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The Resource What truth sounds like : Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America, Michael Eric Dyson

What truth sounds like : Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America, Michael Eric Dyson

Creator
Summary
What Truth Sounds Like is a timely exploration of America's tortured racial politics that continues the conversation from Michael Eric Dyson's New York Times bestseller Tears We Cannot Stop. President Barack Obama: "Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric Dyson pales in comparison." In 2015 BLM activist Julius Jones confronted Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with an urgent query: "What in your heart has changed that's going to change the direction of this country?" "I don't believe you just change hearts," she protested. "I believe you change laws." The fraught conflict between conscience and politics – between morality and power – in addressing race hardly began with Clinton. An electrifying and traumatic encounter in the sixties crystallized these furious disputes. In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith's relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry – that the black folk assembled didn't understand politics, and that they weren't as easy to talk to as Martin Luther King. But especially that they were more interested in witness than policy. But Kennedy's anger quickly gave way to empathy, especially for Smith. "I guess if I were in his shoes... I might feel differently about this country." Kennedy set about changing policy – the meeting having transformed his thinking in fundamental ways. There was more: every big argument about race that persists to this day got a hearing in that room. Smith declaring that he'd never fight for his country given its racist tendencies, and Kennedy being appalled at such lack of patriotism, tracks the disdain for black dissent in our own time. His belief that black folk were ungrateful for the Kennedys' efforts to make things better shows up in our day as the charge that black folk wallow in the politics of ingratitude and victimhood. The contributions of black queer folk to racial progress still cause a stir. BLM has been accused of harboring a covert queer agenda. The immigrant experience, like that of Kennedy – versus the racial experience of Baldwin – is a cudgel to excoriate black folk for lacking hustle and ingenuity. The questioning of whether folk who are interracially partnered can authentically communicate black interests persists. And we grapple still with the responsibility of black intellectuals and artists to bring about social change. What Truth Sounds Like exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy – of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape. The future of race and democracy hang in the balance. More praise for What Truth Sounds Like: "Dyson has finally written the book I always wanted to read. I had the privilege of attending the meeting he has insightfully written about, and it's as if he were a fly on the wall. What Truth Sounds Like is a tour de force of intellectual history and cultural analysis, a poetically written work that calls on all of us to get back in that room and to resolve the racial crises we confronted more than fifty years ago." —Harry Belafonte
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
Unabridged.
Extent
1 online resource (1 audio file)
Note
Unabridged
Contents
  • The martyrs
  • The meeting
  • The politicians : whiteness and the state
  • The artists : dangerous intersections
  • The intellectuals : black on black minds
  • The activists 1 : policy and witness
  • The activists 2 : bad niggers
  • After the meeting : resurrection for RFK
  • Even if : Wakanda. Forever
Isbn
9781250295927
Link
http://link.overdrive.com/?websiteId=285&titleId=3651750
Instance
Label
What truth sounds like : Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America
Title
What truth sounds like
Title remainder
Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America
Statement of responsibility
Michael Eric Dyson
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
What Truth Sounds Like is a timely exploration of America's tortured racial politics that continues the conversation from Michael Eric Dyson's New York Times bestseller Tears We Cannot Stop. President Barack Obama: "Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric Dyson pales in comparison." In 2015 BLM activist Julius Jones confronted Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with an urgent query: "What in your heart has changed that's going to change the direction of this country?" "I don't believe you just change hearts," she protested. "I believe you change laws." The fraught conflict between conscience and politics – between morality and power – in addressing race hardly began with Clinton. An electrifying and traumatic encounter in the sixties crystallized these furious disputes. In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith's relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry – that the black folk assembled didn't understand politics, and that they weren't as easy to talk to as Martin Luther King. But especially that they were more interested in witness than policy. But Kennedy's anger quickly gave way to empathy, especially for Smith. "I guess if I were in his shoes... I might feel differently about this country." Kennedy set about changing policy – the meeting having transformed his thinking in fundamental ways. There was more: every big argument about race that persists to this day got a hearing in that room. Smith declaring that he'd never fight for his country given its racist tendencies, and Kennedy being appalled at such lack of patriotism, tracks the disdain for black dissent in our own time. His belief that black folk were ungrateful for the Kennedys' efforts to make things better shows up in our day as the charge that black folk wallow in the politics of ingratitude and victimhood. The contributions of black queer folk to racial progress still cause a stir. BLM has been accused of harboring a covert queer agenda. The immigrant experience, like that of Kennedy – versus the racial experience of Baldwin – is a cudgel to excoriate black folk for lacking hustle and ingenuity. The questioning of whether folk who are interracially partnered can authentically communicate black interests persists. And we grapple still with the responsibility of black intellectuals and artists to bring about social change. What Truth Sounds Like exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy – of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape. The future of race and democracy hang in the balance. More praise for What Truth Sounds Like: "Dyson has finally written the book I always wanted to read. I had the privilege of attending the meeting he has insightfully written about, and it's as if he were a fly on the wall. What Truth Sounds Like is a tour de force of intellectual history and cultural analysis, a poetically written work that calls on all of us to get back in that room and to resolve the racial crises we confronted more than fifty years ago." —Harry Belafonte
Accompanying matter
technical information on music
Cataloging source
HQD
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Dyson, Michael Eric
Dewey number
305.800973
Format of music
not applicable
LC call number
E185.61
LC item number
.D996 2018ab
Literary text for sound recordings
other
Music parts
not applicable
PerformerNote
Narrator: Michael Eric Dyson
Series statement
Overdrive
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Baldwin, James
  • Kennedy, Robert F
  • Smith, Jerome
  • African American civil rights workers
  • African Americans
  • Civil rights movements
  • Cocktail parties
  • Intercultural communication
  • United States
Transposition and arrangement
not applicable
Label
What truth sounds like : Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America, Michael Eric Dyson
Link
http://link.overdrive.com/?websiteId=285&titleId=3651750
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Unabridged
Capture and storage technique
digital storage
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Configuration of playback channels
stereophonic
Content category
spoken word
Content type code
  • spw
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
The martyrs -- The meeting -- The politicians : whiteness and the state -- The artists : dangerous intersections -- The intellectuals : black on black minds -- The activists 1 : policy and witness -- The activists 2 : bad niggers -- After the meeting : resurrection for RFK -- Even if : Wakanda. Forever
Control code
on1038427304
Dimensions
  • unknown
  • not applicable
Edition
Unabridged.
Extent
1 online resource (1 audio file)
Form of item
online
Groove width / pitch
not applicable
Isbn
9781250295927
Media category
  • audio
  • computer
Media MARC source
  • rdamedia.
  • rdamedia.
Media type code
  • s
  • c
Sound
sound
Special playback characteristics
digital recording
Specific material designation
  • remote
  • other
Speed
unknown
Stock number
B6433169-45D7-4805-A07F-A5723CD1885D
System control number
(OCoLC)1038427304
Tape configuration
not applicable
Tape width
not applicable
Label
What truth sounds like : Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America, Michael Eric Dyson
Link
http://link.overdrive.com/?websiteId=285&titleId=3651750
Publication
Note
Unabridged
Capture and storage technique
digital storage
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Configuration of playback channels
stereophonic
Content category
spoken word
Content type code
  • spw
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
The martyrs -- The meeting -- The politicians : whiteness and the state -- The artists : dangerous intersections -- The intellectuals : black on black minds -- The activists 1 : policy and witness -- The activists 2 : bad niggers -- After the meeting : resurrection for RFK -- Even if : Wakanda. Forever
Control code
on1038427304
Dimensions
  • unknown
  • not applicable
Edition
Unabridged.
Extent
1 online resource (1 audio file)
Form of item
online
Groove width / pitch
not applicable
Isbn
9781250295927
Media category
  • audio
  • computer
Media MARC source
  • rdamedia.
  • rdamedia.
Media type code
  • s
  • c
Sound
sound
Special playback characteristics
digital recording
Specific material designation
  • remote
  • other
Speed
unknown
Stock number
B6433169-45D7-4805-A07F-A5723CD1885D
System control number
(OCoLC)1038427304
Tape configuration
not applicable
Tape width
not applicable

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