They are a longtime odd couple, Bill Cosby and Harvard’s Dr. Alvin Poussaint, and their latest campaign is nothing less than an effort to save the soul of black America.
Mr. Cosby, of course, is the boisterous veteran comedian who has spent the last few years hammering home some brutal truths about self-destructive behavior within the African-American community.
“A word to the wise ain’t necessary,” Mr. Cosby likes to say. “It’s the stupid ones who need the advice.”
Dr. Poussaint is a quiet, elegant professor of psychiatry who, in public at least, is in no way funny. He teaches at the Harvard Medical School and is a staff member at the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, where he sees kids struggling in some of the toughest circumstances imaginable.
I always wonder, whenever I talk to Dr. Poussaint, why he isn’t better known. He’s one of the smartest individuals in the country on issues of race, class and justice.
For three years, Mr. Cosby and Dr. Poussaint have been traveling the country, meeting with as many people as possible to explore the problems facing the black community.
There is a sense of deep sadness and loss ”” grief ”” evident in both men over the tragedy that has befallen so many blacks in America. They were on “Meet the Press” for the entire hour Sunday, talking about their new book, a cri de coeur against the forces of self-sabotage titled, “Come On, People: On the Path From Victims to Victors.”
I agree Kendall – their MTP session was quite good. I was struck by Herbert’s section:
The most important step toward ending the tragic cycles of violence and poverty among African-Americans also happens to be the heaviest lift — reconnecting black fathers to their children.
In an interview yesterday, Dr. Poussaint said: “You go into whole neighborhoods and there are no fathers there. What you find is apathy in a lot of the males who don’t even know that they are supposed to be a father.â€
Obama has been sonsistently speasking to this – as early as two years ago (http://obama.senate.gov/news/050620-obama_s_church_sermon_to_black/) – underscoring how vital it is to America (not just the black community) that we strenghten the role of black men with their children.
It continues to fascinate me that so few of the other Dem & Repub Prez candidates even speak to this, let alone voice accountability and audacious hope.
Bob, #1, no politician, except perhaps Obama, can speak to this for fear of being branded a racist. That is the true tragedy of this problem. Only black people can say what Drs. Cosby and Poussaint are saying, and even then they are branded as “Uncle Toms,” or acting “white.” The biggest problem with race in America today is not white racism (though we all know it still has a long way to go), but black racism against any other race (especially Caucasian or Asian) and anything that points to values of the majority culture in the US. The resentment is so built up and fortified at every turn by people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton that it is almost impossible to penetrate, unless an urban person from projects attempts to call victimization for what it really is, not taking responsibility for yourself and those you create.
Juan Williams of National Public Radio has also picked up the torch on this subject, and recently wrote a book entitled [i] Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America — and What We Can Do About It.[/i] I understand he has caught a lot of flack for taking the positions he does, but like Cosby and Poussaint isn’t backing down.
Bob (#1), don’t you think the other candidates are silent, in part, because they are white? If a white presidential candidate appears to prescribe for or make declarations about a minority population, there is a risk of appearing to patronize, etc.