Product Description

An open love letter to black women from one of our most popular African American writers and critics.

Son and husband, soulmate and teacher, Michael Eric Dyson owes his success to the love and support of the black women in his life. Yet too often, he warns, African American women are the victims of negative stereotypes that dominate the larger culture and even many quarters of black America. It's time to stop viewing black women as scolding sapphires, welfare queens, professional prima donnas--and carping competitors with white women --and to start giving them the respect and the love they deserve.

Why I Love Black Women is an act of cultural restoration that rescues black women from vicious rhetoric and irresponsible generalizations. It is a catalogue of virtues, an unapologetically cheerful view of black women that rescues their strengths and beauties from callous denial or cruel indifference. Deeply personal and socially provocative, Dyson singles out the defining virtues of African American women. More than a colored knock-off of "vanilla" virtues, these qualities evoke praise and conjure awe in the face of black women's struggles. In an era marred by bigoted and baleful beliefs about black women--from hip-hop to the pulpit, from the streets to scholarly focus--Dyson offers a welcome reprieve from cultural madness. Why I Love Black Women explodes taboos while it celebrates the perseverance and the pride, the sensuality and the sophistication, of African American women everywhere.

Dyson's Celebration of Black Women:
I. Sampling the Riches
II. Deconstructing the Dogmas
III. Organizing the Front Line
IV. Working Their Worlds
V. Exploring the Jagged Grain
VI. The Anatomy of Black Beauty

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #501480 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01
• Released on: 2003-01-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
With his Open Mike: Reflections of Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion published by Basic just 60 days prior to this title, Dyson-University of Pennsylvania professor and the author of sensitive and determined polemics covering the legacy of Martin Luther King (I May Not Get There with You), the murder of Tupac Shakur (Holler if You Hear Me) and the political and cultural impact of Malcolm X (Making Malcolm)-is on a roll. This book, mostly set amid Dyson's barnstorming of the lecture circuit, records his meetings and discussions with black women throughout his life, and takes stock, from a highly partisan perspective, of their recent accomplishments. Dyson's descriptions of the women he meets are nearly novelistic: "I can still see her face: a honey chocolate, pie-shaped visage silhouetted by a shock of dark curls and lit by bright eyes that were lanterns of learning through which her students illuminated the first time to dark corners of black history," he writes of his fifth grade teacher in the book's opening sentence. But he goes on to give astute accounts, peppered with dialogue and compelling historical digressions, of the binds facing successful black women, who have to contend with racism in the workplace and the threat they represent to black men still struggling to find their own collective professional identities. He details his youthful fascination with Angela Davis (whom he later meets) and his admiration for "brave black revolutionary" Assata Shakur. He delves into the life and work of Susan Taylor, "In the Spirit" columnist for Essence magazine, and many others, including his wife, ordained minister Marcia Dyson. The author sneaks a remarkable amount of history and political content into this energetic, clearly voiced title. It should attract a diverse audience, from self-help to cultural studies readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Dyson draws on his personal life, marriages, and history to praise and celebrate black women. He starts with the women (mother, teachers, writers) who put his feet on the path from young welfare father in a Detroit ghetto to celebrated theologian, writer, and social commentator. He profiles several prominent and unknown black women who have made valuable contributions to national life and to Dyson's personal life. Among the black female icons he celebrates are the revolutionaries Angela Davis and Assata Shakur, the legislators Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee, and legal scholar Kimberle Williams Crenshaw. Dyson ties them to a historical lineage of black women who have supported black men despite strained relationships, disparities in income and educational levels, and interracial dating and marriage. Dyson takes to task those aspects of black culture, from hip-hop music to church doctrine, that undermine or disrespect black women. He ends with a sermon, a message of mutual respect and love that is particularly applicable to the continuing struggles of black men and women. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Dr. Dyson has done an extraordinary job of sharing his heartfelt commitment and honor of black women. I, for one, am proud and glad to know that such love exists."

Customer Reviews

THANK YOU DR. DYSON!!
Dr. Dyson is a serious intellectual, but one who is "down-to-earth", and who can identify and relate to everyone whether you are as highly educated, working class-- whoever. Dr. Dyson continues to give props to his race, and especially to black women who are often misunderstood, stereotyped, and unacknowledged. He no doubt loves, respects, appreciates, and worships black women. He never fails to use his intelligence and gifts to showcase the black woman. His columns and writings always bring about serious dialogue between the sexes and races. Thank you Dr. Dyson for letting black women shine!!

One man's dissertational view of women of color
When I think of the contribution that black women have contributed to the makeup of this country, and their role in society in general, I as a responsive father, son, and husband can certainly give homage to why they are so important to our existence. As I've read other references on this subject it only reminded me that others may share some of the reverence I hold, and have opinions of their own. Eric Michael Dyson is one such person. Always opinionated bordering on controversial, his views somehow find ways to permeate the African-American social Diaspora. Why I love Black Women is his latest offering to commentary that he has given us throughout his annals in the academy. Dyson, married and an ordained minister, is the Avalon Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, once again shoots from the hip taking no prisoners as he candidly and vociferously opines about the virtues of the women that hold reverence in his mind. This is a book that will undoubtedly garner mixed emotions from some of the things that are articulated by the author. Albeit, his expressing his love for sisters in a way which is up front and personal. While he does devote some worthwhile space to his mother, the bulk of the book focuses on what seems to be his compulsive attraction to the rich and famous....and it may well be this fixation that may cause the average black woman to take issue with this show of "preference".

My problem with the text is that the author's appreciative gestures are to the point of distraction. As a result, one may perhaps tend to find other vestiges of value to justify continuing with the read. It's okay to fawn and express feelings for those that you admire on the level that you gravitate, but having such a lofty view should not neglect those that are women nonetheless and would ascend the same positions if they were so inclined. What's the big deal over this Ivy-League professor getting all worked up, not over everyday people, but over academics, lawyers, congresswomen, celebrities and business executives. Comments range on the rich and famous from Freda Payne to Star Jones.

I can't help but think too, that if I extol all that I love about African-American women, it would be imperative that I not neglect to include in generic reference all that may fall within my periphery in lieu of exalted personage. In sum, though Michael Eric Dyson's heart and mind might have been in the right place with good intent, his excessive if not thinly disguised parlance for lust got in the way of his emotion in this book superficial proportions.

The best book I've ever read in my life
This book taught me more about loving my black women than anything. It also taught me to appreciate all the positive ones that have been in my life. The strongest human being I have ever met in my life is my mother, and I know plenty of men who feel the same way. There have been all types of women who have helped to mold me into the man I am today and who I will be in the future. One reviewer said it's a book she'll be getting for many people in her family, and I'm sure I will do the same. It's a shame there aren't more books like this out there, not just about Black women, but every woman who has made her mark on this Earth. He won me over with this book, and I'll make sure to read anything else he brings to the table.