WASHINGTON – If words could sting the human flesh, then Bill Cosby would be the King Bee.
As Ellis Cose wrote in Newsweek magazine’s year-end double issue, “You would think the story would have died by now. What’s the big deal, after all, about Bill Cosby’s blasting a bunch of poor kids and their parents. …”
Cosby left an indelible impression on 2004. It all started on a hot, steamy May 17 night at Constitution Hall in Washington. The event: a gala commemorating the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which essentially struck down legal segregation in this country.
Cosby, who graciously received an award for philanthropy that night, boldly went where no black man dared: he made it fashionable to speak out against some segments of the black community for perpetuating internal ills.
He openly criticized negligent black parents, accused black youth of foolishly yielding to the lowest common denominator and called out star black athletes for illiteracy.
When others were merely content to follow the status quo, Cosby broke the status quo in half. Then, he threw it in the garbage can and listened to the rampant critics try to kill the messenger for delivering a wake-up call.
On that glamorous night in May, Cosby condemned the black crime epidemic, saying black perpetrators should be incarcerated and liberal critics should face the reality of right and wrong. Perhaps Cosby was referring to individuals like the “Kenny” quoted in Cose’s Newsweek article.
“Kenny,” 17, said, “Cosby is … talking about me holding up my end of the bargain. Listen … I robbed cause I was hungry. If he’s going to put food on my table, if he’s going to give me time to pursue education vigorously, then fine. But if he’s not, then I’m going to hold up my end of the bargain and make sure I get something to eat.”
Notice there’s no mention of a novel concept such as perhaps getting a part-time job. Countless high school students work in part-time endeavors. Perhaps the time, skill, plotting and effort that “Kenny” allocated to robbing could be appropriated to working.
No, apparently that makes too much sense.
Oh, well.
Nevertheless, Cosby took the time during the gala to say that thuggery, street lunacy, gangsta rappers, teenage pregnancy, educational underachievement and antisocial behavior are not OK in a black community besieged by a cultural decline.
You can bet that if either Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X – both slain during the prime of their existence – were alive today, they would be appalled by today’s State of Black America as we close the year 2004.
Cosby needs help because he can’t wage a one-man crusade against black apathy and attitude in perpetuity.
Perhaps Cosby can find help and hope in incoming U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the biracial coverboy at the top of Newsweek’s 10 rising stars for 2005.
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek wrote this passage in his nine-page feature on Obama: “Some party constituencies might be in for a surprise. Obama may be the only African-American in the Senate, but this is not a man who wants to be seen as the leader of black America. When he spoke at a Congressional Black Caucus reception recently, Obama graciously thanked several Caucus leaders by name, then concluded with a short but telling statement: “I’m looking forward to working with you on behalf of ALL Americans.”‘
That about sums up why Newsweek tabs Obama as the one American who might bridge the gap between the Republican red states and the Democratic blue states and “nudge the country toward purple” in 2005.
Remember the rousing keynote speech Obama so eloquently delivered at the Democratic convention that inspired both conservatives and liberals alike. The key of his keynote was: “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”
Perhaps those bullies who beat up 16-year-old Lucas Hardeman of Los Angeles because he answered too many questions right in a Los Angeles classroom one day should index Obama’s speech. To help ward off those school thugs, Hardeman’s father even bought his son a new hip-hop wardrobe to help him conform, according to Newsweek magazine.
Those are the same kind of bullies who, as Cose writes in Newsweek, ridiculed Hardeman for buying CDs by Britney Spears, “N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, then smashed them at a school function as they told Hardeman, “Dude, you’re whiter than they are.”
That’s the kind of lunacy to which Cosby is referring.
It’s also a major example why Cosby needs assistance from difference-makers such as Obama.
We have a black youth culture clash on one extreme and a red state-blue state political predicament at the other. With the guidance – and nudging – of Cosby and Obama in 2005, perhaps we will have a bridge to Purple Reign in the middle.
Gregory Clay is assistant sports editor at Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
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