Michael Eric Dyson - Unequal: A Story of America

This is a book of truth. So well start by telling you the stone-cold fact that there are many people who do not want you to read it.

They may say that the stories found in these pages could be dangerous to your mental health. That readers will feel victimized or collapse in a puddle of guilt. Some of those people will undoubtedly try to ban this book. Please know that what they are trying to ban is the truth.

All of this may sound unreal. We have a hard time imagining that anyone would want to make history illegal in the United States of America. But thats exactly whats been happening in 2021.

And why now? Its no accident, we think, that this new attempt to whitewash history follows the largest protest movement in American historya movement for racial justice and equality that had white supremacy back on its heels. The forces of inequality and white supremacy in America have always been afraid of history, because the truth is not on their side.

The real story of racial inequalityand resistance to itis the prologue to our present. You can see it in where we live, where we go to school, and where we work. Its reflected in our laws, in our system of government, and in who gets to call the shots. Its even in the water we drink and in the soil we till. Its why George Floyd died on a sidewalk in Minneapolis. Its why Breonna Taylor was shot in her own bed in Louisville, Kentucky. And its why millions of Americans turned out in the streets in 2020 and 2021 to push America in a new direction and to change its history for good.

History seems like its behind us, and sometimes it is. Other times, though, the things that happen in the present are simply the latest episodes in a show thats been going on for years. Were surrounded by historys unfinished business, by story lines that will be wrapped up only when new characters step instep upto finish the plot.

After the Civil War, African American people and their allies tried to make genuine equality a reality for all Americans. Long after the war had ended, for the next 150 years, thousands of people, Black and white, dedicated their lives to making the promise of freedom real. Even if we have forgotten their names, their dreams live on.

We believe that all of us should remember the names, and the dreams, of Americas freedom fighters. Unequal is their unfinished storyand our own.

Some people in America, very powerful people, would prefer that you didnt know this story. Theyve tried for almost 150 years to stop stories like this from getting out, and today they are trying very hard, in cities and states across America, to make it illegal for you to learn about what is contained between these two covers.

These people believe that some knowledge is so dangerous that it should be kept from you at all costs. With knowledge, you may decide to act differently, or to make different choices about your life. You may question the world around you or the things youve been told since you were a young child. Perhaps youd make connections that you wouldnt have made otherwiseor even join the fight to make freedom and equality real for all Americans.

Thats our hope, at least.

CHRISTIAN COOPER, a Black man, out for an afternoon of bird watching in Central Park, had asked Amy Cooper to put her dog on a leash in a place where it was forbidden for dogs to roam free. Amy pulled out her cell phone and started to dial.

Im taking a picture and calling the cops. Im going to tell them theres an African American man threatening my life.

Amy had decided to remind Christian where he was. This was a white place.

On April 29, 2018, a white woman named Jennifer Schulte aimed the same message at a Black family picnicking in a park in Oakland, California. Do what she says, she ordered, or shed call the police. Two Black men in Philadelphia arrested for simply being in a Starbucks. Black people followed in stores, Black drivers trailed by police in white parts of town. No American, Black or white, is surprised when stories like these make the news, because we all take these color-coded places for granted, even though America pretends to be color-blind.

White places are parks, streets, stores, neighborhoods, even schoolsanywhere white people decide that they should be in control. Black people are careful to teach their children about color-coded places; being color conscious is a matter of safety for kids who might get mistaken as a threat. Black parents learned it from their parents, who learned it from theirs. Color coding and the battle against white spaces are part of the story of America.