Celebrity Log #A29337: Michael Eric Dyson

It's Black History Month so this celebrity sighting is very appropriate.At about 12:30pm on Feb 19th I was busy ringing up customers at my airport bookstore as usual. It was pretty busy in there and I was already at my register when my next customer stepped up with his purchase. He was a normal looking guy. Dressed down in non-spectacular clothes, a baseball cap turned the right way halfway concealing his face and he had on glasses. But by his voice I could tell he was a joyful, nice man as he immediately started chatting with me. Just normal register chit chat. He handed me his credit card and was telling me his email address as I looked up his Borders Rewards Membership account. Thats when it all started clicking.I listened to the email which had his name in it. I looked at the name on the credit card. I looked at the picture on the credit card. I listened to the voice of the man. My heartbeat skipped as I looked into the mans face and a strange litle laugh escaped me as I realized who he was. He looked at me questioning my laugh. I smiled and said, "I'm sorry. I just realized who you are. It's an honor to meet you."I swiped Micheal Eric Dyson's credit card and handed it back to him.The professor and author of "Debating Race" and "You Know What I Mean?" who is always on the front line when it comes to matters of the Black race. A public activisit of our day. And I just found out hes from Detroit! I never knew that!He told me about the new book he has coming out soon. I looked at the book he purchased, the James Baldwin biography. I tell him, "The last celebrity that came in here was Jasmine Guy and she bought this book too."Maybe I should set that book right out front so it will draw in more Black celebs...But to every high note there is a low....That evening as I waited in the parking lot of Walmart for my mother to come out I saw a Black woman, obviously on drugs, trying to escape-- without a coat on in the dead of winter-- from a young Latino Walmart employee. She had tried to steal from the store but was unsucessful. She was also a failure in escaping his restraining hold across her chest. Two older white male officers approached and in the middle of the parking lot at about 5pm they put her face into the pavement as they clasped her arms behind her back. They pulled her up and she struggled to be released as they took her back to the store.All this during Black History Month...