Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America is a truly remarkable and poignant book. As a member of the titular congregation, I found this work to be a tender, loving gut punch. Michael Eric Dyson holds back nothing in his portrayal of what it means to be a black person in America today. He draws from his own experiences, those of his family, and people he has encountered throughout his life to illustrate how deeply and subconsciously racism has shaped this country.
Dyson talks about growing up in crushing poverty in Detroit, his family's struggles to bring themselves out of that poverty, and the ways that they encouraged their children to rise above them. Dyson, himself, was accepted into a prestigious private school, in a wealthy suburb of Detroit, where he was one student of color amongst a sea of white, upper-class classmates. He ended up leaving that school, finishing his high school education at a public school in Detroit. He became an ordained minister at 19, then working in manufacturing as a way to support his family. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Carson-Newman University, a private, conservative, Baptist university, and ultimately a Doctorate from Princeton University. He is now an esteemed faculty member at Georgetown University. Dyson's contentious relationship with the President of Carson-Newman is a recurring theme and something to which he returns regularly as an example of the blatant and unapologetic bigotry that he has faced in his life.
As mentioned earlier, Dyson has a background in preaching, and the book is written as a kind of worship service; there are religious references sprinkled throughout. He refers to the reader often as "beloved" which is a term one hears often in religious services ("dearly beloved, we are gathered here today" as just one example) but every time I encountered it I thought of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, about the evils of slavery and how far a mother would be driven in order to save a child from enslavement. Dyson was certainly not writing this book for a fictional character (although he does reference Morrison's book a time or two) but I couldn't help my brain making that connection.
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America is divided into nine parts, each meant to correspond to a section of a Protestant church service:
1. Call to Worship - The author's introduction to the text
2. Hymns of Praise - Leading with an ominous, but unfortunately not unique, encounter the author had with police, one where he ends up blasting N.W.A.'s "Fuck tha Police" to express his frustration about rcism and police brutality, Dyson likens Christian hymns to the truths that black people speak through their music. His featured hymnists include KRS-One, Jay-Z, and Tupac Shakur.
3. Invocation - As Christian worship uses an invocation to invite God into the metaphysical space, so Dyson uses this section to lift up the many and varied ways that black people have suffered, and continue to suffer, to God. He specifically calls out to God on behalf of his (now adult) children, and grandchildren, whom he was unable to protect from the evils of racism even when they were very young. He beseeches God to provide reason and clarity to those who fear and loathe based on the color of skin, and to give strength and courage to those who speak their truth of life as a black person in America.
4. Scripture Reading - Rather than reciting Biblical passages, the author refers to the holy text "Book of Martin Luther King Jr." and how his life and works are just as applicable today as they were in his lifetime.
5. Sermon - As is the case in a Christian worship service, this sermon is where the author really expounds upon his main points to enlighten and inspire the congregation. Here, Dyson presents a sharp, concentrated overview of the many avenues into which racism has seeped and spread in American, white society, and how that racism has manifested itself on the black body and the black mind. Within, the author encourages white America to truly see what the effect of imposing its centuries-long "white as right" campaign has brought about. Through illustrating the ways that systematic racism has been at work, Dyson encourages white America to make specific changes and to generally move towards empathy.
6. Benediction - In Christian worship, the benediction is the bestowal of a blessing on the congregation before the end of the service. Dyson uses this section of his book to summarize his previous points, using the acronym R.E.S.P.O.N.S.I.V.E. as a call to action. He offers suggestions of ways whites can implement these changes, to help move America towards true, racial equality.
7. Offering Plate - As a congregation is called to make an offering to its church, Dyson here discusses how Georgetown University, in the autumn of 2016, made baby steps towards racial reparation. The president of the university made an official statement about how Georgetown had profited from the sale of 272 enslaved humans, as a way to keep the school from going bankrupt in 1838. The university offered wanted to atone for this, through offering a formal apology, forming an institute to study slavery, and create a public memorial to enslaved persons who worked on Georgetown's campus throughout history. Although no one had made efforts to reach out to them, some direct descendants of those 272 persons were in attendance at this announcement and they also spoke to the crowd. They were not asking for financial contributions from the university, but wanted to form a partnership with Georgetown going forward.
8. Prelude to Service - As a final way to inspire his congregation, before this service comes to an end, Dyson explains his position that, although America is in a dire place right now, there is hope that people can and will fight for the rights of EVERYONE to be treated equal.
9. Closing Prayer - The last page is a prayer that the author offers up to God, that black people will not surrender to white supremacy and racism, because they are irrevocably intertwined in Americanness. As Dyson says - "We are going nowhere. We are your children too. We will survive. We are America."
In his acronym in the "Benediction" section, one of the E's stands for "Educate", that white America must educate itself about black life and culture, especially the written word. He goes on to provide a black reading list, the breadth and depth of which is very exciting for those of us who love books, reading, and equality. He recommends starting with James Baldwin, whose "words drip with the searing eloquence of an evangelist of race determined to get to the brutal bottom of America's original sin" (pg. 199).
Dyson then goes on to recommend over 50 individual books and scores of authors on topics of African slavery and all its complicated facets; the intersection of slavery, politics, and economics; the American Civil War and the failed Reconstruction period that followed; the modern civil rights movement; black freedom and black power struggles; and the intersection of racism, gender, and sexual identity. I think it would be a fascinating project to make a personal reading list from the books that Dyson recommends.
So what was it like, you may ask, to read this book as a white person in America? Not easy. Whenever the author described a situation where he was treated with hostility and distrust by people in power, I tried to imagine myself in that situation. Would I have behaved in the same way as the author, and would I have been treated the same way by those in power? As Dyson expounded upon the varied ways that white people have benefited from black repression and subjugation, I had to consider how often in my life I may have received similar benefits because of the color of my skin. I have heard many people in my life complain about how unfair affirmative action is, because they think it gives black people an unfair advantage, but after reading this book and considering that most black people have the deck stacked against them in life, affirmative action seems like just a small step.
Michael Eric Dyson's Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America could be classified as a memoir, an essay collection, or a cultural criticism and you wouldn't be wrong. It contains parts of each of those things, blended to tell an exacting and poignant story. Especially if you're NOT an American person of color, this book will make you think, make you see your basic societal interactions in more clarity, and bring you toward a more empathetic and realistic worldview. Structured as a religious worship service, and with Dyson as the pastor, you'll finish this book with an "Amen"!
Librorum annis,
