A Coke and a Smile

by Eyecalone

 

".........Then you tell Bill I said have a Coke and a smile and shut the f$%&# up! 

     - Richard Pryor in response to Bill Cosby's criticism of Murphy, as told by Eddie Murphy in "Raw"(1987)

In recent weeks much attention has been directed at comments made by Comedian-Actor Bill Cosby at a May 17th gala celebration and dinner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brown Vs The Board of Education desegregation decision. Cosby surprised many when he released an apparently impromptu tirade, primarily against poor blacks. For those of you who have been living under a boulder of some sort since May here Cosby's musings during his stint as a political pundit including a some pretty vivid imagery and wild exaggerations that I can only hope was meant to be hyperbole. Cosby lashed out at poor blacks over issues ranging from teenage pregnancy to education, stating that, "Lower economic people [are] not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids ? $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics' ". Cosby accused poor blacks of not being able to speak English and dropping out of High School at a 50% rate (according to the U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, the dropout rate was 10.9% for blacks in 2001 while it was 27.9% in 1970. Personally I don't believe the education department's numbers either, which seem conspicuously low, but this is what they are reporting which indicates that Cosby likely made up his figures). Furthermore, according to National Vital Statistics of pregnancy rates among teenagers 15-17, are near their lowest point since they started gathering such statistics in 1976). 

Cosby lashed out at Black Youth stating, "People putting their clothes on backwards: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong? ... People with their hats on backwards, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up to the crack and got all type of needles [piercings] going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from? Those people are not Africans; they don't know a damn thing about Africa." He ridiculed poor blacks with "non-traditional" names saying, "with names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed [!] and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail" and even found time to excuse police brutality in his short time at the pulpit, remarking, "These are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake and then we run out and we are outraged, [saying] 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"

The far right of the American establishment seized on Cosby's remarks as validation. In the black community, Cosby's remarks were greeted with mixed reactions, ranging from feelings of betrayal and the belief that Cosby was an "Uncle Tom" to support from people who believed Cosby spoke the truth. While there may have been a kernel of truth in Cosby's highlighting of all the daunting problems facing the black community (particularly the poor), personally I was disappointed and a little disturbed by Cosby's remarks, though not surprised because if you are familiar with Cosby then his remarks pretty much fall in line with what he has been saying as long as his opinions have been known publicly. His voice has simply grown louder as his wealth has increased, which is pretty much how things work in the USA. Cosby's inaccurate, irresponsible, and hyperbolic claims were obviously not well thought out, reeked of frustration, and some of them were just downright dangerous! Although disappointed I tempered my unhappiness with the belief, maybe even the hope, that unlike a Ward Connerly or a Clarence Thomas type figure, Cosby's words were born out of genuine concern for the welfare of the black community (well at least a portion of it).

Under public criticism and questioning, Cosby was forced to go back and attempt to qualify his remarks, saying he was not talking about all poor blacks. Well your boy Cosby couldn't have been too sorry as evidenced by his penning of a June 13th column in the Detroit News making many of the same arguments, and by July 1st he was at it again, this time using the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's annual conference in Chicago to reiterate much of his previous sentiments, and railing at struggling black men, accusing them of "beating up [their] women because [they] can't find a job" - as if there was some pandemic of poor black men physically abusing black women above and beyond the rates witnessed in other ethnic groups of similar socioeconomic status. Needless to say my patience with Cosby's failed attempts at being a social scientist had worn thin, but as time constraints would have it I still had no intentions of penning a response. No matter how many times I read Cosby's remarks though, I found myself disturbed, and the more I listened to the quiet agreement of a number of apolitical-pre-Bachelors-degree turned post-Bachelors-degree-9-to-5-working pseudo-sociologist Negro peers of mine, the more I knew something had to be said.

"Eat Your Jello Pudding!!!"

Really what Cosby is saying is nothing new, as Spelman College professor and author William Jelani Cobb, so succinctly put it when he stated "rich people have been declaring poor people immoral since the days of feudalism; the irony is that we've only recently generated black people who were rich enough to be taken seriously."  Cosby's "keep it real" session embodied the classic ethos of right-wing and conservative thought; the only nuance being we're simply not accustomed to hearing it from people we liked as much as Cosby. The cruel and dishonest practice of blaming the victim for poverty is a basic tenet in the right-wing's attempt to explain the very nature of inequality in Capitalist society, as not part of the very structure of the system, but on the basis of merit and character.

Cosby comes from a tradition of "assimilationist" Negroes whose idea of "making it" is the attainment of "respectability" to whites, financial status, and a mimicking of some yet to be determined vision of "proper behavior". Despite his apparent reverence for the civil rights era and movement, Cosby throughout his career has never been one to rock the boat much or advocate social change through grassroots organization, mobilization, or agitation. This is why with the dirt hardly settled on the graves of Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond, Timothy Thomas, Hilton Vega, Anthony Rosario, Timothy Stansbury, and a host of other victims of police brutality and excessive force, the question for Cosby is not why the police have such a penchant for using lethal force against black and brown people and suffering no judicial repercussions for it, but instead "what were you doing with the piece of pound cake". 

To Cosby the idea that someone would even name their child some "crap" like "Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed" (though Mohammed has a well documented meaning and history) is synonymous with criminal behavior, sloppy dress, poverty, bad grammar, and general dysfunction linked to blackness. I mean really, what kind of black person wouldn't want a "respectable" and "decent" name like William, Frederick, Arthur, or Richard. While philanthropy is almost always a noble cause and Cosby has personally donated millions of his own tax-deductible dollars to a few choice Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the United Negro College Fund, the National Sickle-Cell Foundation, and the National Council of Negro Women, even many of these donations reveal a certain class bias. I can get with donating to education and HBCUs, but if you're seriously concerned about improving the condition of "all" black people then you have to understand that you must reach them long before they're ready for college, because in all likelihood most will never see any part of that $20 million dollar gift to Atlanta's Spelman College. For all his concern about the plight of black people it appears Cosby can't get beyond the trappings of his own wealth, class, and subsequent privilege.

But Cosby isn't the only one wearing blinders, because there were more than a couple of those aforementioned  "apolitical-pre-Bachelors-degree-turned-post-Bachelors-degree- 9-to-5-working-pseudo-sociologist-negroes", nodding their heads in agreement with Cosby's inaccurate, elitist, and facile analysis. Some of them were from lower middle-class and poor backgrounds, and they felt they had "made it" or at least graduated college, so what is wrong with poor black people. Somehow they failed to come to the realization that whatever it was they felt they had "achieved", they had done it in spite of the factors working against them, not because society had welcomed or assisted them. Please keep in mind that, Negroes that can't seem to figure out what's wrong with poor black people, are usually the first ones to move as far away from their old neighborhoods as possible, as soon as they get 2 nickels to rub together. By no means am I saying that people are bound to stay and raise their families in the underprivileged and high-crime neighborhoods where they may have grown up, but when I say these people leave the neighborhood, I mean they LEAVE! I'm talking about a complete and thorough disconnection and uprooting; no mentorship programs, tutoring, funds and/or businesses, think tanks and/or organizations, etc. They're never short on criticism but ask them about their "works" or "contribution" to uplifting or improving these suffering communities, and they stare at you blankly, say they're too busy, or - this is my favorite - say they plan to give back through philanthropy, when they get rich of course. Of course, chances are they will never be rich, but whether they do or not, the theme remains that SOMEONE ELSE must do the serious work o f repair and correction because they will have no part of it.

Cosby meanwhile, considering all his extolling of the virtues of education and good behavior would give one the impression that he was a Rhodes Scholar, CEO of a fortune 500 company, with an MBA from Harvard not someone born in a poor section of Philadelphia who dropped out of college to pursue a career as a stand up comedian in the early 1960's while much of the U.S. was still effectively segregated.  You would think he made his fortune in the world of business and high academia, not as an entertainer (comedian/actor) who "White America" apparently found non-threatening (though in many ways Cosby's acceptance into the establishment was sometimes a case of the "Spook Who Sat By the Door").

For all his championing of the "proper" way to speak the English language, you would think he had nothing to do with "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" cartoon - Cosby's animated creation which featured a group of adolescent black characters who, lo' and behold, didn't speak proper King's English (not that most Americans or even the current sitting president speak, "proper English"). Cosby's crowning achievement was the creation of the classic sitcom, "The Cosby Show", which ran on NBC for more than a decade and which still airs in syndication. The Cosby Show was one of the most successful sitcoms to ever air, and in many ways it was one of the most important. Truth be told, I remember putting aside time on my schedule for the first few seasons, most Thursday nights. The uplifting and positive images the show presented were both inspiring and refreshing even if wholly unrealistic. But the show also gave a glimpse into Cosby's vision of the ideal black family; fully assimilated, upwardly mobile, and "respectable". In this vision the house was always clean, the fridge was always full, the parents never had any serious fights, and the children wanted for nothing. In this vision it is indeed perfectly believable to have one parent be an esteemed and sought after physician and another on their way to making partner at a law firm, yet they have countless hours of quality time to spend with their 5 children. The children are rarely left home unsupervised and racism is never even an issue in the children, or the parents, lives. How reassuring, especially for White America.

"Poverty.....choices, values, and more choices"

For them The Cosby Show was proof that colorblind America had finally arrived. Equality and Civil Rights are things already attained not a work in progress. The funny and sad thing is if you asked most of these believers in colorblind America today and while the show as on air, they would likely say that racism is no longer a major problem in America, but they probably would admit it was a generation before that. And if you went back to say 1965-1975 and asked about racism those whites would probably say the same thing. Take it back another generation to say 1935-45 and ask whites and I bet you would hear the same thing again, "we get along just fine with the nigras, but 30 years ago, things were terrible". I think you get the picture: apparently delusion is hereditary and racism like Herpes is the "gift that keeps on giving".

For the true believers in colorblind America, race as a major factor in social outcomes is a thing of the past. Inequality in general, and black and brown poverty in particular, had nothing to do with the very nature of hierarchical Capitalist society. It had and has nothing to with tax cuts for the wealthy, at the expense of the poor and middle-class. It had and has nothing to do with deliberate attempts to roll back and destroy what is left of the social safety net in the U.S. It had and has nothing to with a demonstrably racist "criminal justice" system and it's "war on drugs" which is actually a war on people of color, that locks black men up at rates surpassing South Africa under Apartheid, and has devastated many poor and middle class black communities. It had and has nothing to do with a centuries old and continuing legacy of well documented structural and institutional discrimination in bank lending, real-estate, education and educational funding, job hiring, firing, and compensation, etc. It had and has nothing to do with the cannibalization of the manufacturing sector in the US or the destruction of decent employment at livable wages, in favor of shipping jobs to countries where the labor is much cheaper, for the benefit of the wealthy and corporations. And it had and has nothing to do with a continuously destructive and dysfunctional government foreign policy that funds endless war to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year but claims it can barely afford the most basic human and social services. Indeed, to people who think like Cosby, the myriad of problems faced by the poor in general but poor blacks in particular, would be solved if Negroes would simply learn to behave!

For them the great divide among poor black and brown (and even white) people and the America's elite is a divide in values. Poor black and brown people simply don't have the same values as everyone else. Apparently they have some set of mythical values that simply make them poor generation after generation, kind of like a poverty gene. I wonder what these foreign and separate values possessed by the poor could be? Hhhmmm, well let's rule out a couple of things, that seem to be across the board in America. It's certainly not selfishness, individualism, and a "me first" attitude. It's not celebrity worship and idolization. It's not extreme materialism and the worship of wealth. If Enron, Halliburton, Adelphi, Worldcom, Global Crossing, Tyco, ImClone, etc are any indication it can't be greed or corruption. If the high-rates of consumer debt across the nation mean anything then not a whole lot of people are buying into the conservative "delayed gratification" spiel. And regardless of the illegal and anti-democratic means he used to get there, George W. Bush, currently occupies the White House and received nearly half of the cast votes in the 2000 presidential election, so it probably isn't "anti-intellectualism" either. 

Just what are these mystical "values" that keep poor people, poor, or is it that most people adopt whatever behavioral patterns they need to survive in their environment? True, there is no denying that there is often a certain misplacement of priorities particularly, in poor black communities. I personally have known people who were adding 22" rims and televisions to their car when their children needed braces and they were behind on their child support payments. I've known people, some of them children, who had expensive brand name clothes and new sneakers regularly but could never seem to find money for the essentials. But blacks of all class backgrounds are probably guilty of the most abhorrent forms of hyper-consumerism witnessed anywhere on the planet. These are all legitimate issues that MUST be addressed by the people most hurt by them, but most of them are not a significant departure from the general "American" value system, it's just that self-destructive behavior and trying to "keep up with the Combs", is a lot more painful and crippling when you don't have much to begin with. Of course people must bare some personal responsibility for their actions or lack thereof, but in a society apparently hell-bent on pauperizing and institutionalizing such broad swathes of citizens along the lines of race and class, is that even half the story? When people and institutions have been rigging and booby-trapping the game, and tilting the playing field for several centuries, why is it that only certain players are expected to perform Herculean feats of self-discipline, personal responsibility, and perseverance, just to stay out of the penalty box? As writer and urban social policy researcher, Paul Street asked rhetorically in his essay "Skipping Past Structural Racism", "Why do some peoples' choices seem to get them in so much more trouble than do other peoples' choices?"

Despite all the hoopla, this isn't the first time that comments by a black comedian have exposed the racist underbelly of America's blameless social policy. When Chris Rock, in his 1996 comedy special "Bring the Pain", made joked about a "civil war" going on between "black folks and niggas", it struck a nerve a with many in the community. I must admit, I even laughed long and hard, not because I didn't understand the social factors at play which could cause someone to perceive such a rift, but because (a) it was funny and (b) I could remember the behind-the-back murmurs, and maybe even jealousy of growing up on my Brooklyn block as the resident "smart cat". Though I rarely went out of my way to show anybody up, I often felt the tension, when friends had a near orgasm any time they were able to prove me wrong about anything. I understood the bit Chris Rock was chomping at, but almost overnight Rock became White America's black night in shining armor. Rock was hailed from every mainstream direction as "the funniest man in America". He became America's new favorite Negro because he had given White America "cause and justification" for their racism. They convinced themselves that it wasn't black people they resented - "hell some of their best friends were black, though their black friends have never even visited their homes" - and everybody loves Oprah, Michael Jordan, Colin Powell, and Tiger Woods. It was the niggas/niggers they didn't like, never mind the fact that the only distinction between the two in their psyche seemed to be money and fame.

"What set you from....look like one of those Crenshaw Mafia Mutha#$%as ....nah...you probably one of them Rollin 60s .......hunh...hunh...."

In addition to exposing the degree of separation between his life and the average person of color, Cosby's comments exposed the disturbing, and ages old, generation rift. It seem every generation, laments about the good'ol days and how they "just don't understand kids today", but just because their is nothing new under the sun doesn't mean history has to keep repeating itself. Oozing from Cosby's comments was a serious contempt and disdain for today's youth or what some might refer to as "the hip-hop" generation. Now I know all about the debate about rap Vs hip-hop, and what's "real hip-hop" and what's not, and I have my own feelings about that, but for my purposes here when I say "hip-hop" I am referring to an all encompassing term that refers to rap music, and all of it's non-commodified and commodified brothers, sisters, and cousins in their most virulent to most uplifting forms. That being said, I understand many older people's, and even younger people's disdain for a lot of today's hip-hop music and the accompanying images. Hell, I don't even like much of what is currently, prominently promoted as hip-hop. But as much as some of what I hear may anger, disappoint, and even disrespect me, I need to listen to it and so do most of the people who claim to be concerned about black and brown children or what's going on with the youth. By no means am I saying one should support with their dollars, hip-hop that demeans or offends them, but I at least need to hear it, not just to critique albums and such for playahata.com, but because I need to know what's being marketed to these young people.

For better or worse this music, or culture, or whatever label you prefer, has tremendous power, especially with young people, and potentially over the future. If hip-hop can broadcast exploitative, minstrel-show images of black people and black life all over the world, even to people who have hardly seen a real black person in their lives, it has power. When hip-hop comes up with new slang terms and phrases it spills into the larger society, fo-shizzle. When hip-hop changes its clothes it send shockwaves through the fashion world. When Jay-Z says throwback jerseys are played out and for those over 30, I'll be damn If I didn't witness many young "ADULTS", some of whom spent thousands of dollars accumulating those jerseys, become reluctant to wear them while filling their closet with button-down shirts (Jay-Z's new garment of choice). Any time Kanye West can start appearing in magazines and videos wearing suit jackets over layers of casual tops, and shortly after I see young people who don't even own a whole suit wearing the same style to the club, hip-hop has power. If Cam'ron, who enjoys limited popularity outside the New York/Tri-State area, can make it fashionable for young men and boys in their most macho stages of development to wear PINK all over New York City, then hip-hop has power. It has power because it plays a disproportionate role in influencing the actions and attitudes of young people. 

Somewhere along the road, the powers that be decided that "hip-hop" was dangerous, subversive, but potentially lucrative and in less than 5 years starting around 1989 hip-hop went from "Fight the Power" to "bounce bitch" and "Niggas for Life". - a devolution it's yet to recover from. But I've seen where hip-hop has been and where it can go and channeled correctly its energy can change the world, in fact for better or worse, it already has. I recognize that potential and that power in hip-hop, in the youth, and in the struggles of people under the constant siege or race, class, capitalism, and now - out of touch Negro, senior-citizen, comedians. And to those who refuse to recognize that struggle and those realities, well maybe they need to have a Coke and a smile, and .....you know the rest.   

Released: July 17^th, 2004
 

The views and opinions expressed herein by the author do not necessarily represent the opinions or position of Playahata.com.