“What Truth Sounds Like” (2018) by Michael Eric Dyson uses the meeting between Robert Kennedy and James Baldwin in 1963 as a springboard to talk about 2018.
Subtitle: RFK, James Baldwin and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America
In 1963 Robert Kennedy met James Baldwin to talk about race in the US. Baldwin brought along Lorraine Hansberry, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Kenneth Clark, and others. There is only one chapter on the meeting!
Dyson spends most of the book comparing the 1960s to the 2010s:
- Robert Kennedy and Hillary Clinton,
- James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates,
- Harry Belafonte and Jay-Z,
- Muhammad Ali and Colin Kaepernick,
- The Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter,
- etc.
He compares how Blacks speak out – or do not – and how Whites listen – or do not.
Burden of representation: Black public figures have the right and the duty to speak out and take a stand:
“All of this seems foreign to folk who don’t depend on their sports stars or their entertainers to double as part-time spokespeople for the race. Taylor Swift carries no such burden; neither does baseball superstar Bryce Harper.”
Whites expect Black public figures to help less fortunate Blacks (the social service model), but not to call out Whites (the social conscience model). That is why President Trump called Colin Kaepernick a “son of a bitch”.
On Bobby Kennedy:
“Whatever his faults, or limits, Bobby Kennedy was committed to getting into a room and wrestling with the demons of race. Over 50 years later, we find it hard to follow his example, and our failure dooms us to untold suffering.”
On Muhammad Ali:
“Ali’s vision of America was more compelling, freer, truer, more capacious than the cramped, crabby, clubby visions of white racial nationalism.”
In comparing Ali to Kaepernick:
“extolling Ali’s courage as a spokesman for truth while pillorying those who dare tell the truth now is a rejection of Ali too.”
Dyson’s recommendations:
- read: James Baldwin, Robin D. G. Kelley, Farah Jasmine Griffin.
- vote for: Kamala Harris, Andrea Jenkins, Ras Baraka, Eric Holder.
- listen to: Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Rapsody.
- watch: “Black Panther” (2018).
The last chapter is “Wakanda Forever”. Despite the cheesy title, it is by far the best part of the book. It serves as a capstone to the book but can be read on its own.
Dyson:
“In Wakanda [the fictional land of the ‘Black Panther’ film], we finally get the chance to just be – like white folk can, and do, every day of their lives.”
“Wakanda matters because black lives don’t.”
“Wakanda is so appealing because having to explain ourselves to those who doubt us – doubt our minds, doubt our motives, doubt our goodness, doubt our undoubtable hugeness, doubt our epic and oracular and spectacular blackness – plain wears us out.”
“Wakanda is where Trayvon reigns as a King. As a Warrior. Most important, as a Man. Because he made it past a youth that is forever in peril in a culture that doesn’t prize our breathing.”
– Abagond, 2018.
See also:
- books
- Michael Eric Dyson
- Baldwin-Kennedy meeting
- When Hillary Clinton met Black Lives Matter – Dyson talks about this meeting too
- James Baldwin / Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Muhammad Ali / Colin Kaepernick
- Black Panther
- Trayvon Martin
534
“Wakanda is where Trayvon reigns as a King. As a Warrior. Most important, as a Man. Because he made it past a youth that is forever in peril in a culture that doesn’t prize our breathing.”
What a wonderful tribute to Trayvon and to all our brothers.
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Reblogged this on We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident and commented:
Michael Eric Dyson put it in plain and powerful words;
“Whites expect Black public figures to help less fortunate Blacks (the social service model), but not to call out Whites (the social conscience model). That is why President Trump called Colin Kaepernick a “son of a bitch”.”
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I was wondering about Dyson’s comparison of Muhammad Ali and Colin Kaepernick, which I found kind of strange. Ali went up against the United States and screamed about it. Kaepernick took a knee and sometimes bowed his head.
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@ Helen
They both got kicked out of their fields at the height of their powers for practising a social conscience model. Both were vilified – but people forget that about Ali, now a sainted figure even among Whites. The same people who hate Kaepernick in the 2010s would have hated Ali in the 1960s.
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@Abagond
“but people forget that about Ali, now a sainted figure even among Whites.”—Do you see this as by design? I mean in the way that whites “change” the view of black public figures. An act of possibly shaming other blacks into not “acting out”.
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This is going to be my next read, preferably starting at the end of this week. Great post and I like the critical thought that Dyson inspires and combines with real world events that resonate and evoke change. Thank you for this post, friend. You’re always educating, sharing, and investing in growth and awareness. You are appreciated.
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This is going to be my next Audible audiobook. It’s on my wish list.
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