... a timely, heartfelt book that uses history to slice our nation open and show how racism is a sickness that has shaped our culture and society in a variety of insidious ways ... a hard book to read. Dyson's prose is straightforward and his writing easy to understand, but the sum of what he does is a tough pill to swallow ... There is a lot of history in this book, but it is incredibly timely and current ... Long Time Coming is a fast, cohesive read. Its only flaw is a critique of cancel culture ... In a book full of names of Black martyrs who died because of white supremacy, saying cancel culture is somewhat like it while failing to name a single victim of it diminishes the strength of every previous instance in which white supremacy is shown as an insidious, deadly force ... 'Black. Lives. Matter.' This thought, delivered after pages upon pages of devastating history and herstory, offers readers a healthy dose of hopefulness after a devastating, powerful book.
Some passages in the book are almost poetic, as Dyson riffs from one subject to the next and from the historical to the contemporary with the improvisational flair of a jazzman. But some other sections raise eyebrows ... In other places, Dyson relies more heavily on the big truth of narrative rather than the narrower, often complicated truth revealed by individual facts ... Dyson stands on firmer ground when his book offers ways to reimagine the police by parceling some of their unceasing responsibilities to social service agencies and when he calls out the tyranny of cancel culture.
Dyson interweaves the history of American slavery, highlighting the manner in which the vestiges of this institution continue to oppress African Americans economically and to subjugate their bodies. But this recounting does not go without the joy note—Dyson also tells of Black resistance to slavery and Jim Crow through rebellion, protest and the court system ... Dyson...writes with sermonic elan, but Long Time Coming avoids religious dogma. The knowledge of America’s original sin remains before the reader from prelude to postlude, but not without the awareness that Dyson is laboring toward the necessary reform. Beyond this, the language is accessible to a wide audience and offers a healthy launch pad for newcomers to the world of social justice. Pithy epitaphs from literary and historical figures head each of the seven chapters and serve to prime the reader for the eloquence to come.
... a series of profound and powerful letters written to Black martyrs to racial violence ... Dyson offers both homage and history, emotion and analysis ... At times speaking directly to white Americans who wobble on the precipice of understanding, Dyson evinces both empathy and bewilderment over the current state of disconnection between so many segments of society. From the contrast between the survival skills honed by enslaved people and the persistent reverence for the Confederacy, this nuanced interpretation of America’s egregious abuses of its Black population is at once broad and specific. Dyson’s eloquent, exacting, and consequential scrutiny of 'the racial calamity at the heart of our democracy' is a catalyst for discussion and continued calls for justice, a work essential to the struggle to achieve insight, genuine change, and healing.
... heartfelt letters to victims of racial injustice in America ... The letter addressed to 15-year-old Chicago murder victim Hadiya Pendleton veers somewhat abruptly into a tangent about cancel culture and the legacy of basketball star Kobe Bryant, but concludes with a cogent call to build a 'solid and substantive notion of racial amnesty' for white people 'who own up to the fact that they haven’t got this race thing right'. Dyson also provides valuable historical and sociopolitical context in his vivid descriptions of how Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd died. Rich with feeling and insight, this elegiac account hits home.
Each letter offers the author an opportunity to expand upon the complexities of Blacks’ experience of hatred and oppression and to offer tempered suggestions for change ... A timely, fervent message from an important voice.
