MAUREEN BUNYAN: Bob, the tradition of the African-American preacher as inspirational speaker is being taken to a new place by Michael Eric Dyson. Reverend Dyson, a 40-year-old Baptist minister, has been described as a street fighter in a suit and tie, a scholar, author of three books on race and American culture, a provocative and fearless public speaker. Dyson has combined his personal knowledge of urban culture with his academic training. He has also transformed his anger about injustice into a message of hope.It's Sunday morning in Harlem at the New Canaan Baptist Church. Reverend Michael Eric Dyson has come to agitate, to challenge, and to motivate.
Dr. MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: And maybe this morning, the reason we come to church as black men, older black men who have made it so far, older black men who have gotten older, older black men who have cried in the middle of the night, but who see that joy comes in the morning! Maybe our responsibility is to tell young black men that you ought to hold on, because it's possible to make it in this world! That's what we ought to do!BUNYAN: Michael Eric Dyson is a preacher on the warpath. His target: prejudice in all forms; his weapons: a brilliant intellect, a passion for social justice, and the tenacity of a street fighter.
Dr. DYSON: You know, learning and scrapping in Detroit, again, what the church taught me is to transform that fighting, to make it count for more than a street fight against other black or brown people, make it count for more than stabbing or shooting each other; make it count in ways that will affect an entire nation.
BUNYAN: And that's just what Reverend Dyson has done. But the path to the pulpit was not an easy one.
Dr. DYSON: I was born poor and black in Detroit, Michigan! My father got laid off, refused to go on welfare! But then I became a teen father, was poor and hungry for many a day. God reached down and touched me and helped me up and gave me something to hold on to!
BUNYAN: As a boy, Dyson was an oratorical prodigy, winning awards for his speeches about racism and intolerance. As a high school scholarship student at an elite Michigan boarding school, Dyson learned firsthand about hate and its destructiveness.Dr. DYSON: You know, when I went there, they made a tape about the black people, one of the -- some of the white kids -- "We're going cigar fishing." "No, we're not, we're going nigger fishing." "What's the bait? Hominy grits?" Well, that was a very disturbing thing. And then when ROOTS came out, I came home one day and it said, "Nigger go home, back to Detroit." It was a very alienating and hostile experience for me, and I didn't do well at all. I actually was kicked out my second year and had to go back to the ghetto of Detroit from which I'd emerged as a golden boy.
BUNYAN: Dyson might have become embittered by that experience. It was a critical moment for him. His life might have turned out much differently if it hadn't been for the intervention of his minister.
Dr. DYSON: My pastor, Dr. Frederick Samson, taught me about Christian love and said that, "What you gotta finally do is that you've got to fight and you've got to deal with that rage, but you've got to learn the efforts of love."
I believe love is a powerful, social force, and this is animated African American people from the very beginning. I think that what we understand is that it's not about a struggle between black and white; it's about a struggle between good and evil.
The Bible ends on that note that says, "Blackness is any man who is not offended in me!" In other words, who understands the complexity of faith and understands that sometimes you got to crawl before you walk. Sometimes you've got to walk before you fly. And then sometimes you've got to suffer before you know the joy of Jesus.My church taught me when they sang those songs about Jesus and about love and "What's that got to do with me not having no food and hearing rats scratching in the insides of my wall? What does Jesus' love have to do with that?" Well, I learned what Jesus' love had to do with that. It had to do with social transformation; it had to do with economic equality; it had to do with making sure that you understood you were a human being who was valued by God. And the final thing that I learned to transform that rage is, I learned to love myself.
Dr. DYSON: See, I preach in all kinda churches: Catholic, Presbyterian, white. You know, I've preached in gay and lesbian churches, in affirming churches. I've preached across the board. I'm an ecumenical hobo. And I'm able to go in and say things that local ministers could never get away with. You know, they can chalk it up to that crazy Dyson coming in. And then when I talk about same sexuality being sanctioned by God -- but when I say that, "You know what? They're gay and lesbian. You ought to perform a mir-" -- I'll do it 'cause, you know, that's the kind of brother I am. However you want to do it, we can kick it.
Dr. DYSON: They're hungry for spiritual affirmation. And by the way, I think many of the rap narratives that they listen to speak about the same sense of desperation and outrage against the limits imposed by race that their parents would.
That's why I love to tell the story, 'cause I was one of those niggers that nobody cared about! But now I want to praise God for what God has done! Now I want to tell that story! Now I'll be glad to tell you, I know what God can do! Jesus can help you, raise you up! I know that story! I'm not ashamed of it!
