Unnerving, unsettling, a message we all need to hear…   *****

What does it mean to be black in America? Dyson answers this question in dramatic fashion. Using the clever setup of a sermon, complete with all the parts of a good Baptist message, he relentlessly lays out the harsh reality of being black in this country.

This is a hard book to read, at least if you are white. It made me realize how little I know of the black experience, even though I thought I had a fair amount of knowledge. It made me want to argue with the author on several points, only to find as I read more, I was wrong. I felt, at first, Dyson was too angry in his writing, only to come to realize justifiably so.

At times the message seems repetitious, but then maybe it needs to be for the reader to fully grasp the severity of it. There is a quote from Stephen King on the cover that says, “If you’re white, Dyson tells you what you need to know – what this white man needed to know at least.” I would add my name to that list.

As I read, I kept asking myself, “Okay, if this is the problem, what am I supposed to do about it?” Dyson answers that question in the section labeled Benediction. Giving the reader concrete steps any of us can follow, which takes this from being just a rant on white privilege to a call to erase the divide between black and white.

What does it mean to be black in America? The question alone makes this a must read.

This one gets five stars.