I went to a segregated school; I was born a Negro, not a black man. — Michael Eric Dyson

I have no interest in romanticizing poor black people, having been one of them myself in our beloved hometown of Detroit. — Michael Eric Dyson

White–on–white crime is a devastation in America like so–called black–on–black crime. It’s not black or white–on–white crime. It’s proximity murder. — Michael Eric Dyson

If white and black and red and brown can come together to focus our energies on overcoming the racial malaise that persists, then this will have been a great moment. — Michael Eric Dyson

No other group has internalized its self–hatred as much as blacks have. It would be difficult to find other groups who behave similarly in that their most esteemed members berate its poorest members. — Michael Eric Dyson

Black people watch more television than anybody else, which makes it legitimate to talk about television. Its anesthetizing effect has been quite real. But that concern isn’t new. — Michael Eric Dyson

Black women must challenge black men to live up to their best in every arena of the culture–at job, at home, in school and in religious arenas. — Michael Eric Dyson

I don’t think that an emphasis on the peculiar plight of black males at all suggests that others are not suffering, or that such attention suggests that black men and women feel sorry for themselves. — Michael Eric Dyson

We have to understand and explain to each other what blackness is. — Michael Eric Dyson

Blackness is not simply a reactionary title or identity; that is indeed the ‘negative’ way of characterizing African American identity. — Michael Eric Dyson

Michael Joseph Jackson’s genius was the ability to be the raw article himself–the real article himself. He is part of the African American people who were marginalized. — Michael Eric Dyson

Bigotry is surely an exportable American commodity, especially when it comes to race. — Michael Eric Dyson

All Americans deserve an equal crack at what it means to be a–having–having resources in your own home and in your state and in your country. — Michael Eric Dyson

I think that the over–incarceration of black and brown folk is one of the great crimes of American society. — Michael Eric Dyson

Michael Jackson fundamentally altered the terms of the debate about African American music. — Michael Eric Dyson

I don’t believe in that kind of American John Wayne individualism where people pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Someone changed your diapers. And if that’s the case, you ain’t self–made. — Michael Eric Dyson

I think it’s extremely important to challenge white brothers and sisters and think more systematically and strategically about the whiteness that they possess. — Michael Eric Dyson

Donald Trump amplifies the worst instincts. And his nationalism is really a white racist supremacist nationalism. — Michael Eric Dyson

What are you for? It may be, to a degree, consoling that white brothers and sisters did not vote for [Donald] Trump, and do not participate in that brand of animus, that gas–bagging of enormous bigotry. — Michael Eric Dyson

I don’t mind the job of saying to white people, ‘Yes, this is what I think you need to know, this is what I think you’ve been missing.’ And it’s my job to educate white folks every day. — Michael Eric Dyson

The failure to see color only benefits white America. A world without color is a world without racial debt. — Michael Eric Dyson

Whiteness is an advantage and privilege because you have made it so, not because the universe demands it. — Michael Eric Dyson