Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

Dyson analyzes the impact of the n-word, arguing that it has defined and stereotyped Black people within American society. Dyson mentions that as a young boy, he and his mother had been called the racial slur, and recalls his first realization of racial hatred. He notes that the word hurt Black men’s manhood. His mother insisted they hide the incident from his father.

Dyson explains that the n-word may be obscured and avoided, but the bigotry it represents persists. The word “condenses the history of hate and the culture of violence” against Black people (132). Dyson encourages white people to eliminate from their minds the stereotype of Black identity that the n-word represents. He argues that the n-word is a product of the white imagination, a representation of white people’s fears projected on Black people. White Americans must familiarize themselves with “Blackness,” with the history and culture that represents “Black humanity.”

Dyson notes that the n-word stereotype has impacted the Black mind by generating self-hate. He downplays his own social position as a respected professor, minister, and intellectual, one that represents a fictional privilege, and identifies with all Black people. Ultimately, white America views Blackness either as respectable and institutionalized or as criminal and violent.