Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Another Take on Bill Cosby...

Recently, a good friend sent me a copy of the Bill Cosby speech that addressed his views on the plight of Black America back in 2004. Here's alink to the speech text: http://www.necessaryprose.com/billcosby.htm. This was a white hot topic then, and everyday it appears to be more relevant for discussion but like everything else in the MTV/SportsCenter age, our attention span just isn't long enough to retain it as a subject of conversation much less importance, especially when the media is exceptionally busy keeping our focus away from salient issues like this by feeding us a steady diet of Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton. But it is a vitally important, critical matter worthy of our devoted energy that should be at the forefront of our thinking and actions everyday.
This is an ongoing debate that doesn't have any really clear answers other than trust in the LORD to Make it right because there aren't any absolutes as in our society because as human beings we rarely are either totally good or totally evil all the time. Therefore it's impossible to identify the single good or bad source of the problem. Bill Cosby is right when he says that we are the problem but he's dead wrong when and if he says that we're the only problem or that white folks aren't to blame for the problem. This is an issue with more than enough culpability to go around. Yes, we should and could be doing more to redeem our kids, our homes, and our communities but the sad reality is that this country has been designed and is run by white powers that 1) aren't interested in a system in which everybody can succeed because a truly capitalist system relies on the need to have a distinction between groups/classes of people based on wealth; and 2) this leads the white power structure to dis-incent, place obstacles in the path of, and cut off access to both educational outlets and good-paying jobs while simultaneously creating and funding the motivational tools (hip hop, street cred, gangs, drugs, crime, and sex) that keep us from seeing the real problem and that is that this power base continues to enrich itself at the expense of us and everyone else...