Publishers Weekly
★ 09/27/2021
Cultural commentator Dyson (Long Time Coming) analyzes “the terms of Black performance” in this wide-ranging and artfully conceived collection of essays, speeches, and interviews. Eloquently illustrating how “Black folk didn’t just express the pain and suffering of Blackness, they also gave voice to inexplicable joy and defiant victory,” Dyson examines the careers and cultural significance of entertainers including Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Nas, and the Isley Brothers. Elsewhere, Dyson poignantly reflects on the “intertwined pandemics” of Covid-19 and systemic racism: “From the start of our forced intimacy with North America, Black folk have been trying to breathe air that is free of the pollution of captivity, of coerced transport, of enslavement, of white supremacy, of social inequality and perennial second-class citizenship.” Other pieces include a conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates that touches on atheism, white supremacy, and James Baldwin; a speech praising Nikole Hannah-Jones and her 1619 Project; and a forceful call for America to apply to Black reparations “the same ingenuity it used to fashion restrictions and limitations on Black life in chattel slavery and Jim Crow.” Throughout, Dyson maintains a firm grip on the cultural moment and offers razor-sharp insights into American history, politics, and art. This is a feast of insights. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
“Offers razor-sharp insights into American history, politics, and art. This is a feast of insights.”
—Publisher's Weekly (Starred)
"A thoughtful, elegantly argued contribution to the literature of Black lives in America.”
—Kirkus (Starred)
“Dyson's essays and writings address a rich assortment of thought-provoking topics… an expansive and accessible overview of the inquiries of an important social and cultural thinker.”
—Booklist
“In this extensive and thorough journey, Dyson continues to amaze and amuse on topics surrounding African American roles in entertainment. A thought-provoking vision from one of our country’s national treasures.”
—Detroit Free Press
“Michael Eric Dyson has been a lodestar for my generation: a brilliant intellectual whose accessible scholarship bridges the university and popular culture... Entertaining Race is a true gift to our culture.”
—Candace Parker, WNBA champion, 2x WNBA MVP
"For over a quarter century, Michael Eric Dyson has wrestled with critical race theory as a professor, analyzed racial injustice as a social critic, preached a progressive vision of Christianity as a preacher, and engaged in principled resistance as a social activist. Entertaining Race is a compelling and timely meditation on some of the most important issues of our time."
—Kimberlé Crenshaw, Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum
“Entertaining Race captures the same brilliance and passion for performance that not only motivates Dyson to observe, but which inspires him to perform at a high level on many stages himself as a thinker, writer, lecturer, preacher, speaker and activist. This is vintage Dyson.”
—Audra McDonald, Tony, Grammy and Emmy award winning actress and singer
"With Entertaining Race Dyson lifts the veil of what’s really going on in our society—the good and the bad, but he manages to do that in a very compelling way."
—Bryan Cranston, Oscar-nominated actor and winner of Golden Globe, Tony and SAG Awards
“In the tradition of Dr. King—the greatest American preacher and public intellectual—Dr. Dyson summons the best in the American spirit, diagnosing the sickness that divides us while employing head, heart and hands to both call forth and construct a moral vision of 'beloved community.'”
—Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock
Library Journal
06/01/2021
Cultural critic/public intellectual Dyson, author of the New York Times best-selling Tears We Cannot Stop, demonstrates the enormous impact of Black culture and politics throughout America history by deploying the various meanings of the word entertain. Black people were once compelled to entertain white people in slavery and must continue to find ways to make the discussion of race entertaining today; from America's earliest days, Black people have had to entertain the very idea of race. Dyson sums up issues he has considered throughout his career while providing fresh insight. With a 200,000-copy first printing.
MARCH 2022 - AudioFile
Michael Eric Dyson does a generally fine job narrating his wide-ranging look at Black performance of all types. Dyson, a minister, academic, political analyst, and radio show host (plus more!) is a polished professional speaker and conveys humor or passion as appropriate. Still, some listeners may feel his effort here occasionally sounds too much like plain old reading. He touches on dozens of topics, ranging from the singer Beyoncé to the slain Black youth Trayvon Martin, from entertainer and alleged predator Bill Cosby to the contradictions of Civil Rights hero and martyr Martin Luther King, Jr. This audiobook consists largely of Dyson’s past writings and speeches. It covers many subjects, some more smoothly than others, but all are interesting and thought-provoking. G.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-09-01
Theologian and public intellectual Dyson turns a gimlet eye on the stereotypes and authentic expressions of Black self-presentation.
The author begins on a disturbing note: A young Black girl on a slave ship is lashed to death because she refuses to dance for the crew. Since that day in 1792 and well before, Black men, women, and children have been bidden to perform. “Black folk only exist,” writes Dyson, “when they are forced to adopt a narrow philosophy of life that is part Descartes, part Nas: Ut praestare, ergo sum, I perform, therefore I am.” Some artists perform more or less on their own terms, as in the case of Prince. Some do so by following strange self-erasing paths, as in the case of Michael Jackson, whom Dyson likens to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Benjamin Button. As for Beyoncé, “the greatest entertainer in the world,” the author seems to locate her somewhere in the middle. Given the absence of both Prince and Jackson, “Beyoncé now reigns supreme, alone, atop a kingdom of performance that she inherited from a Prince and a King but which she has made even greater.” Dyson writes with a broad, well-learned view of Black history, drawing on the brilliant career of Kobe Bryant here and the sad death of George Floyd there to discuss representations of Black life in American culture, which, he writes, illustrate the words of a Baptist hymn often heard in his church: “Nobody told me that the road would be easy.” He is forgiving of certain aspects of White myopia, but he is a sharp critic, as when he assails Barack Obama for having not played the race card enough: “if whites won’t remind him that he’s Black, then he won’t remind them that they’re white.” As for that uneasy road? In a stirring conclusion, Dyson urges that we all follow it to fulfill the grand, incomplete promise of America.
A thoughtful, elegantly argued contribution to the literature of Black lives in America.
