TomorrowTalks with Michael Eric Dyson: Long Time Coming
Channel: Department of English, Arizona State University
Date: 2021-03-03

Arizona State University welcomes author, academic and media commentator Michael Eric Dyson as the inaugural guest in its TomorrowTalks series. Dyson discussed his new book, "Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America" in an online event on Thursday, February 25. The conversation with Dyson was facilitated by ASU's Lois Brown, Foundation Professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy.

In "Long Time Coming," Dyson examines the cultural imperatives of black death, the plague of police brutality, the white theft of black bodies and opportunities, the resort to the often fascist justice of social media instead of the faulty, but far superior justice of the legal system, and the craving for white comfort that has too often cost black people their lives. Ending with a poignant plea for hope, "Long Time Coming" points the way to social redemption; "Long Time Coming" is a necessary guide to help America finally reckon with race.

Dyson is Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies in the College of Arts & Science, and of Ethics and Society, Divinity School, and Centennial Professor at Vanderbilt University. He is one of America’s premier public intellectuals and the author of seven New York Times bestsellers. A contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, Dyson is a recipient of two NAACP Image awards and the 2020 Langston Hughes Festival Medallion. Former president Barack Obama has noted: “Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric Dyson pales in comparison.”

TomorrowTalks place thought leaders of today in conversation with the changemakers of tomorrow: our students. Each distinguished speaker will explain how they use writing to address our most pressing challenges.

TomorrowTalks are a student-engagement initiative led by the Division of Humanities in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU and hosted by ASU's Department of English and Center for the Study of Race and Democracy in partnership with Macmillan Publishers. Additional assistance is provided by ASU's School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership.