Just Venting
Bill Cosby is wrong to call on Black women to save the race without the assistance of the Black male by Thomas E. Mitchell, Jr. Re: Your recent commencement speech at Spelman College Dear Bill (I hope I can call you Bill, sir; at least for this letter), I recently read a commentary written by Phillip Jackson, executive director of the Black Star Project, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that focuses on low-income minority students in low-achieving schools. Jackson was critical of your recent commencement speech to the graduating class of Spelman. Jackson noted that in your speech Bill, you told the 500-plus female graduates that it was "their turn" to save Black America. You said Black men were incapable of doing what is necessary to save the race from annihilation. According to a quote attributed to you by Jackson in his commentary, you said to the women grads: "It’s your turn. We want you to lead in business. We want you to lead in medicine. We want you to lead in everything." I read Jackson’s commentary objecting to that aspect of your speech, Bill. While I agree with much of what you say in general--calling for SOME Black Americans to get their lives together and do a better job of raising their children--I have to side with Jackson in objecting to what you told the graduates at Spelman. You see Bill, I belong to a group of Black men who meet every Tuesday evening to discuss the plight of Black males in America, Black male/female relationships and to what extent racism continues to define our condition. The group also searches for and discusses new paradigms that can help save and uplift the race, especially the status of Black men. I disagree with you--and I know the members of the group would disagree with you as well--on calling on Black women to take control and say "to heck with you Black men." What you did Bill is what society--via the media and pop culture--is trying to do (and, alas, with some success), relegate Black men to the same fate as the Dodo Bird: EXTINCTION! In the discussions the group has, we note that White society and the powers-that-be are covertly steering Black women into greater prominence and power positions in politics, media, business, child rearing and education. Books, television shows, magazines, radio, the Internet and some ... excuse me ... SOME prominent women from these fields and other areas of endeavor are telling other Black women that they don’t need a man, particularly a Black man, who (some of them say) is trifling, lazy, sex-crazed (the only time they say Black men aren’t lazy) and thuggish--as well as too busy smokin’ weed, selling weed (or other drugs), trying to be rap stars, drinking and partying (with mindless, booty-shakin’ "neckbone" hoochie mamas with low self-esteem) to get a job, a college degree or do right by their children. Some of the points these women make are valid. There are SOME Black men who fit the above description and reflect badly on the community and the good Black men who do the right thing. Jackson is right--in his response to what you said--that improving and empowering Black women is a good thing for Black America, but it does not fix the problems plaguing our community. Jackson believes throwing Black men "under the bus" (figuratively speaking) and focusing solely on Black women to be the "saviors" of our community will only exacerbate the problem. He added such marginalization of Black men "lowers society’s expectations, leaving them further behind--a dead weight on their community." In other words Bill, he would be rendered powerless, ineffectual and undesired in the eyes of society and Black America. "Apparently," Jackson said, "Mr. Cosby doesn’t realize that only Black men, with the help of Black women and the government of the United States (I admit Bill, I have problem with the "United States government" part), can solve the problems of the Black community. "I am, like Mr. Cosby (that’s you Bill), terribly frustrated with the lack of positive and productive leadership by Black men, but the solution is not to destroy, ignore or wrestle leadership from all Black male leaders," Jackson continued, adding, "...the solution is to find or support new Black leaders, men and women who will do the real work of saving our race from annihilation." Jackson said real solutions (many of which my Tuesday group would concur with) include cultural and behavioral shifts like discouraging Black men from fathering children out of wedlock, making education the highest priority in the Black community, developing strong mentoring systems to inculcate positive values in Black boys, creating strong work ethics among Black males that are supported by good technological and literacy skills, and totally rejecting criminal behaviors that lead to incarceration. (I would also like to add learning about our history and culture, one that goes beyond slavery and emphasizes our place as descendents of kings, queens, creators of civilization, inventors of math, science and medicine, builders of the pyramids who had the world at our feet, learning and trading from us while Europe was still mired in the Dark Ages.) Bill, your heart is in the right place and Jackson, my group and I understand and feel your frustration and share your desire to turn our people’s condition around. But to call on women to take up the burden without "responsible, caring and visionary" Black men helping them as partners is myopic and counter-productive. While Black women, as Jackson said in his article, have always done the important work of keeping the Black family together, we must do all we can to repair the damage to the Black male/female relationship paradigm so that together these two can more effectively lift our race out of its economic, political and cultural morass and lay a positive foundation for generations to come. Sincerely, |
