Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

Short Review: Structured as a sermon, and call to repentance and change, to White America, Michael Eric Dyson brings his philosophy, theology and pop culture skills to the task of pointing out the problems (and sin) of white Christian America.

I am not going to underplay the fact that I was at times quite uncomfortable while reading Tears We Cannot Stop. There were some things that were uncomfortable because they hit too close to home. But other times when I thought that Dyson was just wrong in his analysis. But I think it is important to remember that the ‘rightness' of the analysis, while not unimportant, can be a distraction from the honest assessment of an African American Christian that is trying to present his view of how the sins of White Christian America harms not just African Americans but Whites as well.

My initial impression was that Dyson was not as gifted a writer as Coates, who I tied this book to in my mind. But after reading two of Dyson's books back to back. I have re-assessed his writing. He is not writing the same style of book that Coates wrote. I don't want to minimize Coates' analysis, which I think is good. But Dyson's background is philosophy and theology and I think that he brings a different type of analysis to the task and the quality of his writing is just as good.

My slightly longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/tears-cannot-stop/