What Truth Sounds Like

Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America

By: Michael Eric Dyson

Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson

Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

This program is read by the author.

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 best seller 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 '60s 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.

This audiobook 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.

©2018 Michael Eric Dyson (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“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)

"Dyson's passion for the rich African-American cultural tapestry reverberates in this audiobook." (AudioFile Magazine)

Amen!

A heartfelt thank you goes out to Brother Dyson for courageously and intellectually continuing the much needed and timely treatise on race relations today!

As always,Mr. Dyson continues to deliver such complex information in his own inimitable style. Please keep doing the good work! Wakanda forever!

This book is for the ages Dr. Dyson!!!

Dr. Dyson shows us with ease the racial issues that we face while giving the audience ideas to better this ongoing discussion. This book should be read by all to gain the insight and open the minds to change!

awesome read!

I'm currently seperating from my wife and do deliveries by day..and this book offers broad perspectives and more reasons to be who you are!

Tears

When you hear the you may develop tears. Although I didn't agree with everything he said, it was refreshing to hear sentiments I echoed. It also was a grand introduction to Baldwin that I needed and wanted.

Gives you great insight on 60s and today

I really enjoyed this book. The author gives you great insight on what people during the Civil Rights movement and what Black go through today 50 years later. Much haven't change just some of the people. Great to know some new terminology and definitions of people attitudes and demeanor. I really enjoy how the author give an awesome compare and contrast on people from the Civil Rights Movement and People today during the Black Lives Matter moment. I really suggest reading this book if you want to help fix whats worng in America.

Prescient for our time.

Great read and references. Helped me to put my thoughts in order and connect the dots. Speaking truth to power has always been a dangerous but very necessary thing. Those willing to do it face the raft of euro-americans and probably economic ruin.

awesome

Loved it!! It was timely prolific energizing historical and absolutely game amazing insight to concepts that have been discussed in various circles but never expounded on.

Any confusion as a liberal will be clarified here.

Any confusion as a liberal will be clarified by this book. Professor Dyson has done his work, is witness, is centric and on the edges of activism- humanity. I was completely satisfied. further some of my skewed voids, enlightened.

Outstanding presentation of our journey

This was interesting and brought back feeling and memories of my personal experience. Must READ

I expected more from you Michael!

Book Review Disclaimer:  This is probably one of the hardest book reviews that I have written. There are times when I want so badly to have Issa Rae’s attitude and cheer for E’rbody Black! But there are times when we must stay true to our authentic self and call it how we see it.  I completed Michael Eric Dyson’s book “What Truth Sounds Like” and I was gravely disappointed to say the least! The book read more like a historical take of people and events much like a Pro-Black Gossip magazine rather than the promised “TRUTH” the author promoted and promulgated all over social media. Halfway through the book I was ready to get my money back as he dragged on and on about Jay-Z and Beyonce’s impact on the movement. He spoke about James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and a myriad of other celebrities and artists. He gave MUCH praise to Robert F. Kennedy for being the white knight ally to the civil rights movement. Mr. Dyson’s command of the English language is quite impressive exemplified by his repetitive use of alliteration with a very fascinating artillery of vocabulary! If one wasn’t really “listening” to what he was trying to say, one might be fooled into thinking he was saying something meaningful!  It wasn’t until the final chapter of the book where he had riveting monologue about Wakanda and what “blackness” is! If Mr. Dyson would have entitled the monologue “What Truth Sounds Like” and provided it as a Spoken Word piece I would have applauded the piece and would have been more than impressed.  As Eleanor Roosevelt said: Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. I’m sorely disappointed that such a great orator has such an average mind or rather chose to write such a below average piece.