Cosby dishes out tough love

Caption: Comedian, actor, activist Bill Cosby encourages Terry Thomas at a Cosby Call Out presentation at Xavier University on April 13. Photo by Dan Yount

By Dan Yount

The Cincinnati Herald

     "Protect your kids,'' comedian, actor and activist Bill Cosby told audiences here April 13 in his first Cosby Call Out program of the year. Cosby spoke to several thousand parents, teachers, students, largely African American - in two sessions at Xavier University.

     Although he said he was speaking to the choir rather than to the parents who really needed to hear his message, Cosby said a parent's protection of their children is missing from many homes in Cincinnati.

     "That protection is missing when you do not tell that child what you know is the truth.

     “That protection is missing when you don't help your child with his or her homework.

     “That protection is missing when you fail to ask where they are going when they go out the door. If you let your child go play with you don't know whom; the police chief knows whom they are. They are getting peer pressure from someone who has no job, no education.

     “You are leaving her unprotected when you see your child out on the street with her dress too short and wearing makeup all around her eyes.

     "You leave a child unprotected when he or she has to figure out that they have no father and strange men are coming into the house.''

     Cosby said there is no family left among young African Americans. He noted that Black women are graduating from high school and college, but there are no men around due to the large number of young Black men who are serving prison sentences. "And when that young man does get out of prison, he can't get a job because he stopped reading in the third grade. The family needs the man around,” he said.

     "And let's take care of that young man who has a lot of babies and walks free. We allow this type of thing, or it would not happen. I'm 68. But when I was 14 and living in the projects of North Philadelphia, we had one girl who mysteriously went down South. Later, her mother also went down South, and when the mother returned she had a baby.

     “These things are happening in the Black community because Black parents do not protect their children,” he said.

     "This is not my father's village. There is a disconnect in the village, and it's dumber than racist people. The automatic step has not been taken.''

     Cincinnati's African American adults need to take the initiative if these parenting problems are going to be addressed, Cosby said.

     "There are too many Christians not moving, who are saying the Lord will find a way. But you're in the way. Jesus is dragging the cross, and somebody from the crowd is asking him if he has time to fix his elbow. You may be waiting for God, but you don't want to see God coming.''

     He commented on the protection Black Muslims give their children. Cosby said he looks at Mexicans marching for rights and privileges, and he cannot understand while African American people born here are doing nothing. “You don't have the strength and the positive attitude. We're too busy messing with each other,'' he said.

     "Why are we the only race of people who use that stupid word, a word you learned from your mother? Why do our girls dress up like prostitutes? Why do our young men wear clothes designed like the clothes people in prison wear?''

     Cosby said he couldn't care less if his audience was mad at him about his comments.  He said he discounted comments that he was just another wealthy man talking down to his people.

     "I wasn't born rich. It wasn't a done deal. We had a tree at Christmas, but nothing was under it because we had no money. My mother once gave me $8 for Christmas and said she was sorry there was no more. I was mad at her because I thought she could have brought me something with it.''

     Cosby said he was traveling around the country and talking to African Americans about tough issues because of his love for his people. "Look at my people. What happened to your vision? You are wonderful, because of all of your colors. I'm here for you today.

     "If we get together, we can't lose. Cincinnati, how proud we can be as a people.

     "Black people are not stupid. But our children have been held back so long because there is no protection of them here, and it's crippling our teachers. All of you want to be at their school for the basketball game, but go to the damn school for their academics. We've got to give young people coming up the opportunity to use their brains to lead the world.

     “People, this is serious. When are we going to wake up? How many more bodies, pregnancies, or checks from the state pulling something over on us is it going to take?”

     Among the local guests on the stage with Cosby was Terry Thomas, the brother of Timothy Thomas, who was slain by police in April 2001 in an incident that set off rioting against police brutality in Cincinnati. Thomas said he was able to turn his life around by listening to the right people.

     Cosby told him that nobody can take away an individual's motivation and spirit. "That is something you give away when you let people control you,'' Cosby said to Thomas. 

Lauren Lake: Ancestors paid price for our power and privilege,  African Americans may still deal with covert racism and classism where they live and work, but the power and privilege that was born of their ancestors resides in their back pocket, ready to be used, said lawyer and activist Lauren Lake at the Cosby Call Out April 13 at Xavier University.

     "We may no longer have to deal with Jim Crow practices, but the covert racism coupled with racism is just as deadly,'' said the frequent primetime talk show guest. "We see it in the way federal agencies respond to protect us. We see it in the worst schools that our children attend. And we see it on the job and in health care.''

     However, to exercise the power and privilege that African Americans now possess, they are going to have to be accountable, she said. "We have to realize we have to take back our own community, to restore our Black family, and to take pride in what we do.''

     Lake was critical of a hip-hop lifestyle that has gone too far, of the drug culture, and the proliferation of teenage pregnancies.

     "We have to get rid of our hopelessness and our helplessness,'' she said. "People of color can achieve any and all things they wish to achieve.''