Michael Eric Dyson Please Shut Up

Two years ago Dyson debated Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford on Democracy Now. Their debate took place after Obama won the Iowa caucuses and finished a close second in New Hampshire. Dyson's comments were useless and just plain dumb.

"To limit the scope of African American intelligence, interest or political concern to the fact that a president is being put forth who happens to be a black man versus the interests of African American people, I would not be so naive as to assume that the presidency of a Barack Obama would in any way mitigate against or militate against the vast region of problems that black people face. "

So said Dyson in 2008. What is he saying in 2010?

"I think that we should push the president. This president runs from race like a black man runs from a cop. What we have to do is ask Mr. Obama to stand up and use his bully pulpit to help us. He is loathe to speak about race."

Of course he is Dyson. You and the rest of the Love Barack or Die crowd eplicitly gave him permission to do just that. Unlike the foolish Dyson, Glen Ford made the right point two years ago. ". . . he has accomplished the central mission of his entire campaign, which is to prove that a black man can be embraced by masses of white people. The problem is, he has done that at the expense of black people, by constantly, relentlessly sending out signals to white people that a vote for Barack Obama, an Obama presidency, would signal the beginning of the end of black-specific agitation, that it would take race discourse off of the table. And he’s gone to extraordinary lengths to accomplish that."

So Dyson, just STFU already. It is too late for you and your friends to act as though you didn't say what we remember you saying. Sadly for you, we don't have amnesia.