From Publishers Weekly
In this probing collection of essays, speeches and interviews, Dyson (Reflecting Black; Race Rules; Open Mike, etc.), an ex-welfare dad and auto-worker, ordained Baptist minister and University of Pennsylvania professor, demonstrates a rare combination of scholarly sophistication, civic gravitas and plain old life experience. The selections here, shifting easily in tone from a dense but readable academic style to fluent mass-market magazine articles, reflect these influences by applying both critical theory and personal insight to issues of popular concern, including the O. J. Simpson trial, gangsta rap, the problems educated black women face in finding marriageable black men, sexuality and the black church, and the advantages whites accrue from having their whiteness accepted not as a specific racial/cultural category but as the universal social norm. Dyson writes from a forthrightly left-of-center stance but avoids rigid dogma. He deplores the excesses of identity politics, but insists on the centrality of race in American society; embraces rap and the "ghetto aesthetic" of black cinema but sharply critiques their sexism, homophobia and limited conceptions of violent masculinity. On occasion, he drifts into hero worship, hymning Michael Jordan, for example, as "a black man of extraordinary genius on the court and before the cameras, who by virtue of his magical skills and godlike talents symbolizes the meaning of human possibility." But for the most part, his wide-ranging and shrewd analyses of the vexed and ever-changing meaning of race will give readers much food for thought. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
This fascinating collection highlights Dyson's dazzling ability to blend spirituality and intellectualism in analyzing complex issues, from racism to sexuality, religion, and politics. It begins with a section titled "Dysonography," composed of an essay, an interview, and a letter to his brother in prison, offering the personal background and thoughts of this intriguing man, who rose from a teenage welfare father to an ordained minister to a Princeton Ph.D. Other sections feature Dyson's contributions to critical race theory and a variety of race-centered topics, from affirmative action to multiculturalism to whiteness studies. On the pop-culture front, Dyson examines hip-hop music and black movies and the nuances of messages gleaned from artists who run the gamut from Spike Lee to Michael Jackson. The collection also includes Dyson's penetrating analyses of black icons Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Tupac Shakur. The collection ends with Dyson taking to task critics of black intellectuals (other black intellectuals included) and placing the current popularity of some intellectuals into social and historic perspective. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Acclaimed for his writing on Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Tupac Shakur, and many more, Michael Eric Dyson has emerged as the leading AfricanAmerican intellectual of his generation. This collection gathers the best of Dyson's vast and growing body of work from the last several years: his most incisive commentary, the most stirring passages, and the sharpest, most probing and broadminded critical analyses. From Michael Jordan to the role of religion in public life, from Toni Morrison to patriotism in the wake of 9/11, the mastery and ease with which Dyson tackles just about any subject of relevance to black America today is without parallel

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

"Meteoric" describes perfectly the career of this Baptist minister and University of Pennsylvania Avalon Foundation Professor of the Humanities. In the last decade, Dyson has published eight books (e.g., Holler If You Hear Me) and numerous articles to become a major force among the black intelligentsia. This best-of selection of 36 essays and interviews ranges widely, moving from the predicament of postmodernity through whiteness studies and hip-hop culture, with an essay on Kobe Bryant's "predicament" attesting to the timeliness of the author's concerns. Dyson takes his own stand on the issues directly affecting African Americans and is neither completely liberal nor conservative. His witty writing style and well-documented approach to the topics will engage most readers. An excellent complement to Dyson's other works, notably Race Rules, and to Cornel West's Race Matters and Ishmael Reed's Another Day at the Front, this collection is recommended for all general public and academic library collections.-Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., TX Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Effortlessly and with conviction, he weaves together a range of themes from gangsta rap to graduate seminars, deepening them with highly varied and vividly portrayed personal experience. — Noam Chomsky

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