I will not be deterred (just as Dr. Cosby continues to stay on message) from addressing the pathological and dysfunctional precepts that appear to permeate throughout communities of color. As the death toll and stats rise, the Dysons, Jacksons and Sharptons and a whole host of social progressives continue to wear blinders in not allowing Black folk to be more self-effacing regarding internal cultural matters. As long as we remain victims, you never have to say you're sorry, take responsibility or more importantly take action. But I suspect the tide is turning and a once silent majority is tired of being tired demanding behavioral change. Let's take a look at the latest op-ed piece by NY Daily News scribe, Errol Louis:
The brilliant clarity of Cosby
Sunday, October 21st 2007, 4:00 AM
Three years after ruffling feathers and making enemies with a pungent public rant about the need for higher standards of behavior, achievement and personal responsibility in low-income black communities, Bill Cosby is back with a vengeance.
The good news: though his call for a cultural revolution from within is just as vital, this time he is a far less controversial voice representing mainstream views.
Cosby's new book, "Come on People," co-authored by Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Alvin Poussaint, has already been featured on Oprah, Larry King and an extraordinary full hour on NBC's "Meet the Press." It's destined for a slot on the best seller lists.
The mainstream has caught up with the entertainer, and not a moment too soon. Cosby's straight talk and self-help solutions flow like a fresh breeze through the tangle of university jargon and cowardly excuses that so often turn discussions of inner-city problems into a muddle.
"A house without a father is a challenge. A neighborhood without fathers is a catastrophe, and that's just about what we have today," write Cosby and Poussaint, citing startling statistics:
Of about 16,000 murders in this country each year, more than half are committed by black men.
Young black men are twice as likely to be unemployed as other American men.
Although black people are just 12% of the general population, they are some 44% of prison inmates.
In more than 20 years of thinking and writing about these issues, I'm used to hearing professors and politicians - both liberals and conservatives - respond to such numbers with competing "root cause" explanations that locate problems and solutions everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Some claim every vice afflicting black neighborhoods has cultural roots. Others blame the economy, immigration, welfare spending, public schools, white racism, black racism, the legal system, religion, atheism, the Democrats or the Republicans.
Cosby's path through this jungle of endless debate is to encourage individuals to build up themselves and their families - not as a substitute for political activity, but as the glue that creates politically powerful communities.
The authors are wonderfully ecumenical about how to deal with the crisis of fatherlessness: "We must reach out to black youth, particularly black boys, to show them all of the opportunities that are available. But more than show them, we've got to lead them, and that takes mentoring and tutoring and coaching."
I can't imagine a less controversial message - one that really shouldn't require an hour on "Meet the Press" to break through. But Cosby still has his detractors.
"This is hardly the call to action that can inspire and motivate underachieving blacks...," says columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson. "Cosby's blame the victim slam does nothing to encourage government officials and business leaders to provide greater resources and opportunities to aid those blacks that need help."
And sadly, Hutchinson speaks for plenty of others who would rather close their eyes to what is, like it or not, an unpretty picture for black families.
They are dead wrong. Many government and business leaders, who over the last 50 years have committed billions of public and private dollars to a long run of housing and social welfare programs, are closing their checkbooks as they watch troubled black families and neighborhoods continue to disintegrate.
Bringing these players back to the table and getting the problems of the inner city higher on the public agenda requires facing problems with Cosby's fearless, gritty optimism and mobilizing every person of goodwill, from ghetto streets to corporate suites and high government office, to pitch in and help.
That much, by now, should be beyond debate.
And more of Cosby on Oprah:
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