Walter Watts
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virus: HISTORY AFFIRMS WHAT COSBY SAYS ABOUT YOUNG BLACKS
« on: 2004-07-12 08:46:49 » |
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HISTORY AFFIRMS WHAT COSBY SAYS ABOUT YOUNG BLACKS
WASHINGTON -- It was a big surprise to many when TV's admired sitcom dad
and American treasure Bill Cosby first attacked some of the habits of
young African Americans. But even more surprising were his latest
attacks last week, which indicated that his criticisms are becoming a
veritable campaign.
The message both times was, of course, the same.
As he expanded upon his remarks of six weeks ago, this time just before
the Fourth of July weekend, he was still painting a bitter picture of
young black Americans. For many of them, the world is wide open, but
instead they are "cursing and calling each other (the N-word) as they're
walking up and down the street. They think they're hip. They can't read.
They can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."
The first remarks took people by surprise, and there was considerable
counter-criticism in the black community (Cosby was "too rich, too
privileged," etc., to understand poor blacks). But this second time,
interestingly enough, was very different. For one thing, he had the Rev.
Jesse Jackson standing with him when he spoke in Chicago, along with
other valiant African American leaders.
The Rev. Jackson, president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, then picked
up the theme, criticizing rap-music artists who denigrate women as
whores, glorify violence and vulgarity, and effectively hold back the
true integration of black Americans -- not only into mainstream America,
but into the entire world scene.
But as I listened to the "unthinkable" things they are saying, I was
also thinking about a directly related theme.
For many years, I have covered the world, and specifically what is
popularly called the "Third World" -- the poor and developing countries
of Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Because black
America is, in many ways, the equivalent of a third world inside the
United States, there are some important lessons to be learned from
comparing them.
When a number of poor countries were released from the colonial yoke
after World War II, you could go right down the line and see which ones
were able to develop and which were not, and why.
Without exception, those societies that chose to indulge themselves and
wallow in hatred of the former colonialist power are still struggling to
be something in the world. Unfortunately, I have to include here most of
the Arab countries -- Syria, Iran, Iraq, even Egypt and Algeria -- which
still prefer hating the Western world for yesterday's sins rather than
grasping the nettle of progress on the horizon today.
But there are exceptions -- and they can tell us a lot about black
America today, as well as about the Middle East. In Oman, for instance,
Sultan Qaboos, when he took power in 1970, wisely controlled the former
British colonialists, used their expertise to build his country, and now
rules over one of the most successful -- and truly independent --
countries in the world.
When Tunisia became independent of France in 1957, its
founder/president, Habib Bourguiba, broke all the rules of the
perfervid, vengeful Arab and African nationalists all around him. He let
the defeated French keep a base on Tunisian soil -- that way, he could
put a third of the budget into education and, incidentally, liberate
women overnight. He told the Palestinians as early as the '60s, "Take
half a state" -- but they scorned him and his realistic wisdom; and we
see, on the front pages every day, where the Palestinians are now.
The world is filled with such examples. The principles underlying these
success stories of different countries, different societies, different
races and religions, in very different parts of the world, are always
the same: They had to give up the dark and perverse "joys" of
super-nationalism, of always blaming the other, and of reveling in what
was really their inferior culture (but only of the moment).
And then they had to face the world squarely, remembering the past in a
healthy manner but not afraid to face their own faults and shortcomings.
This freed them to move forward and bypass the former colonialist,
knowing that what obsesses you also controls you.
A great moment in Latin American history particularly exemplifies these
principles. It was 1964, and Eduardo Frei, a remarkable Christian
Democrat, had been elected president of a euphoric Chile, a country then
faced alternately with a Marxist takeover. In his first press
conference, to enormous praise and applause, he rejected the turgid,
destructive, self-poisoning traditional anti-Americanism of the Latins
(so like the anti-white man obsession of many black Americans).
"We ought to have a word in the world because we have our own
personality," he said that day. "We ought to be independent not only
economically but spiritually. If we always look outside for our blame,
that is in itself a form of dependence. We must look for our own blame
to find our own independence." Chile eventually went on to do just that.
It seems to me that those words ring true today, as honestly as do the
words of Bill Cosby and the Rev. Jackson. We are not talking about the
millions of African Americans who have so courageously climbed out of
poverty, often on their own; but we do need to talk about the millions
being lulled by the enablers of social pathology (the rap culture, for
instance) to stay frozen in their impoverishment.
Everything starts with words, and these two fine men have begun an
uneasy but necessary conversation. Perhaps someone should tell the rap
generation that the degree to which they cling to their impoverishment
is strengthening the enemies who do not want them to succeed. That alone
should be enough to move them.
COPYRIGHT 2004 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
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