Image by Terri Schlichenmeyer via Houston Style Magazine
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson spoke at the “2019 First-Year Student Common Reading Keynote” on September 25th.
Dyson, a professor at Georgetown University and author, was here to speak about his book, What Truth Sounds Like. The book addresses racial issues that African-Americans have faced, and continue to face, in this country.
In a passionate speech lasting roughly an hour and a half, Dyson explained his view on today’s politics and how artists have advanced racial injustice. Referencing his book, Dyson spoke of the meeting between former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and artists such as James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry and many others. In this meeting Kennedy listened to the artists views on the race situation in an attempt to create change. All freshmen this school year were required to read Dyson’s book and write an essay on it in their Ethics of Engagement class in preparation for his visit to SUNY OW.
“It was important to read [his book] because most of us as Americans think that racism and discrimination isn’t a thing… it’s been going on since the 1960s,” freshmen AnaCarina Ramjattan said. “Up to this day we haven’t been able to achieve what we should’ve had a long time ago.”
Dyson also answered questions by students after his speech. When asked who Dyson himself would invite to a meeting to discuss race, he didn’t take long to decide.
“If I had [Reverend Calvin] Butts and Beyoncé at a conversation, I could go to a concert and a church service, and be seriously stimulated educationally in one fell swoop,” he said.
He signed students’ books afterwards.
