About Michael Tyler
Michael Tyler is a native Chicagoan and father of two sons, whose life goal is to promote diversity as a humanistic opportunity rather than perpetuate it as a begrudging obligation.
Michael Tyler is a freelance writer and New York Times bestselling co-author of The Smallest Spot of a Dot (with ABC News Anchor Linsey Davis), the award-winning children’s book The Skin You Live In (Mom’s Choice Award, Carl Sandburg Honoree, Essence Magazine Best Pick for gifts) and of Mirror Face, a critically acclaimed children’s book in the social-emotional learning category.
He was chosen by Fisher Price to write Everyone Everywhere (Let’s Read), as part of the iconic toy brand’s Spread A Little Kindness campaign, released Fall 2023. His second co-author title with Linsey Davis, Girls of the World, released March 2024. In January 2024, Michael was distinguished as Poet-In-Residence for the Equal Justice Society, with his first piece being a retrospective on the African American journey in the United States. In 2023, a collection of essays, Raising The Nation: How to build a better future for our children, compiled by Paul Lindley, featured a contribution from Tyler titled, The Cosmic Crayon.
His other titles include, Water for The Soul and Sow the Seeds, a thought journal and a poetry collection written as a life-lessons legacy for his sons. Michael has also been featured many times as a speaker for the Clinton Foundation’s Bridge Builders Program and Student Presidential Leaders Forum and has been a featured author for The King Center Reading Corner. In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, he has also written social impact videos for the NBA 2018-2019 NBA Champion Toronto Raptors titled, I Can’t Breathe; and for the Howard University Men’s Basketball Team, titled We. He is currently a member of the Illinois Center for the Book and resides in Chicago.
Philosophy
Defeat Hate
A quote by the distinguished American educator Horace Mann: "Be ashamed to die, until you have won some victory for humanity." I discovered this quote at age 15, and interpreted it to mean that life is so incredibly valuable that to live it with selfish intent is to bring shame to your entire existence, for the real value of a life is how it is lived to uplift the lives of others. I decided then that the victory I would pursue would be to defeat hate.
Gender Equity
The pinnacle of human achievement will never be achieved until all of humanity is included in that endeavor. Therefore, gender equity must not be considered a concession of patriarchy given by grant of a begrudging conscience. It must be viewed as an essential step, for the ultimate evolution of a shared existence.
“Be ashamed to die, until you have won some victory for humanity”
Acceptance
Genuine humane regard and true egalitarianism will never be served by promoting tolerance. As a moral instruction for conduct, it is a policy of civil segregation not a conviction for a universal application of value for all. This is acceptance. Tolerance simply means to endure the presence of who and what is different. Acceptance means to recognize, acknowledge and affirm the like kind humanity of everyone.
Parity
The desire of disenfranchised and discriminated people will always be the emotional longing for equality. But equality exists in two forms:
1. Equality in humanity - the physiological truth of an essential anatomy and what is needed to sustain it.
2. Equality in society - the equivalent access to all social resources, for every member of society to actualize a chosen destiny without the impediment of bias.
Given that all societies are hierarchies of power, status and position unless those at the top recognize the equality in humanity of everyone, then equality in society becomes a grant to be offered by those privileged by caste, not an autonomous goal to be obtained by those who are not. The better pursuit is parity, the ability to self-engineer leverage for advancement. Equality in humanity requires an adherence to the Biblical Golden Rule: do unto to others as you would have them do unto you. Equality in society requires an understanding of the Social Golden Rule: whoever has the gold, makes the rules.