Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
Ratings19
Average rating4.3
A powerful book full of the things that make me sad and crazy that we still live in a world that so devalues certain humans' lives. This is a book that you listen to (read), you don't pick apart. This is not just a book about facts, but also feelings. Feelings that generations upon generations black people have cemented in their psyche because generations upon generations of white people have made life a living hell for them. So a white person cannot tell Dyson, or other black people that their feelings are wrong because these are THEIR feelings. This is not about you. This is about them. If you disagree, if you don't like the way he “speaks” to you well I'm afraid that's on you. Because he is allowed, especially here, to speak his mind. We are here to listen. To absorb. Not to react about how it makes us feel.
Sermon is right, Dyson is an amazing writer - still a lot of work to do for me and in a more Canadian context (Canadian race issues - same but different)
Listen to the audio because MED delivers it himself. I've been struggling with where to start in recommending books to people who hold different views than I do, but this, finally, is it. This book is the perfect mix of rational but personalized argument, pop culture, history, and research references (w/o actually being research dense). His preacher roots and professional acumen combined for the perfext delivery. If folk (or as he calls his audience, “Beloved”) aren't listening to this, sit them down and listen with them. This is a required catalyst to view-changing.
I decided to buy this book on Audible when it was offered during a sale (I think 2 for 1 or something similar). I had heard good things about it and was expecting to be blown away by insightful thoughts about our culture. However, I felt slightly disappointed because many of the things Dyson describes are things I am very aware of since I'm active on Twitter and Tumblr. On those sites, I have a constant feed of political and social issues, and people's perspectives on them. The people I follow are almost all (very) socially liberal. So nothing in this book shook me or moved me. I feel like I've seen it all before. However, I'm giving it four stars because the thoughts are written clearly, thoroughly, and topically. I want to shove this book into the hands of so many white people I know. This is an important read for people who do not keep up with what is happening, and what has been happening, in America. And even though the book is centered on the race problem in America, we all know there is a race problem in most countries. I feel anybody from anywhere could read this and learn something about themselves. While I didn't really learn anything new, Dyson calls out the white people reading the book - addressing them directly throughout the entire thing - by saying they need to step up and educate themselves. I believe in that, but when I heard him saying those words (as the author narrates the audiobook), I realized that I really don't do enough to learn about the things he suggests - black culture, for example. Music, art, etc. I love books, but I'm not going out of my way to learn about anything else. I need to. Everyone needs to. I'll also just quickly add that I thought the part about police close to the end was my favorite part. I thought that was particularly powerful.
These are just my quick thoughts after just completing the book. A more comprehensive review will be coming on my YouTube channel (youtube.com/allisontheresa) and on my blog (allisontheresa7.wordpress.com).
Short Review: Structured as a sermon, and call to repentance and change, to White America, Michael Eric Dyson brings his philosophy, theology and pop culture skills to the task of pointing out the problems (and sin) of white Christian America.
I am not going to underplay the fact that I was at times quite uncomfortable while reading Tears We Cannot Stop. There were some things that were uncomfortable because they hit too close to home. But other times when I thought that Dyson was just wrong in his analysis. But I think it is important to remember that the ‘rightness' of the analysis, while not unimportant, can be a distraction from the honest assessment of an African American Christian that is trying to present his view of how the sins of White Christian America harms not just African Americans but Whites as well.
My initial impression was that Dyson was not as gifted a writer as Coates, who I tied this book to in my mind. But after reading two of Dyson's books back to back. I have re-assessed his writing. He is not writing the same style of book that Coates wrote. I don't want to minimize Coates' analysis, which I think is good. But Dyson's background is philosophy and theology and I think that he brings a different type of analysis to the task and the quality of his writing is just as good.
My slightly longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/tears-cannot-stop/