Michael Eric Dyson

This chapter analyzes Michael Eric Dyson’s postulates on race relations in the United States in order to delineate suggestions for building a new Africa. Dyson takes on a historical viewpoint to address race relations in his hope of improving dialogue between African Americans and Whites in America and Africans in the continent. This dialogue has taken a look at the communication or lack of it which blocks all people of color in America and in Africa from going forward. Dyson writes in his book titled The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America (2016) that there is nothing Black people can say or do to change the minds of those Whites who believes that Blacks are a threat to them. He believes that the failure to change this disposition has hampered racial justice, especially when compared to the past. To make matters worse, Dyson argues, the fictional images of Blacks held by many Whites are taken as literal, while the images from real life fail to convince Whites of what Blacks see: that is, black lives do not matter. Dyson goes on to say that this failure to be seen as humans is part of the trauma of Black existence, one that reinforces an often submerged truth: the lived experience of race often feels like terror for Black folks, whether fast paced or slow paced, that adequately captures what it means to be Black and afraid in America and in Africa. Dyson believes that “the failure to be seen as human unites Black people across time in a fellowship of fear” (Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, 2016: 1). This chapter employs qualitative (explanatory and historical) methodology to specifically look at these postulates and others on race relations delineated by Dyson to suggest ways to construct a new Africa.