Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’ Illmatic
By Michael Eric Dyson December 29, 2011 At the age of nineteen, Nasir “Nas” Jones began recording tracks for his debut album and changed the music world forever. Released in…
Punishment or Child Abuse?
By Michael Eric Dyson Sept. 17, 2014 WASHINGTON — THE indictment last week of the N.F.L. player Adrian Peterson by a Texas grand jury for reckless or negligent injury to…
Thank You Note: A Conversation With Nas and Michael Eric Dyson
By Michael Eric Dyson April 4, 2014 Dear Professor Jones and Dr. Dyson, I’ve been feeling lonely working in this graveyard dug by systemic injustice and filled by life-robbers. A…
Famous Athletes Have Always Led the Way
By Michael Eric Dyson Oct. 21, 2017 He’s disrespecting the flag. He’s slighting veterans. He’s showing contempt for the national anthem. He’s not a true patriot. That is what the…
How the Queen of Soul Preached to Us All
by Michael Eric Dyson – August 19, 2018 In 2015, Aretha Franklin invited me and a few others to join her in Philadelphia as she sang for Pope Francis. I…
Nipsey Hussle Loved His Blackness
By Michael Eric Dyson April 12, 2019 “How you die 30-something after banging all them years?” Nipsey Hussle posed that question about a fallen colleague on a song released about…
The Legacy of Muhammad Ali
by Michael Eric Dyson – June 1, 2018 In March 1968, James Baldwin appeared before a House Select Subcommittee convened in New York City. He was there to testify in…
Esquire Magazine: Tribute to James Baldwin
An Introduction By Michael Eric Dyson On April 9, 1968, thirteen hundred people filed into Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta for the private funeral of a man who, like his…
Michael Eric Dyson: ‘Blackness isn’t a team; it’s a league’
When was the last time you heard Robert F. Kennedy, Kobe Bryant and James Baldwin come up in the same conversation? It’s probably rare. But Undefeated columnist Bill Rhoden, CBS…
TAKE 5 with Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Before his remarks headlining the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration Feb. 20th, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion sat down with influential scholar and renowned author Dr. Michael Eric…