Race, gender and politics were the major issues when renowned scholar, ordained Baptist minister and public intellectual, Michael Eric Dyson spoke in the Fresno City College (FCC) gymnasium last Friday.
Even though Dyson’s speech was about serious issues, he kept his audience entertained with thought provoking comedy, as he blended today’s pop culture with yesterdays.
Dyson sang excerpts of songs preformed by artists like The Chi-Lites and Snoop Dogg, while many in audience sang along with him.
Ned Doffoney, the President of FCC who was at the event said, “I thought he was tremendous, he was honest and entertaining,” Doffoney also said that “He gave us a portrait of the condition, not only historically, that has existed in America, but he gave us some insight as of how we came to the current level of reasoning politically and socially.”
Dyson spoke about how America still has a need for women like Harriet Tubman, “She had a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other.” Dyson went on to point out that when wavering slaves changed their minds and preferred to continue living in bondage, Tubman had to knock them out and drag them to freedom.
Dyson did not shy away from talking about the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was the pastor of the Democratic Party primarie’s front runner, Barack Obama.
Rev. Wright has spent the past weekend attempting to clarify his inflammatory rhetoric which includes the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own terrorism.
He also pointed out that even the civil rights leader; Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. consistently made controversial statements like “America was founded on genocide.”
Dyson went on to state that the week before King was assassinated, he was going to preach a sermon titled, “Why America Could Go to Hell.”
Dyson pointed out that just because people criticize America, does not mean they do not love America. “If you love your country, you would tell the truth,” said Dyson. He pointed out that his mom criticized him when he was a child.
As they talked about the parts of Dysons speech that they liked many of the students and guests said they enjoyed the event. “I was moved to tears,” Burnis E. Tuck said in response to Dyson’s comment about the criticism. “The more you criticize America, the less patriotic you are to be perceived.”
Britney Beinard, a nursing student who will be graduating in May 2008, said “I liked the way he mixed race with politics; he was real honest and to the point.”
“I think it was a wake up call to young people of color,” said Cheimeka Comier, who is a pre-veterinarian medicine student. She said she liked the part of Dyson’s speech that pointed out that “rich white people control America.”
Dyson spoke about his belief that poor whites, black Americans and Latinos do not run this country, regardless of the chatter that says certain minority groups are taking over.
Habeeba Abdur-Rahman a sophomore, Liberal Arts student, said she liked how Dyson called for strong women to take part in strengthening our country. “Black woman are the backbone of the black family and more black men need to hold on to them.” She attended the event with her sister Umaymah Rashid, who is a senior at Fresno State and is majoring in business. “Everything he said spoke to me: the hip hop, social issues and the comedy was extremely relevant. It was mind blowing,” she said.
Dyson has spent most of his career in the education community. He taught at De Paul University, Chicago Theological Seminary, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University, Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania where he was the Avalon Professor of Humanities.
Professor Bernard Navarro, a member of the speaker’s forum, the organization that invited Dyson to FCC, said that the decision making process was tough. Their list consisted of George Lopez, Anderson Cooper, Cornell West and Steven Colbert.
“We wanted someone who was an intellectual,” Navarro said, adding he told his fellow members, “Dr. Dyson, this guy will bring it; if you bring him here, you will not forget that he was at FCC.”
