{"id":597,"date":"2004-10-14T20:58:00","date_gmt":"2004-10-14T20:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/2004\/10\/14\/597\/"},"modified":"2004-10-14T20:58:00","modified_gmt":"2004-10-14T20:58:00","slug":"597","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=597","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

HEY COS: A woman at work who sits in the next cubicle from me recently went to see Bill Cosby<\/span> speak at an urban church. As you might know, Mr. Cosby has been saying some blunt and controversial things lately about the need for African-Americans, especially young urban men, to pull up their own bootstraps. The woman in question also happens to be African-American and grew up in a low-income urban neighborhood, so her reactions were of much interest to me. I am grateful for her trust in sharing her impressions and opinions with an old white guy like me.<\/p>\n

Ms. G (I\u2019m tempted to say \u201cMiss G\u201d, following that quaint but charming Southern custom of addressing respected women as \u201cmiss\u201d even when they are married) said that in her opinion, Cosby is on the money and is doing the right thing. She will be the first to tell you that there\u2019s still plenty of anti-black racism<\/span> out there on the part of whites (and maybe other ethnic groups too). But despite that, she sees a lot of black females from the inner-city (like herself) who have struggled to achieve a decent life and a responsible career, and expect their children to do even better. Like Cos, Ms. G believes that most every black individual today can overcome residual racist attitudes with enough work and willpower. But for whatever reason, too many young black men do not properly apply themselves, and thus become trapped in a world of gangs<\/span> and crime<\/span> and jail<\/span>. Both Mr. Cosby and Ms. G feel that although our white dominated society still owes these men something, they\u2019re long overdue for a wake-up call from within their own social community. As Ms. G says, \u201clet\u2019s keep it real\u201d.<\/p>\n

I take my hat off to Bill Cosby for what he\u2019s doing. He\u2019s taking some real risks and drawing some fire from black leaders who are probably afraid that a \u201cpull your own bootstraps\u201d message plays into the modern Republican agenda. I\u2019ll be the first to agree that Cosby and his peers have to keep pitching for continued government assistance for the inner city. But there is a real problem regarding young black men in urban areas who leave the trajectory of education \/ career \/ family responsibility and follow a variety of meandering paths involving temporary jobs, crime, substance abuse, gang involvement, homeless shelters and jail time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read a few research studies by well-intentioned academians who examine some Census statistics and crime surveys and employment reports and then conclude that the idea of the drifting, lawless urban black male is just a stereotype<\/span> made up by bigoted Republicans. But Cos lived there and Ms. G still lives there, and they will tell you that it ain\u2019t just a stereotype. I\u2019ve driven the streets of inner-city areas on weekday mornings and early afternoons, and I too can tell you that there are way too many young men out there who should be in school or at work. And I can name more than one social worker who will tell you that you\u2019ve got to get through to 8 and 10 year old boys, or else another generation<\/span> will be lost (that\u2019s exactly the way they put it).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll readily admit that the starting end of the job ladder these days is like the proverbial \u201cs*** end of the stick\u201d. Back in my grandparent\u2019s time, there were unions that gave factory workers some dignity and maybe even livable wages. Today, there aren\u2019t any unions at most fast-food restaurants and health care institutions, so the low-end jobs there are generally unpleasant and low-paying. But I see a lot of immigrants taking those crummy jobs. They seem to know that you\u2019ve gotta start somewhere<\/span> to get somewhere.<\/p>\n

I hope that Mr. Cosby\u2019s message will bolster the attitude that already exists in the inner city neighborhoods among community pillars like Ms. G, that they will not<\/span> quietly tolerate young men who drop out of school and assume an \u201calternate life track\u201d. If the community backbone makes it clear that it disapproves of the \u201calternate life\u201d (and there are a lot of good, hard-working, positive people living in the \u201cghettos\u201d who form that backbone \u2013 that\u2019s something that many white liberals and researchers fail to appreciate), then change is possible. Peer pressure is a very powerful thing. Let\u2019s just hope that the pressure from Cosby and his supporters keeps up even when the alternate crowd accuses them of being Uncle Toms and Oreos<\/span>, i.e. white inside. (Ironically, hip-hop artists love to exploit this line, even though they almost never live in the \u2018hoods they chant of.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HEY COS: A woman at work who sits in the next cubicle from me recently went to see Bill Cosby speak at an urban church. As you might know, Mr. Cosby has been saying some blunt and controversial things lately about the need for African-Americans, especially young urban men, to pull up their own bootstraps. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}