Debra J. Dickerson (born 1959) is an American author, editor, writer, and contributing writer and blogger for '' Mother Jones'' magazine. Dickerson has been most prolific as an essayist, writing on race relations and racial identity in the United States.

Early life

She dropped out of Florissant Valley Community College and the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

,Biography of Debra Dickerson
soon after to serve in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

from 1980 to 1992 as an

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

officer. She earned a BA in Politics and Government from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

. Dickerson attended St. Mary's University and completed her

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

International Relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

while still in the military. Her Air Force career culminated in her appointment as Chief of Intelligence at

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

Air Station. In 1992 she worked for President Clinton's presidential campaign while awaiting entrance to

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. She graduated from HLS in 1995. While attending Harvard, she said she "had no stomach for the law. I decided to study less (a whole lot less) and have some fun." She began writing a column for the '' Harvard Law Record'', the school's newspaper. Ultimately she pursued a full-time career in writing.

Writing career

She credits the 1996 '' New Republic'' essay "Who Shot Johnny?" for jump-starting her career. It describes a drive-by shooting that left her nephew paralyzed, and the family's ambivalence and frustration in knowing the shooter was a fellow African American. Her work has since appeared in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

'', '' Good Housekeeping'', '' VIBE'', '' Mother Jones'', ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

'' and many other publications. She was a fellow at New America Foundation from 1999 to 2002. After giving up her personal blog in September 2007, Dickerson announced she will become a blogger for '' Mother Jones'' magazine. Dickerson has published two books, ''An American Story'', a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

, and ''The End of Blackness''. She attracted some attention, as well as accusations of race baiting, in 2007 by declaring that because Democratic president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

is not a descendant of West Africans brought involuntarily to the United States as slaves, he is not "black."Stephen Colbert interviews Debra Dickerson
, ''The Colbert Report'', comedycentral.com, February 8, 2007.

References

External links

– Article by Dickerson
Author interview at Random House
*
Racist like me.
– A ''

'' article by Dickerson
Video (and audio) of interview/conversation with Debra Dickerson
and

Ross Douthat Ross Gregory Douthat ( ; born November 28, 1979) is a conservative American author and ''New York Times'' columnist. He was a senior editor of '' The Atlantic''. He has written on religion, politics, and society. Early life and education Ross Gr ...

at Bloggingheads.tv
Video of conversation between Dickerson
and Michelle Goldberg on Bloggingheads.tv {{DEFAULTSORT:Dickerson, Debra 1959 births American essayists Living people 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century African-American writers University of Maryland, College Park alumni United States Air Force officers Harvard Law School alumni American women essayists Women in the United States Air Force African-American female military personnel St. Mary's University, Texas alumni 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American women African-American United States Air Force personnel