so dr. dyson stardust off. so how in the world is this book or the idea of performance theory or performance blackness? how is this book gonna push the limits to the the imagination of this country of america? yes, ma'am. that's a great great question. and thank you so much for taking the book seriously enough to actually read it and engage it you'll be surprised how many people who talk stuff but they ain't really read. so thank you for that for that deep dive. yes. i do believe that black performance is the measure of the american soul what we've sung said seeing what we've performed everywhere, you know and everybody and everything from louis satchmo armstrong and harlem langston hughes duke ellington take the a train sarah vaughan elephant's gerald beyoncÉ jay z. langston hughes web dubois martin luther king, jr. so when i think about the measure of the american so what would this nation be without the trumpeting voice of martin luther king jr. trumpeting the truth trumpeting brotherhood and sisterhood trum

finally as we wrap up, you know, dr. dyson.i want to i don't know how we're going to figure it out, but i got to figure out a way how like i think we can do an hour per chapter in your book like that. that's a lot of a lot of hours, but there's so much for us to glean and take away from and you challenge us to continue to think and question and do the introspective work and then go out and act so you you also talk in your book and you and i know how we both have this fine for great literary works and this idea of wearing a mask right and and i have to end with us i want to end with this you talk about taking off these masks you you talk about multiple different types of mass you you speak specifically to men and and my own podcast and a couple of weeks. i'm gonna invite some men into that space to help us understand you're asking these men to recognize the mask. asking them to unmask, you know vulnerability right the mask of in invulnerab. a mask of materialism the mask of dishonesty the mask of control the mass of distrust and

dr. eric dyson, sociology professor.ked the question -- are we in the midst of a moment or a movement? >> i hope it's a movement, i hope it will ignite a greater degree, whether it's voter i.d., whether it's racial profiling and sometimes unfair police tactics. all the way across the board. we are up against a right wing resurgence in this nation. we have got to recognize that there's an element there that wants to repeal the 20th century, turn the nation back to the 1890s and i think we have a duty and a responsibility to educate and inspire and motivate people to push back and resist this yesterday vision of america and i think we have to replace it with a future vision. >> do we have the strength, dr. dyson, though to turn into a full fledged movement? we have seen troy davis, tooky williams, we have seen black people executed by the state without a full-fledged response. is this a different time? >> well, i think it is the potential to be as the mayor just indicated. the moment is luminous, but the movement has to be

dr. dyson? >> i would say, look first of all you're doing an honorable thing because you did a dishonorable act. now you can erase or at least minimize the damage that was done by being forthright about it. number two, understand that this is part of a larger problem. you don't get rid of this problem today by making a may yaea culpa culpa. thirdly, how do you act as an agent of change among your own fellow white students? white students hear more from their fellow students and peers than they can from people of color. how do you address this in your own culture when those jokes are told when those bigoted stereotypes are put forth? there's a school of thought that talks about multiculturism, which is fine and progressive, and then there's a question of structural realities. beyond that how do we talk about words like white privilege that are bandied about and systemic inequality? when you talk in terms of the institution will do, the student must join with and challenge his own institution to l

i should have warned you dr. dyson, we'll hear a delay, but it will be fine. >> okay. >> go ahead, colorado you're on book tv. >> caller: dr. dyson, a real privilege. i wonder if you could comment on the privatization of prisons, seems important to me that they stay under public oversight. with the trump administration, i wonder if you could comment on that with race relations. i enjoyed your interview this week. >> host: thank you, bill in boulder. >> guest: no, it's an extremely important point you're making. this is unprecedented in an era when we've had unprecedented things before us. and barack obama being the first black president in the nation. and donald trump bringing his family on board not disclosing the nature of his affiliations with certain businesses especially on foreign soil. we don't know the extent to which president trump is involved with russia, for instance, and that has grave and serious foreign policy consequences, and even in america, refusing to acknowledge on our own soil some of his relation

welcome dr. dyson. i just wanted to make an observation. i don't think some people realize the extent to which there are racial overtones in society. i am a blind person. orderinarily in conversations i tend to hear differences in how people speak -- if i hear people who have been friend for a long time talking it only takes a few minutes before i get an impressions one person in the conversation has darker skin. youshg you can hear it in whose ideas affirmed and things like that. i want to say i hear it more among older people and not much among younger people so i think that is something that may be changing. >> extremely important point. the aura and dimensions and the way we speak to each other with assigned privileges and deficits hopefully as the generations emerge and younger people rise up we will begin to really tone down the hatred and elevate or at least amplify the dimensions of common humanity that should be the pred kate for everything that occurs. >> this is karen, ocean park, washington. hi, karen. >> caller: dr. dyson, you

dr. dyson is one of the nation's most influential and renowned public intellectuals. he's an essay contributor to the book. um, he published over 18 works of scholarly and cultural influence including "race rules: navigating the color line from 1996," "i may not get there with you: the true martin luther king jr. in the year 2000," "debating race" in 2007 and "april 4, 1968: martin luther king's death and how it changed america" in twawt. 2008. dyson's pioneering scholarship has had a profound effect on america ideas. dr. dyson is presently professor of sociology at georgetown university and cited as one of the 150 most powerful african-americans by "ebony" magazine. dr. dyson has been called the ideal public intellectual of our time by writer naomi wolfe and a street fighter in suit and tie by author nathan mccall. pretty good names, i should say. you may know him by sight from his many guest appearances on msnbc, as i do. um, it has been my pleasure to work with both brigitte and paul farber

dr. dyson, anesthesiologist and clinical professor at stony brook university. in addition to the coroner's initial findings, the associated press is quoting a single now, unidentified law enforcement official as saying that the l.a. county coroner has ruled michael jackson's death a homicide. when cnn asked the coroner's office about this report, the response was no comment. the spokesman for the lapd told cnn the story did not come from that department. so what is the story, randi? >> the story is it appears michael jackson had a real cocktail of drugs in the hours before his death. according to the search warrant and the affidavit we got today from houston, 1:30 in the morning, dr. conrad murray, his personal physician, gave him 10 milligrams of valium. he thought he was addicted to propofol, the very powerful sedative, as you know, really just supposed to be used in the hospital. he was trying to wean him off it. he gave him valium first. at 2:00 a.m., half an hour later, he gave him 2 milli

and thank you so much, dr. dyson. steve mcqueen who directed "twelve years of slave" showed human subjugation and the removal of human agency. and the fact that slavery was not a game. slavery was not some happy go lucky slaves running around as it was in "gone with the wind." it's the first time that we have seen on film, on cell aid, the fact that this entire story is told from the perspective of solomon northrop. we see his particular predicament. and we also see two interesting things. those who were the slave-holders, who claimed christianity, but it was really capitalism in drag. we also see those who were enslaved. enslaved africans, who shifted and saved jesus from american christianity. "twelve years of slave" does a powerful, powerful job of showing us the horror, the pain, the brutality of slavery, yet people in that context were able to come out and still not only praise god but also transform this country, known as the yet to be united states in the words of w.e. dubois. >> dr. haynes, what's the importan

>> i mean, dr. dysonwhere this country was centuries ago. you know, we are a nation of progress, but they are trying to take us back. these extremists. and the fact that they are creating laws that in many, many ways suppress, oppress, and regress access to the ballot box. it's not only shameful, it's immoral and against a democracy. and i got wendy davis, my sister senator, i guess they fear her just that much. but this is wrong. and it has a negative ripple effect for all of this country, not just texas. and this very law that they have passed right now, you know, remember a district court ruled that that law was unconstitutional. because the u.s. supreme court gutted portions of the voting rights act, here we are. we have not lost our minds, dr. dyson. the gop extremists have lost their ever-loving minds. >> to be sure. but, look. take a moment to platform this particular issue. a lot of people think wait a minute. it's a piece of i.d. what's so hard about that? you live in america, get an i.d., you wa

so i want to go to dr. dyson to answer the same question. before we get into some of the anecdotes that actually happen to be sitting here with us. >> it's great to be here with dr. angela rye and all the other panel here this morning about. when we think about mass incarceration, we think about, as attorney mosby said, the disproportionate concentration of people of color and what we now know as the prison industrial complex which means, local jails, federal jails, and prisons who warehouse disproportionately african-american people and latina people. that means that for nonviolent drug offenses that other people are hit on the back of the hand and told, you go home and you become a better johnny or jill, shaniqua and jamal are sent to prison. there sent to prison because they're introduced to it in terms of detention in public school. look at the relationship between discipline when your children are kicked out the second and third grade, god knows sometimes even kindergarten. then they are known as a disciplinary problem. and then they go

pinsky and dr. dyson remain with us. joining us from davie, florida, is dr. wek, the forensic pathologist and attorney. dr. murray's attorney, by the way, has responded to all of this. reads in part, much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual. however, unfortunately, much is police theory. most egregiously the timeline reported by law enforcement was not obtained through interviews with dr. murray as was implied by the affidavit. we will not comment on an anonymous law enforcement source that claims that michael jackson's death will be ruled a homicide. most of the reports by anonymous sources have been proven wrong. we will be happy to address the coroner's report when it's officially released. dr. wek, your reaction to these court documents indicating the coroner has made this preliminary report, if true? >> based upon what we have been hearing, larry, certainly there is no surprise vis-a-vis propofol, diprivan. it remains to be seen what the toxicological analyses reveal insofar as lorazepam, ativan and other drugs that are of concern. if

dr. dyson has been called the ideal public intellectual from naomi wolf and a street fighter, a pretty good names i should say. you may know him by site from his appearances on an as nbc. it is my pleasure to work with brigitte freed and paul farber to bring leonard freed photographs to the collection. paul farber was professor dyson student editors to pennsylvania and later his research assistant. currently he is a lecturer in urban studies at the diversity pennsylvania and phd candidate having just completed the dissertation of american culture at university of michigan. his work and culture says appeared in outlets including npr and was named to the 100 inspire less as a world changer for his use of technology to of our social change. he is working on a biography of leonard freed. let us welcome these guest and how the historic march august 1963 change the ongoing worldwide struggle for civil rights. [applause] >> "this is the day" how did the book it started? and i say it was president a bo

. >> dr. dysonbut in his eulogy he talked about real national things, and what needs to be done beyond a conversation. listen to this. >> for too long we were blind to the pain that the confederate flag stirred in too many citizens for too long for too long we've been blind to the unique unique mayham and perhaps it softens hearts towards the lost young men. tens and tens of thousands caught up in the criminal justice system. we search our hearts when we consider laws to make it harder for some of our fellow citizens to vote. if we can find that grace, anything is possible. if we can tap that grace, everything can change. >> dr. dyson, voting rights, gun laws substantive change that's going to be the hard part. certainly taking down the flag is important and we must go beyond that to these things but if we can't take the flag down we can't get even the more difficult things done. >> so great point reverend al. all of this at a funeral. all of this is the celebration of life and the grieving of death

dr. dyson, who is also with us. i think mr. johns, who has a responsibility of guiding an initiative that deals with education, and african-american historical institutions. and, of course, we thank you so much for being here with us this afternoon. we also commend you for the dignity that you have displayed throughout this ordeal. you are a guiding principle for many of us in america. many who love their country, but they love justice. who love their country, but they also want equal protection under the law. with that, please go right ahead. >> thank you. my cochair has been a leader in this congress. particularly on black men and boys who have been incarcerated. and, other issues facing black men. we want to start at the beginning with black boys. then, move up and have three distinguished men talk about their lives. we begin with davie johns. we are pleased if the second of director for african-american excellence has joined us in the white house. he has worked for obama for america for --

dr. dyson, we talk about nelson mandela, the politician, nelson mandela the moral leader. also a man of impeccable psychological insight and emotional intelligence. >> incredible. the kind of arc of his moral intelligence is rather incredible. it's rooted in practical principles but shows what motivates people. how their psychies can be damaged, but also uplifted. in that sense you've got to be a major motivator and inspirer and understand what moves your opponent, what moves your enemy, what moves your ally, and foster the alliances and allegiances necessary to make the nation stronger. i think in that sense he was a remarkable human being. >> and we said, dr. frasier, so much of that gained in prison, so much insight gained in those times in prison, were there any moments -- forgive me if you don't know the answer, but were there any moments when he feared or got close to the breaking point? >> that i don't know. but i can imagine as a human being one would. in 27 years, not just in jail, not

i think like dr. dysoner exposes -- because really twitter is the mechanism for cowards to express racism. they know no one is going to show up to their house and there are no consequences for that behavior. but at the same time i think that twitter allows in exposing the racism allowstous have these conversations. and we will not end racism until we have these very difficult conversations. and ignoring racism and pretending it doesn't exist does nothing to improve the lives and daily lived experiences of people of color. >> dr. dyson, you have the final word on this. your thoughts. >> i think she's right. miss maxwell has put her finger on the pulse here. we have to have an open honest conversation here. the reason the president can joke about it. i'm getting the truth across but doing it through humor because many white people are incapable of hearing the truth told by african-american people. and what's interesting, the jokes don't put them as the subject of the scorn or the object. they feel safe to eng

and i'm struck, dr. dyson. this occurs almost 20 years to the day of the day that nelson mandela received the nobel peace prize, with f.w. de klerk, the leader of the apartheid regime in south africa. what an interesting relationship that was, as well. no love lost between the two men. yet, they were forced to work together to create this new south africa that byron was just talking about. >> of course. they were forced compatriots. but they found in the midst of the horror and the travail and the wide diversion beliefs about what the future south africa should be, a common ground. and together, they forged the future of that nation. and if nelson mandela is the father of modern democracy in south africa, de klerk gets an assist, in terms of acknowledging the necessity to do so and facilitating that transition in as nonviolent as possible. >> we see right there, nelson mandela and f.w. de klerk right there. and this is a perfect test of all of the principles that nelson mandela honed in prison. this belief in r

dr. dyson, we're in a time when folks are fascinated by people's backdrops in their home office. i'm pleased to report that michael eric dyson is seated in front of all the books he's written. those are all dr. dyson's books behind him. thank you. thank you, both. l >>> let us go to houston, texas, now. in houston, the public visitation is going to start in a few hours for george floyd. it is, of course, his hometown. hundreds of friends, former teammates, teachers, all expected to pay their respects. floyd will be laid to rest tomorrow. nbc's priscilla thompson is live in houston. priscilla, what are you hearing from folks there who are waiting to pay tribute to george floyd? >> reporter: well, craig, 90 degree weather has not stopped folks from showing up here early. already, the line is wrapping around the church. we've seen the shuttle buses dropping folks off, and they've come with their lawn chairs and coolers to sit and wait for a chance to get inside and view george floyd's body and pay their respects to him. you ask what folks are saying. i'm actually here with brady bob.

dr. mike he eric dyson, the grio contributor, zerlina maxwell. great to have you with us tonight. dr. u are a respected person in the black community all across this country, revered by many. and people look to you for leadership on a number of different issues. i would like to know, do you know what the republican minority outreach program is? >> brother ed, i can't fathom that. they gave themselves an autopsy to suggest they ought to have an outreach, and yet undercut themselves at every turn. and this kind of inadvertent mistake here only underscores their lack of awareness of and sensitivity toward african-american people and interests. and, by the way, racism is not merely expressed in these overt kinds of expressions. but in the very subtle ways in which the republican party has refused to acknowledge the humanity, the far right wing, i should say -- the humanity of our president, and the ways in which policies that don't not only benefit african-american people, but actively resist their presence in the larger circle of american privilege. all of these things are quite problemat

dr. dyson, thanks for doing the show.liticsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts right now. >> good evening, and thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, meet the new gop. same as the old one. the gop's new spirit of togetherness lasted about as long as one of john boehner's golf games. just a day after incoming senate majority mcconnell gave some conciliatory words about the way forward, speaker john boehner slammed that door shut when he went after president obama for his intention to take executive action on immigration. >> i've made clear to the president that if

>> as you rightfully point out, dr. dysons issue is about elected officials who, unfortunately, stand by individuals like cliven bubbedy who are law breakers and they're not folk heroes who should be held up as some type of patriots and that's why i implore public officials throughout this country to not be part of this rhetoric that is against our federal government. these are federal officers who are trying to do their job according to the law and there's a process that they're following and elected officials and other people should not be enciting our militia to stand against their federal government. >> well stated. do you think legal actions should be taken against bundy and his supporters? >> yes. i support mr. bundy as any other american who has broken federal laws or who has refused to pay upwards of $1 million in federal fines and fees to the federal government to be held accountable and the fbi is now doing an investigation of mr. bundy and others and its and it's now moved from a civil issue to a federal one and sh

but dr. dysonne of the things that continues, i guess, interests me to a certain extent, the donald trump, is he the cause or is donald trump the effect? >> he certainly is the effect. donald trump didn't begin all of this. he and roseanne are taking the same drug, bigotal, whose side effect is uncontrollable racist tone. so, clearly here, what's going on is that donald trump is the logical summary of 300 years of white supremacist ideology, of white resentment, tethered now to white power. this is what happens when conspiracy substitutes for knowledge and bigotry substitutes for insight. yes, president trump is the product of brooding skepticism about black and brown and red and yellow people, skepticism of people of color, about transgendered people, about gay and lesbian people, about mexican people, about muslims, about the other. and this is not something that began with donald trump. this is, after all, a man who cast aspersion upon our first african-american president by denying him legitima

. >> dr. dyson, a person's faith should not be considered a great deal. >> i have been an ordain minister for years. i certainly empathize with those who feel their religion is being under assault. it is being used for the highest court of the land. obviously that's clear. what's disturbing here is the consequences politically for whatever religious believes she may entertain. if she believes there is a certain kind of deference to a religious belief, that would i impend on the arena. what i am more concern about is the legal consequences of her own vision and what that may mean for the rest of the country especially when it comes to a woman's rights to choose and other serious issues that'll come before that court. >> dr. dyson, has the left taken the supreme court for granted. by that i mean it would seem as though the last two presidential cycles especially, republicans have done a much better job of galvanizing our base by stretching the importance of the president ability to appoint a justice o

what they're really afraid of, dr. dysonossibility of a third reconstruction in the south. breaking through the solid south. breaking through the old ways and opening up a whole new demographic and a whole new politic. and that is what they're afraid of. they want a solid south. we're breaking up that solid south. the only way they can hold on to it is to suppress the right to vote which is the most divisive thing you can do in a democracy is attack the right to vote. >> indeed. the instances, reverend barber, of voter fraud are far and few between, so how can republicans use the fraud argument? how is it even legitimate? >> you know the tea party tea can do some strange things to your mind and if you mix a little koch brother money in that you'll say just about anything. the reality is our speaker who helped lead speaker thom tillis who was a speaker who helped lead in repealing these laws for voter expansion actually came on msnbc and said had to admit it was not because of fraud, it was not because of fraud. so in reality

. >> let me ask you dr. dysonmagine what would happen if a democrat candidate's spouse said something similar. do you see anyone coming forward, though, and asking michele bachmann to disavow her husband's remarks? >> that's a great point, reverend sharpton, i have seen no one coming forward to say this is wrong, to call gay, lesbian, transgender people barbarians is ludicrous and a touch of barbarism. so say they must be altered in their orientation is to really foresake the ultimate commitment to counseling truth, which is to suggest that you take the patient as she or he is. you try to help them towards a more healthy role, but you don't try to change who they are. you try to help them able to become the best people they can become. but to have a preordained belief that homosexuality itself is a sin, dr. bachmann talked about the sinful nature of homosexuality, really mitigates against the kind of therapeutic redemption that would be edifying. i think if a democrat had said this, if something progressive had sa

dr. michael eric dyson.tional correspondent for the washington post and finally matt lewis, senior contributor for the daily caller. first question, instead of drinking the kool-aid, are republicans drinking tea on the debt crisis? house leaders are wasting time with tea parties cut, cap and balance bill even though it has no chance of passing the senate or getting signed by president obama. dana? the clock is ticking toward the default. are the republicans fitting while rome is burning here? >> well yb yes, reverend they are. but sometimes a little bit of fiddling is necessary here. the republicans, particularly the house republicans, really need a way out of this corner they have backed themselves into. what's happening tomorrow in this debate, yes, everybody knows nothing will come of it. but it could be a catharsis. it could be a way for the house republicans to say, we've got our marker in the ground. this is what we are trying to do. we couldn't get it done. all right, let's sneak in the deal that's be

dr. dyson, a very direct question.does the black community in ferguson have to do now, as you see it? >> first of all, they've got to continue to keep the pressure up. secondly, they must abide by relations of the justice department report and systematically plan to implement on their part substantive things that can change their communities. thirdly, they have to show up at the polls and vote. when they begin to change the complex and the outlook of the elected officials there, they begin to take their destinies into their own hands and finally begin to reach out and mentor some of those young people who are there, some of those young leaders who are doing tremendous things must be embraced and celebrated and if the entire community stands behind them it will be an extraordinary thing. >> zerlia maxwell, dr. michael eric dyson, great to have you with us tonight. >> always great to be with you. >> thank you. >>> coming up saving social security. it's a mission. senator bernie sanders is definitely on it and he's got so

dr. dysonrself. and is the strategy with 9-9-9, $2.50, is to try to have things simple, thinking it will stick in someone's mind and brain, that you've really come up with a formula they can remember, even though it absolutely has no connection to any sound policy? >> no sound policy at all, reverend sharpton. and as miss finney said, i'm glad to see the president indulge in some rhetorical luxury there, to really spurn the advances of the darned gop. what does that sound for? giving oil to people? well, they don't have any to give. the only reality is that the only gas in the room is the gas they're leaking from the other end of their face, and it's not their mouth. the reality is, look, they're talking about the president, his policies blocking the domestic production of oil. well, what about bio fuels? what about solar power? that's the reality here that they don't want to deal with. and the president is right, they are anti-scientific. they've been well-known to be anti-civ anti-scientific,

>> dr. dysonlot of people -- i know there are a lot of people who agree with that and a lot of people who disagree, not just obstructionism, bernie sanders said, but also racism. >> sure. well, it would be hard to deny the fact that obama has faced unprecedented levels of obstruction in an american culture that is also skeptical about his birth and also skeptical about his legitimacy as president. 54% of republicans now think he is muslim. if he were muslim, that would be fine, but he happens to be a christian. many don't believe he is legitimately an american citizen. when you overlay that with the unprecedented amounts of obstruction he's confronted, a person on the white house lawn who refuses to let him as a reporter continue his conversation, a wight female governor who puts her finger h his face, a white congressman from south carolina who hollers "you lie." when you put all this together, the refusal to have an automatic raise in the debt ceiling that was denied to not any other president e

dr. dyson, are republicans using code words to attack the ambassador? >> very clearly so. this woman is an undergraduate of stanford, as you said. a doctor of philosophy besides a scholar at oxford at the age of 26. so clearly she is an intellectually brilliant woman who is quite capable. it's ironic and tragic that john mccain, who nominated or at least put sarah palin on the ticket as vice president would dare call into question anybody's intelligence. sarah palin's intelligence could fit into the left fingernail of dr. susan rice. but beyond intelligence, there's a racial hostility that's unchecked here. and the aggression toward people of color here has been unleashed as a kind of compensatory aggression against obama's win. you see all this stuff going on. this is racial code words and we know the manipulation of racial feeling and sentiment here. >> nobody in the intelligence community has come out and said these things about rice. karen, what about this? why is she a target? >> i worked with dr. rice in the clinton administration. she is a brilliant woman and a gift