|
Sister Omega
United Kingdom
2085 Posts |
 Posted - 07 Feb 2006 : 12:28:32
|
Subject: Bill cosby
Sent: 20 November 2004 01:14:34
I had never seen the Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson cry in public. And
he's seldom upstaged. Until Bill Cosby came to town.
Last week Jackson invited Cosby to the annual Rainbow/PUSH conference
for a conversation about controversial remarks the entertainer offered
May 17 at an NAACP dinner in Washington, D.C.
That's when America's Jell-O Man shook things up by arguing that
African Americans were betraying the legacy of civil rights victories.
"The lower economic people," he said, "are not holding up their end in
this deal. These people are not parenting.
They are buying things for their kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And
won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics!"
Thursday morning, Cosby showed no signs of repenting as he strode
across the stage at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom before a standing-room-only
crowd. Sporting a natty gold sports coat and dark glasses, he
proceeded to unload a laundry list of black America's self-imposed ills.
The iconic actor and comedian kidded that he couldn't compete with the
oratory of the Rev. But, he preached circles around Jackson in their
nearly hour-long conversation, delivering brutally frank one-liners
and the toughest of love.
The enemy, he argues, is us: "There is a time, ladies and gentlemen,
when we have to turn the mirror around."
Cosby acknowledged he wasn't critiquing all blacks -- just "the 50
percent of African Americans in the lower economic neighborhood who
drop out of school," and the alarming proportions of black men in prison
and black teenage mothers. The mostly black crowd seconded him with
choruses of "Amens."
To critics who posit, it's unproductive to air our dirty laundry in
public, he responds, "Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30
every day. It's cursing on the way home, on the bus, train, in the
candy store. They are cursing and grabbing each other and going nowhere.
And, the book bag is very, very thin because there's nothing in it."
"Don't worry about the white man", he adds.
"I could care less about what white people think about me. . . let 'em
talk. What are they saying that is different from what their
Grandfathers said and did to us? What is different is what we are
doing to ourselves."
For those who say Cosby is just an elitist who's "got his" but doesn't
understand the plight of the black poor, he reminds that "We're going
to turn that mirror around. It's not just the poor -- everybody's
guilty."
Cosby and Jackson lamented that in the 50th year of Brown vs. Board of
Education, our failings betray our legacy. Jackson dabbed away tears
as he recalled the financial struggles at Fisk University, a historically
black college and Jackson's Alma mater.
When Cosby was done, the 1,000 people in the room all jumped to their
feet in ovation. Long after Cosby had departed, I could not find a
dissenter in the crowd. But in the hotel corridor I encountered a
vintage poster for sale that said volumes. The poster, which
advertised the Million Man March, was "discounted" to $5. Remember the
Million
Man March?
In 1995 Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan exhorted "a million
sober, disciplined, committed, dedicated, inspired black men to meet
in Washington on a day of atonement." In 2004, perhaps all that's left of
that call is a $5 poster.
We have shed tears too many times, at too many watershed moments
before.
While the hopes they inspired have fallen by the wayside.
Not this time. Cosby's plea to parents:
"Before you get to the point where you say 'I can't do nothing with
them' -- do something with them."
Like:
o Teach our children to speak English.
o When the teacher calls, show up at the school.
o When the ***** box starts spewing profane rap videos, turn it off.
o Refrain from cursing around the kids.
o Teach our boys that women should be cherished, not raped and
demeaned.
o Tell them that education is a prize we won with blood and tears, not
a
dishonor.
o Stop making excuses for the agents and abettors of black-on-black
crime.
o It costs us nothing to do these things. But if we don't, it will
cost
us infinitely more tears.
*********************************************************
We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail without a second
thought, but when it comes to sending messages regarding life choices,
people
think twice about sharing. The crude, vulgar, and sometimes the
obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of decency is
too often suppressed in school and the workplace.
Author Unknown.
|
Peace
Sister Omega |
|
Topic Locked
