I used to tell people when I preached at a church, ‘If you want a great sermon, be a great audience.’ Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
There’s a great book about John Kennedy and his relationship to civil rights called ‘The Bystander.’ The title alone suggests that he did as little as possible, any minimal critical effort, to really facilitate civil rights in the White House. Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
It is bad enough to be white and poor; it is worse still to be black, or brown, and female, and young, and poor. Simply said, race makes class hurt more. Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
Class certainly loomed large in Katrina’s aftermath. Blacks of means escaped the tragedy; blacks without them suffered and died. In reality, it is how race and class interact that made the situation for the poor so horrible on the Gulf Coast. The rigid caste system that punishes poor blacks and other minorities also targets poor whites. Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
My church is the world! I want to bring the gospel to as broad and as interesting an audience as possible. Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
Comedy is to force us to observe ourselves in ways that are humorous and yet, at the end of the day, that cause us enough discomfort with the status quo to make a change. Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
There are huge divorces and divides and chasms in black America between the have-gots and the have-nots, between the monied and the poor, between the educated and the non-educated. And there are huge and growing chasms daily. And I want to say that it’s not simply about generation. It’s about genre. Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
Hip hop scholarship must strive to reflect the form it interrogates, offering the same features as the best hip hop: seductive rhythms, throbbing beats, intelligent lyrics, soulful samples, and a sense of joy that is never exhausted in one sitting. Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
The methodologies of examining hip hop are borrowed from sociology, politics, religion, economics, urban studies, journalism, communications theory, American studies, transatlantic studies, black studies, history, musicology, comparative literature, English, linguistics, and other disciplines. Michael Eric Dyson Read Quote
