Michael Eric Dyson

Is Bill Cosby Right?
(Or Has the Black Middle class Lost Its Mind?)

Reading • Talk • Booksigning

Whether writing on religion or sexuality or notions of whiteness, on Martin Luther King, Jr. or Tupac Shakur, Michael Eric Dyson’s keen insight and rhetorical flair continue to surprise and challenge. Now, published on the anniversary of Bill Cosby’s infamous assault on the black poor during his NAACP Awards speech last May, Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? is sure to insight debate and ignite controversy. No one exposed the ever-increasing divide in black America today more starkly than Bill Cosby, the comedian-cum-social critic who lamented what he sees as a lack of parenting, poor academic performance, sexual promiscuity, and criminal behavior among what he called the “knuckleheads” of the African-American community. Even more surprising than his own comments, however, was the fact that the audience laughed and applauded. Michael Eric Dyson deconstructs Cosby’s speech and offers a critical and much needed reassessment of the social and cultural issues facing America’s black poor.

“With empathy and energy, Dyson takes Cosby at his word and dissects his arguments--as well as the comedian's own conduct--in order to combat Afristocratic dogma.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Finally, someone with the courage to take on black middle class prejudice against the black poor! Michael Eric Dyson skillfully punctures the nasty stereotypes that are so convenient to both white racists and black elitists.”
— Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

“Such is the genius of Dyson. He flows freely from the profound to the profane, from popular culture to classical literature.”
— Washington Post

Michael Eric Dyson is the best-selling author of Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves & Demons of Marvin Gaye; The Michael Eric Dyson Reader; Open Mike; Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur; Why I Love Black Women; I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr.; Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line; Between God and Gangsta Rap; Making Malcolm:The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X; and Reflecting Black. Now the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, he lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In case of rain, this event will be moved to the Coliseum Books Café.

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