Library Journal
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Activist, critic, scholar, and ordained Baptist minister Dyson (sociology, Georgetown Univ.; The Black Presidency) religiously lays out an order of service in hope of inspiring repentance, redemption, and reparation in a racially troubled America. Opening with a call to worship and closing with a prayer, his nine-chapter work with a central six-part sermon pleads for America to find its moral and spiritual foundations. Dyson traces the historical invention and social inheritance of whiteness, and how it has led America to ignore, discount, and dismiss black grievances. In order to make racial progress, Dyson passionately urges all Americans to reject racial revisionism and face difficult truths in addressing the disorder he labels Chronic -Historical -Evasion and Trickery, or CHEAT. This work is both lucid in its logic and profound in its probing and wide-ranging cultural and social analysis. Dyson's homily resonates amid personal recollection and reflection as a call to action for Americans to reach a positive future by working to cultivate empathy, develop racial literacy, and live up to the demands of justice. -VERDICT A must-read for Americans who hope for a brighter day to emerge from the anguished hopelessness created by white idolatry and willful ignorance.-Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A short but impassioned call to action against racism geared toward white readers in particular from Georgetown sociology professor and writer Dyson. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

In his latest, commentator and writer Dyson (The Black Presidency, 2016) preaches a message that he admits will be hard for most white Americans to hear, let alone internalize and accept: white folks are complicit in societal attitudes toward African Americans, and our future progress as a nation is dependent on a new mindset. Dyson lays bare our conscience, then offers redemption through our potential to change. Dyson beseeches readers to fully and compassionately embrace the struggles of black Americans citizens of a country rooted in the sin of slavery and poisoned by racism. He offers poignant, personal examples of injustices brought by a society suspicious of himself and others of color. He covers a wide range of topics, including policing tragedies, the lack of African Americans in mainstream American history, the willful ignorance of whites, patriotism versus nationalism, the power of language, and the future of race relations under President Trump. With a reading list to encourage further learning, Dyson offers an intellectual framework for everyone to adopt in order to understand and embrace each other's struggles to be united.--Kaplan, Dan Copyright 2017 Booklist