Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

The good news is Bill Cosby has calmed down the rhetoric.  The bad news is, it’s the same old song.  For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Bill Cosby, along with noted psychologist, Dr. Alvin Poussaint, were recently guests of Tim Russert on a special edition of Meet the Press.  The duo are on the road promoting their new book, Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, that was written to give credence to the ranting Bill Cosby began almost 4 years ago during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. 

I was fortunate enough to have attended that event.  I was shocked then by the words Bill Cosby spoke. Then, Cosby talked about kids “…with names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail…”.  At the time, I asked my daughter, then in middle school what she thought of such a comment.  Back then she had friends with names like Shameka, Makeeba, Shaquana and Kashia – my daughter’s name is Kiah.  She said she didn’t know what her friends’ names meant but they were just 13 year-olds in middle school – not jail. 
Now he speaks of “character corrections.” I am at a loss.  The phrase sounds like something that could just as easily be spoken from the mouth of a conservative Christian talking about the appropriate steps to take to “cure” a gay person.  Character correction is quite a departure from the words Dr. King spoke, “…when my children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.”

I do not dispute that there are huge problems facing black people.  We’ve been separated, segregated, castrated, violated and humiliated since we were brought to these shores.  Repeatedly, well-intentioned black men have tried to galvanize their black brothers.  Dr. King tried, Malcolm X tried, Jesse Jackson tried, and most recently, Louis Farrakhan tried with the Million Man March in 1995.  Until there are systemic changes to show people the way, until a young man can leave high school with skills, the possibility of a good job with benefits, and a decent place to live; until a child attends a school that is not “failing,” until a mother doesn’t have to choose between childcare and healthcare – some of our folks will take the easy way out.  They will fail another generation of children, just as those in power are failing the majority of Americans. It comes down to survival of the fittest. 

I’m sure Bill means well, but he should really get some message coaching.

--JOAN