Debating race is a series of conversations between Dawson and a wide swath of people from Scholars: Gary Orfield, Cornel West, politicians: John McCain, John Kerry and pop-political commentators Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher. They tackle many aspects in this book which is broken down into 7 areas.

1. Civil Rights
2. Ethnicity
3. Conflicting Loves
4. Youth & Violence
5. Black Masculinity
6. Catastrophes
7. Anatomy of A Conflict Why Bill Cosby is still wrong

Overall I found this book very powerful and presents a very deep dive into very controversial areas. Unfortunaly their is not enough dialog about those very serious issues. There is such a wealth of ideas presented in this book I could start a blog just tackling those issues.

From reading the book here are a few thoughts.

The 7 areas discussed in his book, are not black and white but many shades of grey. I‘ve gained an appreciation of how complex each of these areas discussed in the book are.

The real struggle is about power and control. Those who have it the “ruling elite” and those do not “everyone else” To illustrate that example here are two facts. Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and African Americans constitute about 25 percent of the population together. They have about 6 percent of our nation’s operating businesses. These businesses account for about 1 percent of the nation’s gross business receipts.
Less than 1% of fortune 500 companies are lead by black CEO’s, although African Americans represent 13.1% of the population.

Power concedes nothing without a fight.

When a group of people that have been enslaved, who were treated less than human for several generations those scars do not disappear in a few years. Those emotional scars are deep. The resentment, fear, self hate are ingrained in the African American psyche and those manifestations are portrayed daily!

We essentially all want the same thing, good schools, a home to raise our family, and a way to provide for our family.

Playing the role of a black celebrity, father, sports star has a unique set of pressures and the stake of failing in your marriage, responsibility as a father are much higher.

There in no magic bullet to fix some of the problems we are facing today.

Dawson social commentary and his honest dialog is a fresh breath of air. His command of the English language is equivalent to the dexterity of a brain surgeons scalpel. I highly recommend his book.