Laura is a very Liberal black columnist.
Cosby's telling our race secrets -- and it's about time
June 7, 2004
BY LAURA WASHINGTON
'The lower economic people 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!
''I can't even talk the way these people talk. 'Why you ain't?' 'Where you is?' . . . Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.
''These are not political criminals. . . . People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake, and then we run out, and we are outraged, 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What in the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?''
Leave it to the Jell-O Man to really shake things up.
This was Bill Cosby talking, and he's talking about black folks. When it comes to pontificating on black poverty and crime, Cosby wouldn't seem to have much street cred. The Cosby we know didn't get to be an American icon by dwelling on the plight of black America; the Cosby of the jolly, jiggly Jell-O commercials, the comic Cos who brought us the folksy Dr. Huxtable and America's first black middle-class TV family. The Cosby we know is everybody's friend.
But this Cosby is here to tell it like it is -- by airing our dirty laundry. This Cosby set off a national fire storm in Washington, D.C., at an NAACP celebration of the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education civil rights case. Bless him.
The media reported that some at the predominantly African-American black-tie gala were ''stone faced'' after Cosby's rant. Airing our dirty laundry is supposed to be taboo. We have had the conversation before, but always behind closed doors. In the barbershop, beauty salon, in the lounge. Not out in the open, for all to hear.
An enduring African-American code of honor says we must keep our ''race secrets,'' or risk ''weakening the cause.'' The argument goes that if we debate our differences, we reinforce negative stereotypes and give ''whitey'' ammunition.
I might have shaded the language a bit. It is always a mistake to generalize. Cosby's words were harsh, their images searing. Still, the message is clear: It's time to take responsibility.
Some of us have made it, thanks to Brown vs. Board and many other civil rights victories. But we are ashamed and appalled by ''those people'' we left behind. Communities reeling from black-on-black crime, violence and drugs. We have let the druggies and gang-bangers take over. Our men are making babies, then abandoning them. A half-million black men are in prison, and we know most are probably guilty. We dread turning on the 10 o'clock news, for fear of seeing those people -- gangstas with rags on their heads, flashing their signs and shooting our babies.
Those people are us. But when Cos put it out on the street, we squirmed. This is hurting the cause, some of us bemoaned. Cosby's words will be used by conservative pundits like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh to undermine and ridicule: ''See, see, even Bill Cosby says there's something wrong with you people.''
They will, and so what? Keeping the race secrets haven't made them go away. By failing to challenge ourselves, by shunning both the stereotypes and the realities, we are practicing a form of intellectual apartheid.
''The community'' must be strong enough to debate and discuss our race secrets. One of the race secrets is that we harbor deep class differences and economic bigotry. Talking honestly and openly about it is the first step. At the same time, we have to give those ''lower economic people'' a voice in shaping a future.
The Jell-O man started the conversation by airing our dirty laundry. Yes, a half-century after Brown, we still struggle with racism and poverty not of our own making. But we also have some work to do. Bill Cosby is one of America's most successful black men. He's worth millions, and has given much of it to helping us escape our ghettos. He's got his. When are we going to get ours? |
