Michael Dyson
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Michael Eric Dyson (b. Detroit, Michigan, October 23, 1958), American writer, teacher and radio host.
Dyson holds an earned Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University. He presently serves as Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Dyson previously taught at DePaul University, Chicago Theological Seminary, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University and Brown University. He is an ordained Baptist minister.
Dyson is host of a daily syndicated talk radio program, The Michael Eric Dyson Show, which is heard every weekday from 10 AM - 1 PM ET on the Syndication One Radio Network (owned and operated by Radio One). He is also a regular commentator on National Public Radio and the HBO TV program Real Time with Bill Maher. Dyson is best known for his commentary on American culture, particularly as it pertains to African Americans. Dyson uses the terms "afristocracy" and "ghettocracy" to describe a bifurcation in American black society. He is also one of the world's leading scholars on the hip-hop music genre and the culture that surrounds it, as well as its roots in African and African-American cultures and influence on American popular culture.
Dyson has recently entered into public controversy over statements made by African American comedian-actor-philanthropist Bill Cosby in a 2004 speech. Cosby, considered by many a role model and patriarch in the African American community, drew criticism from Dyson for stating that poor urban blacks add to the long-standing social and economic ills that afflict them. Cosby also stated that one of the reasons for the persistence of these ills is due to poor urban blacks' failure to take responsibility for the care of their families and communities. Cosby went on to state that poor urban blacks sometimes exacerbate the problem by depending on society for sustenance and by blaming their difficulties on racism and racially biased social institutions. Dyson stated that Cosby's criticism is an example of Dyson's theory of abuse and criticism by what he calls the "Afristocracy"—or well-to-do blacks (of which both Cosby and Dyson are)—upon the "Ghettocracy" or poor urban blacks.
[edit] Further reading
- Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison Wesley, 1996. | ISBN 0201911868
- I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr., New York: Free Press, 2000. | ISBN 0684867761
- Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur, New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002 | ISBN 0465017568
- Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion, New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002. | ISBN 0245017657
- Why I Love Black Women, New York: Preseus Books Group, 2002. | ISBN 0465017630
- The Michael Eric Dyson Reader, New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002. | ISBN 0465017711
- Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Minds?, New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2005. | ISBN 0465017193
- Pride, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. | ISBN 0195160924
- Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster, New York: Perseus Books Group, 2006. | ISBN 0465017614
