen.
April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr’s Death and How it Changed America
Michael Eric Dyson
Basic Civitas Books, 2008
270 pages, $25
I intended to write this review sooner, but my principles interfered; in a word, I refuse to pay for books that I expect to be worth far less than the cover price. So, given the fact that professor, ordained minister, and self-proclaimed activist/public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson’s latest waste of paper book, April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr’s Death and How it Changed America, was checked out of the University of Pennsylvania’s library until about a week ago, I couldn’t get around to reading and commenting on it until now. Despite not paying a cent for this cute little mess—aside from Penn’s $50,000 tuition which includes library privileges (imagine that!)—after reading it, I still felt compelled to go back to the library and demand a refund of the time I had just wasted. But alas, the library has yet to invest in a time travel device—I can only urge them to look into it.
Many will recognize the date April 4th, 1968 as the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while standing on the balcony outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The year 2008 thus marks the 40th year since King’s tragic death. On this somber anniversary, Dyson’s deceptively short 270-page volume is an “effort to grapple with King’s death—in [Dyson’s] own mind, and in the life of the nation.” With ten chapters sandwiched between a short prologue and a lengthy afterword, this book is divided into three parts, each with a somewhat distinct area of inquiry. Part one explores how King understood his own mortality and dealt with the looming threat of his death as he rose to prominence in lockstep with the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. Part two is an examination of the state of black America in the post-King, post-Civil Rights, post-Voting Rights Amendment years. Finally, part three is a look at black leadership since King’s death—namely, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Barack Obama. Unfortunately, Dyson’s book delivers very little that could be considered new or particularly insightful, and where it strays from the beaten path it arrives at several conceptual and methodological cul-de-sacs.
…by someone who CLEARLY has no handle on it, I will vomit.
Quotes from a recent piece of crap journalism in The Economist , an otherwise reputable publication:
“Consider the hot album of the moment: “Tha Carter III” by Lil Wayne. Its central message is that if you are a rap star, you will get laid. The song “Lollipop”, for example, celebrates a young lady who treats Lil Wayne as she might a lollipop.
That’s actually not true…at all. If anything, the central message is: Weezy F Baby…best rapper alive. Or does it have one? Half of the verses on there have the signature Wayne stream of consciousness flow…REGARDLESS, it is obvious this writer has not thoroughly listened to TC3. I mean, he cites the album’s first single that has been pillaging radio airwaves for months to substantiate his claim– great job, buddy.
“The Roots, a group from Philadelphia, are often cited as an example. Their message? “If I can’t work to make it, I’ll rob and take it. Either that or me and my children are starving and naked.””
DIDN’T YOUR HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER EVER TELL YOU THAT IT IS NEVER OKAY TO TAKE A QUOTE OUT OF CONTEXT TO MISREPRESENT YOUR SUBJECT? Have you even listened to ONE of their EIGHT studio albums? If i had been reading the actual print magazine, I likely would have ripped up the page.
Do YOU know who this man is? Lexington at The Economist doesn’t.
Filed under: Current Events, Election 2008, Josh, Politics, Race | Tags: Election, Hope, Obama
When I was roughly 9 years old, i proudly declared to my older sister that after mulling it over in my head for the past decade or so, I had finally decided what I wanted to “be” when I grew up- President of the United States. It seemed like a rather glamorous position to me at the time, what with the king-like authority, cool-shaped office, 24-hour on-call posse of armed guards in black suits, etc. and besides that, it just seemed way cooler than being a paleontologist (my former dream career). Yet still, despite the amount of time, energy, and critical thought I’d put into my newfound aspiration, I was met not with praise from my eldest sibling, but rather discouragement. On the evening of my ever-so-eloquent verbal declaration of my intention to pursue the position of Commander-In-Chief, with all the careful delicacy of a falling anvil, my sister unflinchingly looked me in the eyes, and told me that no Black man would ever become President. No shot. Not a chance. Ever.
What a difference 10 years makes.
By Chloe Wayne
I’m a little late on this, but check out this photo a blogger at Daily Kos, “the largest progressive community blog in the United States,” made and posted on the site (only to be taken down hours later):
What can be worse than the overt racist is the well-meaning, “colorblind” white liberal who is “down for the cause” but is seriously ignorant. I was shocked to find that the blogger in question posted the photo as a medium of support for Michelle Obama, and an attack against the Republican Party for their campaign tactics. The person even wrote underneath it: “Copy and send out as you wish.” Are you serious??????
In the question of Black freedom, the textbook answers are 1863 and 1964: the years of the Emancipation Proclamation and a landmark Civil Rights Act, respectively. But when, if ever, have we been emancipated from the mental and psychological stronghold our racially muddied history has had on us? It boggles my mind that the poster could not foresee people’s outrage at such an image, as if the pain of such atrocities no longer weighs heavily on our hearts and minds, as if racism and white supremacy are vestigial flickers of decades past that bear no implications for today.
While perusing the CNN headlines last week I stumbled upon an article entitled “White valedictorian: A first for historically black Morehouse.” I initially didn’t think much of the piece (surprised that there were actually white people attending Morehouse). But I clicked on the link anyway and found:
The article proceeds to describe the ways in which Packwood is one with the black community. Packwood explains that his mother’s second marriage was to a black man. The relationship didn’t work out and things were tough at home (another fact the CNN reporters highlight during their schpeal about Packwood’s ability to identify with the black community). Because of these conditions, Packwood was forced to live with a close friend and his family (also black) where he finished his high school career and prepared for college. Packwood states, “A large majority of my friends, like all my girlfriends have been minorities… So it was very, it was kind of strange that I always gravitated toward the black community.”
Joshua Packwood (left) & brother (who will attend Morehouse next fall) pictured with unidentified ethnic child
By Chloe Wayne
Yesterday would have been the 83rd birthday of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz…Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell gives us her thoughts on the significance.
Ossie Davis’s rather powerful eulogy for Malcolm:
So far removed from the Civil Rights generation, I find it difficult to assess the extent to which his legacy today reflects his actual impact during his short life, or his posthumous deification or commodification. Who was Malcolm Little, really? How can one grasp such a prominent, polemical figure when his words and images are thrown at us left and right– often scattered, disjointed, and even contradictory– without any historical context or sense of continuity in which to ground them?
I think it’s important for us to commemorate Malcolm, and it is equally so to acknowledge the difficulties we face in making sense of him. Whether we agree with his (varying) ideological stances or not, his relevance today reaches much farther than the one-dimensional personas we have erected in his place.
To duly honor him is to dig a little deeper to study him and the forces/structures that birthed him. Accordingly, if the 1980s and 1990s consigned his countenance to T-shirts and posters, let this generation reject the hoary catchphrases and angry-faced photographs as inadequate representations of the man, and return him– and more importantly, truly progressive and radical action– to the forefront of our political consciousness.
