“I know what you’re thinking.” You’ve said that before, to a furrowed brow, a mischievous smile, a child who’s about to do something sneaky. You can see it in the eyes, the body language, the tone of voice, and you know just what they’re thinking. But until you’ve read “Tears We Cannot Stop” by Michael Eric Dyson, you might not really have a clue.
If you watch the news or read the paper, you know that things aren’t going well in our country. Much of it, says Dyson, can be blamed on race, and the fixes he believes are needed are most eloquently said in a sermon.
Racism, he says, is “poison.” For Black people, that’s not a possibility, it’s a fact. It’s seen in courtrooms and streets, colleges and workplaces, neighborhoods and prisons. It means that Black parents must specifically remind their children how to act around police officers, an everyday caution that White people rarely need to worry about, but “that can mean the difference between life and death for (African Americans).”
Most White people, he says, are racist, even if they don’t mean to be. Some of them don’t even know they’re racist; or they’ll deny it, until they read a book like this one with truths laid bare. African Americans know that unovert, deeply-buried kind of racism and they discuss it with one another but rarely with Whites; most whites don’t know or don’t think about it because they weren’t taught it. Instead, it’s a legacy of skin color, passed down for centuries.
White people have an advantage, says Dyson, by merely being White. “White privilege” opens doors. It doesn’t worry about dying in a police encounter. White privilege offers higher-paying jobs and nicer homes. It enjoys “a way of life that comes at the direct expense of other folk who are denied the privileges you take for granted.”
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