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Sun 13 Aug, 2006 09:17 am
I greatly admire Bill Cosby's courage in speaking out despite the risk to his career. He is saying what needs to be said out of love for his race. ---BBB
Cosby: African-Americans 'Not Holding Up Their End'
Comedian Talks About Personal Responsibility and His Own Lapses in Judgment
June 29, 2005
It came as a shock to many last year when Bill Cosby, one of America's top TV dads and comedians, strongly criticized low-income African-Americans, and then took that message on the road.
In a series of "Conversations with Cosby" held in cities with large urban and poor populations, Cosby has said African-Americans are not "holding up their end of the deal" and need to take more responsibility for their families and communities.
During these events, Cosby has been tight-lipped with the media, often talking only to columnists in order to promote his advocacy. But the entertainer invited "Nightline's" Michel Martin to sit down for an exclusive interview during his latest event in St. Louis. Martin shared a preview of the piece, which airs in its entirety tonight, with "Good Morning America."
Cosby calls his town meetings "call outs" and has traveled to 12 cities so far, spreading his message of personal responsibility.
He has lambasted "lower-economic people," parents who spend more on athletic shoes than education, and children who use poor English and curse constantly. He has said blacks need to stop blaming whites and take control of their children and their communities.
"Nine hundred kids enter many of these high schools, and 35 walk out with diplomas," Cosby told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "The rest are in prison, pregnant or wandering around doing nothing."
Critics have dubbed it the "Blame the Poor Tour," and blasted Cosby's remarks as hurtful and stereotypical.
Martin asked Cosby about those criticisms.
"I would say they are trying to move away from the problem," Cosby said. "They're trying to deal me some cards other than the hand that I'm talking about. I don't talk about the television set that works. I call the mechanic about that one that's broken."
However, his outspokenness has made him a target due to his own conduct, including current allegations of sexual misconduct. Prosecutors have declined to press charges, although a civil suit is pending. Cosby has publicly acknowledged that he had an inappropriate relationship outside of his marriage.
Martin asked Cosby if his own failures of judgment disqualify him from speaking about others.
"No," Cosby said flatly. "I couldn't care less what you think of me as long as you begin to execute that which will save your children."
He compared speaking out to warning others against mistakes he had made himself.
"You don't have to listen to me," he said. "But you're going to be very, very sorry."
Cosby grew up in a poor Philadelphia neighborhood, seeing little of his father who was a mess steward in the Navy. Cosby himself left high school in 10th grade to join the Navy, and later received his diploma from a correspondence course while still in the service. He attended Temple University on a football scholarship, and received a master's and doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts.
Cosby is the creator of Fat Albert and played Heathcliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show." He has won four Emmy Awards, eight Grammy's, the NAACP Image Award, the Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award and is a member of the Hall of Fame of the Academy of TV Arts & Sciences.
Cosby and his wife Camille had five children. In 1997, their son, Ennis, was killed by a single gunshot to the head while changing a tire on his car.
Cosby has already taken his "call outs" to Atlanta; Springfield, Mass.; Newark, N.J.; Baltimore and Dallas, among other cities. He plans to continue his conversation in Cleveland, Kansas City and other urban areas.
Comic draws people who help, who need help
Posted on Wed, May. 17, 2006
Bill Cosby's ?'Call-Outs'
Comic draws people who help, who need help
By Lewis Diuguid The Kansas City Star
From February to November last year, Mandy Brown telephoned and wrote to Bill Cosby in what must have seemed like a distress signal from Kansas City.
"She would call me almost every two weeks, often saying that there was a murder the night before and begging Mr. Cosby to come," said Joel Brokaw, who works with the comedian turned self-help advocate. "She gave us statistics (on the homicide rate) how it was worsening and said how badly the city needed to receive this message."
On Tuesday at Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley, Cosby will answer Brown's urgent plea by bringing his national "Call-Out" tour to town. Brown and her husband, Sammie, have a special invitation to the program, and she couldn't be happier.
The city, she said, needs to hear Cosby's message. The Browns' daughter, Critty, was murdered at age 14 in 1991. Since then Brown has attended many prayer vigils for homicide victims, including those last year when the city's homicide rate was climbing.
The vigils brought back memories connected with her loss.
"I catch myself crying with them," she said.
Cosby, she thought, could help stem the violence.
Cosby drew fire two years ago during the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision ending legal segregation in schools. He blasted low-income black people for poor grammar and bad behavior, and for squandering opportunities the civil-rights movement provided.
I criticized Cosby then for such sweeping generalizations. But I favor the timing, tenor and tone of what he's doing now, bringing people together to share success stories and igniting a community dialogue on self-improvement.
"Sometimes it just takes someone else to break the ice," Brown said. "I never would have thought this dream would come true."
Brokaw said Kansas City would be the 21st stop in Cosby's "Call-Outs." They began in Milwaukee and have included St. Louis, Dallas, Atlanta and Washington.
In a telephone interview last week, Cosby said he wanted to change the dialogue from accepting low expectations to promoting achievement in low-income communities of all races. Low standards and bad behavior must be challenged so they will end.
At the two sessions, experts will offer advice, and people contending with urban problems will tell their stories. Cosby said that in other cities foster parents had received help. Drug dealers and users also have told how they'd turned their lives around.
They get help at the "Call-Outs."
"We have people who are going to tell stories of their life in a position of what is not good, not good," Cosby said. "No matter how you look at it on paper, they're not headed for a successful story."
But they turn themselves around and move in positive, sustainable directions. Their stories encourage others to do likewise.
The "Call-Outs" also open the door to people in the community extending a hand and resources to help. Brokaw said that for those in need, it can be a godsend.
"They don't know where to turn," Brokaw said. "They've (left) voice mail and never get calls back. So it's a way to kind of break through and get to where the truth is. And that's something that is really the most rewarding and most dynamic moments for me in all of these events."
Parenting will be a key focus as well as an emphasis on fathers remaining in the home to help raise their children. Adults must start having more meaningful conversations with young people to help them develop into productive citizens, Cosby said.
"We put people together to talk about what they'd like to do, what they want to do," Cosby said. "And we really and truly have to get these feelings and these words out, because people have said more than once: ?'Tell us what to do. We don't know what to do.' "
Education is still the engine carrying people to a better life, Cosby said. He added that he enjoyed his switch from comedian to sage. But the responsibility for continued progress after Tuesday rests with whether this community "will really and truly get up and start to work to save itself," he said.
Like Brown, I have great expectations.
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