By Heru Ammen
Please don't take my criticism of what I term “The Cosby Generation” as an indictment against those that fought, bled and paid with their lives during the civil rights struggle. I will always give props to people such as Dr. King, A. Phillip Randolph, Malcolm, Huey, Stokely, Dubois and all of those that made it possible for me to be sitting here today at this time writing this blog. Without the sacrifice of the aforementioned individuals, I may have never had the opportunity to communicate to my readers as free person in America.
I was born in '58 and although I was born and raised in California, I was intimately aware of the civil rights struggle because my father played an integral role in securing rights for his co-worker's in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters founded by A. Phillip Randolph. My perspective on the civil rights struggle was shaped by that struggle. My Father fought for the collective rights of all of his co-workers to achieve the best and his sacrifice afforded all of them equal rights so that they could work in conditions that allowed them to achieve excellence in their profession. My father helped to build a platform and an infrastructure that promoted excellence, good pay, and respect for a job well done.
There are a great number of individual success stories in Afrikan American history. However my contention is that when the greater Afrikan American community was finally allowed the freedom to choose either to live in and build up our traditional communities (like our Asian and other ethnic brothers and sisters) or embrace the de-facto rugged individualism found in the suburbs, most of us choose the latter. We did nothing to collectively ensure the health and well being of our traditional urban communities. Once we achieved equal rights, the vast majority of attorneys, doctors, nurses, educators, griots, and entrepreneurs left urban America for the suburbs and all of the resources they provided went with them. What was left was essentially nothing; and nothing from nothing leaves nothing. Or in the case of urban America, nothing from nothing equaled a void that was filled with overt poverty, ignorance, and government mandated dysfunction called welfare and aid to dependent children.
The African American exodus exacerbated what was already (due to slavery, segregation and discrimination) a fragile cultural ecosystem and it eventually collapsed upon its own weight. If the greater Afrikan American community had taken the approach that my Father had taken in ensuring that his "community" of porters, cooks, and dining car waiters had the infrastructural support mechanism to achieve success, we would not have totally dysfunctional urban communities today.
So when Bill Cosby or any other Afrikan American gets upon the proverbial high horse and lambasts those that their generation socially and culturally abandoned, I take issue with that. All of us (including myself) need to look in the mirror of blame for the reasons why urban America is failing - and we also need to sit down at the table of reasonable dialog and develop solutions that will allow those that want and desire to succeed the opportunity to do so.
Any culture and/or socio-economic system that does not materially support the fundamental right of all of its people to at least have an equal opportunity to pursue excellence through education, employment, and entrepreneurship within their community disenfranchises the vast majority of those that could have possibly achieved at a high level and disproportionately handicaps (both mentally and socially) those that achieve despite the lack of support.
What Bill Cosby and the Cosby Generation is complaining about is akin to parents raising a male child from a baby to be a female and then when that male child becomes an adult, they blame him for acting like a woman. Urban America did not happen in a vacuum and the problems in Urban America will not be solved until Afrikan Americans look in the mirror and recognize the culprits of its demise.
4 comments:
he can't blame anybody but his generation because it's his generation that got us into this mess
if they didn't make the decisions they made in the 50's 60's and 70's things would be better for us now
you should really check out my latest post dog it's about black males and our role in society
drop me a comment too
peace
The logic here makes no sense. If anyone has earned the right to challenge the Black community to step to the plate, it's Bill Cosby. His life's accomplishments demonstrate his personal commitment to excellence. His willingness to empower the less fortunate through the creation of educational grants and endowments has been well documented. The high horse you describe is the horse the disenfranchised Blacks need to climb on if they wish to improve their individual and collective condition. The Asian community is a model for Black progress, but not is the manner you've suggested. Look at modern China; their leaders have challenged the masses to commit to a higher standard of personal achievement, a challenge similar to Mr. Cosby’s. However, rather than shirk the responsibility and criticize the messenger, the people have accepted the challenge and the results have created the world’s fastest growing economy and elevated China’s collective standard of living. The Black American community would be wise to follow this model. Bill Cosby is a multi-millionaire who has raised successful children. It's not the condition of his family that he's “complaining” about, it the sorry condition of yours.
Hello Charles....First off, I would like to thank you for your comment. Maybe this means more folks are reading my blog..lol
Regarding your comments...The main issue I have with Bill Cosby and his generation is that they abandoned the Black community in the 60's and 70's and now they want to complain about the problems that exist in urban America in 2008.
It is true that Bill has given substantially over the years. However the institutions that he has given to (Spelman College...et al)only serve a small portion of the AA community; primarily those that can afford or have the opportunity through educational achievement or family ties to attend colleges like Spelman or Morehouse.
Their are not a great number of young African Americans in urban America that have the opportunity to do the college thing. Their schools are inferior. However the main issue that these kids face is familial, socio-economic and community dysfunction. And the aforementioned dysfunctions are the direct result of the black exodus of the 60's and 70's.
In regards to our Asian brothers and sisters high achievement levels, the fact that they DID NOT abandon their communities like we did and instead chose to build up their communities has directly resulted in their high achievement.
We can do the same thing. However we have to accept the responsibility and actually do something besides talking, selling books, and complaining about the problems we are directly responsible for.
Hi Heru,
As a new reader of your blog, I thank you for expressing your thoughts in a constructive manner. My guess is that many others are reading, unfortunately only a few are likely to reply.
I share with you what I think is your objective: Economic and social justice and the empowerment of people of African descent. Where I disagree is on the effectiveness of the philosophy you are promoting in your attempt to obtain your objective. Although younger than Mr. Cosby, I’m old enough to have experienced first hand what you refer to as the abandonment of the Black community by those Blacks seeking to obtain a better life for themselves and their families.
One would be foolish to dismiss institutionalized racism as an impediment to Black progress. However, what has proven in recent years to be more destructive is the collective unprincipled value system adopted by a large segment of the urban Black community.
There are no current laws that impede urban Blacks from doing “the college thing.” There is a value system however, that favors the acquisition of worthless status items over academic achievement or the use of physical intimidation rather than contribution as a method of acquiring respect.
Air Jordan, Bentley, gold chain, fancy car rim, and blunt monies are college funds misappropriated. These are the issues Bill Cosby was raising when he chided the lower economic people for “not holding up their end of the deal.”
The acceptance of thug culture as a representation of Black youth culture proved costly to the community. Few people of any ethnic group will remain in neighborhoods where violence and crime are pervasive. To allow one’s family to fall prey to social deviants and predators when one has the economic capacity to escape such conditions would be irresponsible.
Blacks, at every economic level, have a responsibility to use their ability to improve their individual and collective conditions. Rather than blame Cosby and his generation, it would be prudent to promote principled living through word and deed in one’s personal conduct, elevate one’s standards, and hold one’s associates accountable to principled behavior.
Obama can advocate national policies and promote legislation until the cows come home. What is more likely to affect change is if he and other successful Blacks such as Bill Cosby, are successful in convincing the parents of the urban youth that too much is at stake to conduct business as usual.
We both agree on the need to accept responsibility and the need for action. Though obviously not the sole solution, I’m less inclined to believe that talking, selling books, and complaining is the problem. Those I know who abandoned the Black community would still be there if these were the challenges the faced there. It’s the shooting rather than talking, the drug selling rather than book selling, the fighting rather than complaining that has forced the exodus.
For more check out: http://www.divinecaroline.com/public/user/profile?user_id=70586
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