Sunday, September 23, 2007
Scolding by Cosby rings true 3 years on
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
Shanna Flowers
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If Bill Cosby walked up to Virginia Smith today, the Roanoke woman would affably extend her hand.
Three years ago, Smith would have given him a piece of her mind.
She was among blacks who condemned Cosby for calling out the black underclass for its troubling ranks of unwed mothers, absent fathers, disengaged parents, high school dropouts and prison convicts.
Smith, 63, was outraged. The entertainment icon was being "uppity," she thought at the time. She stopped watching him on television afterward.
"He didn't understand," Smith said last week, recalling her reaction. She was in the camp that believed Cosby's wealth and success precluded him from saying what many of us were thinking.
"Now, I've gotten older and see more and more of what he was saying. What he was saying was true," Smith said of the comedian.
As Shakespeare wrote in King Lear, "jesters do oft prove prophets."
In recent weeks, a number of incidents and developments suggest people are getting so fed up that they're willing to publicly confront the crisis Cosby saw on the horizon three years ago -- the same one he was lambasted for voicing.
If we can get outraged enough to trek by the busload to Jena, La., then the dysfunction destroying our communities from within should compel the same outrage -- and the energy to do something about this black implosion.
"Bill was sending that message three years ago," said Ingrid Barber, 37, of Clifton Forge. "Now it's reality."
>> Last week, a desperate plea from the police chief went up in Philadelphia. Coincidentally, that's Cosby's hometown.
Beleaguered by a spiraling homicide rate, the chief put out an SOS for 10,000 black men to volunteer on neighborhood patrols to try to reduce violence that has claimed nearly 300 lives this year. Most of the victims have been young black men.
>> Last month, during a meeting with the National Association of Black Journalists, Hillary Clinton broached the plight of black men in this country.
Sure, she was shilling for votes before a captive audience. But how often have you heard a presidential candidate even bring up the issue?
>> In the pop culture arena, during the same convention at which Hillary spoke, NABJ gave Black Entertainment Television its "Thumbs Down" award, joining criticism about the network's portrayal of young blacks as thugs and loose women.
Shortly before the dubious award was announced, I met a young black scholar and dental student from North Carolina, Corey Caldwell, who has started a Web site called betdoesnotrepresentme.org.
>> In Roanoke, Patrick Henry High School educators Fletcher Nichols and Jerel Rhodes were recognized last week for mentoring 10 young black men over the past three years. This fall, all of the students entered college.
These calls to action are what Cosby implored us three years ago to do.
"I totally agreed with what he said," Taisha Claytor-Staples, a middle school counselor in Lynchburg, said last week. "People were upset because the truth hurts. A lot of time, cages have to be rattled."
Boy, did Cosby rattle cages. He made his now-famous remarks during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark ruling that integrated the nation's schools.
He chastised black underachievers for a "50 percent drop-out rate ... and people in jail, and women having children by five, six different men."
America's Favorite Dad cast a harsh spotlight on parents.
"I'm talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18, and how come you don't know he had a pistol? And where is the father... ?
"These people are not parenting. They're buying things for the kid -- $500 sneakers -- for what? They won't buy or spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics."
I recall my own feelings at the time. Cosby was right, but I cringed at his candor. It would only serve to invigorate those who would use his comments to fuel their own divisive rhetoric.
That happened, of course. But who cares? We see the necessity of turning the mirror on ourselves. I'm not diminishing the outside factors that conspire against us. But I'm saying we need to address the issues that we can control.
Black columnists are writing against black-on-black violence. In this space, you've read about the necessity of black fathers' taking their rightful place in restoring the family structure, which would be a balm to reduce many of our problems.
Both nationally and locally, people are fed up and speaking out. The primary worry right now seems to be young black men.
So I drove around Roanoke late last week and happened upon some to get their feelings about being the target and focus of so much discussion.
Michael Davis was at his job at a car wash off of Orange Avenue. He understood why adults are worried about young black men. But he cautioned us not to paint everyone with a broad brush.
"A lot of young black men do a lot of stupid things. I'm just not one of them," said the Patrick Henry senior.
Davis wore a close hair cut, red T-shirt and oversized jeans. He said he carries a 2.8 grade-point average and wants to be a lawyer. But, he said people judge him by how he dresses.
"It makes me upset. Just because I wear baggy pants don't mean I'm a thug.
"I'm staying out of trouble," Davis said, adding that his mother "keeps me in the books. I'm not that unusual. It's a lot of people like me."
At 16, car wash manager Jerome Green was serving two years in juvenile detention on a drug distribution charge.
He got out, graduated from William Fleming High School and took machine and tool courses at a trade school.
The car wash is his day job. He's also trying to make a go as a rapper.
He hopes to go back to trade school, but never back to the life that robbed him of two years of freedom.
Older people, he said, worked hard and endured struggles so young people could have opportunities they didn't.
Three years ago, Cosby caused a furor because he was a prominent person airing our dirty laundry.
It seems a few people are trying to clean it up.
