Never mind Howard University. The administration of the Washington, D.C., institution is apparently in a bit of a huff because Bill Cosby used its podium to criticize the failings of black America — especially its underclass. Howard’s leaders, who won’t release a transcript of Cosby’s speech, are still not prepared to have a public discussion of self-inflicted wounds.
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But much of black America, especially its middle class, is ready to have that conversation. In that sense, Cosby’s speech was a watershed event — a sign that black America is now comfortable enough with its accomplishments to discuss its shortcomings. “Perhaps Bill did us a favor,” says NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, who attended the ceremony, “and more people will now be prepared to step forward. It’ll be a tough-love conversation, whether or not people want to have it. And it will take opinion leaders to say those things that should be said.”
Not all black Americans agree with the remarks Cosby made at a May 17 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. Indeed, his criticism of everything from speech patterns to spending habits among the black poor was pointedly politically incorrect.
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It is more important that black Americans have a spirited debate about the challenges of the post-civil rights era: How do we raise the academic achievement of black students? How do we curb black-on-black crime? How do we attack the AIDS epidemic spreading like wildfire in black America?
In a way, Cosby’s speech was an eloquent reminder of the stunning success of the civil rights movement that followed the Brown decision: Black America is strong enough and successful enough to admit its shortcomings and gird itself for the work ahead.
Click for story. It’s very interesting.