The Black Presidency Quotes

“Loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths,” he said. “It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what is right, to shake up the status quo. That’s America.” A”
― Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

“I am subject to constant criticism all day long,” the president told me in our Oval Office discussion. “And some of it may be legitimate; much of it may be illegitimate. Some of it may be sincere; some of it may be entirely politically motivated. If I spent all my time thinking about it, I’d be paralyzed. And frankly, the voters would justifiably say, ‘I need somebody who’s focused on giving me a job, not whether his feelings are hurt.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

“Their sermons help black folk resist the evil seductions of white supremacy. Very few members go away from such homilies without hope for their future or belief in their individual importance. Very few leave without a sense of God’s care for their burdens and traumas.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

“The black church is quite literally a sounding board for vetting ideas and voicing frustrations so black folk can stay sane in the midst of America’s denial of black humanity.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

“Most black folk get the moral intent of black prophecy and believe that they and their divine mouthpieces have a God-given right to express their gripes in the privacy of sacred space. They do not mistake anger at America’s imperial excesses for hatred of the nation or a denial of the wonderful changes that can unfold in the country when courage weds imagination.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

“Obama had always to field demands from some blacks to be blacker, and the wish of many whites to whitewash the story of American race and politics.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

“Obama refused to say that white anger has distracted whites from solving real problems; that it has kept them from facing up to their own role in their own troubles. Obama dared not suggest that white anger leads some whites to scapegoat black folk, an easier choice than confronting corporate interests and the vicious practices of capital that undermine white people’s lives more than the paltry payoff of affirmative action to black folk and other minorities, including white women. Obama did not hint to white folk that their prejudice has cost them too, and contributes to their own suffering because it keeps them from forging ties to people of color and forming a coalition of conscience that might put an end to the economic bleeding they endure.   Role”
― Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

“A post-racial outlook seeks to ignore, or destroy, race; a post-racist outlook seeks to destroy racism. There is more than semantics in the balance. Race may be a fiction, but like all good fiction, say, Moby-Dick or The Color Purple, it may be true even when it is not real. [...] What is not true about race is the alleged biological input that separates one group from another; what is true about race is that culture and identity are invented in space, and build, or erode, over time. What is not true about race is that the intelligence of members of a group is innate and tied exclusively to a group's genetic structure; what is true about race is that different qualities in a group are born when opportunity marries environment. What is not true about race is that the information we gather about groups under the imperatives of stereotype is reliable; what is true about race is that stereotypes are a hazardous way to find out about cultures, and are poor substitutes for direct experience and wise reflection.”
― Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America