Take responsibility, he tells at-risk youth
The News Journal
By Adam Taylor
WILMINGTON — With no fanfare, Bill Cosby hopped off an Amtrak train and was back on another one quickly Monday. In between, he spoke to nearly 300 at-risk kids at a city community center to tell them that overcoming their obstacles was their job, not society’s.
Cosby said he hoped his 75-minute talk at the West End Neighborhood House sparks some of the kids to line up at a table in the lobby afterward to sign up to talk to West End’s counselors in the coming days about their troubles.
“A lot of the kids don’t even know what they’re going through,” he said. “We need to change that, then we need to get them to some to places like West End in the first place. After that, the challenge is to get them to keep coming back, because there are a lot of trained, caring people here who could help them change their lives.”
Cosby has taken a lot of criticism from many black Americans since his tough-love book, “Come on, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors,” was published in 2007.
He said his critics either don’t understand, or don’t want to admit, that all he’s doing is not stating the obvious: Systemic racism against blacks in America still exists.
In an interview before his presentation, he made the point that it doesn’t do anyone any good to wait for racism to end — since it probably never will — and that black Americans have to move forward in spite of discriminatory obstacles they face every day.
“Some people seem to use the fact that racism exists to create an inertia of entropy,” he said. “Some ‘poverty pimps’ want us to not move to become unstuck.”
Since his book came out, Cosby has been criticized by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and author and professor Michael Eric Dyson.
Cosby said Simmons dismisses him as being out of touch with nothing to say to today’s youth. But, Cosby says, it’s Simmons who is hurting today’s black youth by glamorizing street violence in rap songs that have made him millions of dollars but have wreaked havoc in cities across America.
Cosby said he’s also been criticized for taking to task those who ridicule black students who study hard as “acting white.”
“They say I’m airing our community’s dirty laundry,” he said. “Well, to say it’s our dirty laundry is admitting it exists. Why would we want to turn our head to it? Wouldn’t it be better to address it, realize it’s a problem, and try to change it?”
A Wilmington connection
Cosby came to Wilmington twice for similar events in 2007. His connection with Wilmington comes through the Rev. Derrick Johnson’s affiliation with a national program to help teens and young adults break free from problems that keep them locked in a life of poverty and, sometimes, crime.
Johnson, the pastor of Wilmington’s Joshua Harvest Church, introduced Cosby to the teens at West End on Monday. Politicians and the public were not invited to the event.
Johnson asked the kids to raise their hands if they knew anyone who abused narcotic cough syrup or other drugs, owned a gun or had parents who get high. More than half the audience raised their hands in response to each question.
Johnson, convicted of manslaughter in 1978 for fatally shooting a 27-year-old Wilmington man during a fight over a woman at a motel, viewed all those negative behaviors as “shortcuts.”
“Stop taking shortcuts,” he said. “They don’t work. They hurt. That’s why I went to jail.”
West End Executive Director Paul Calistro spoke briefly before Cosby took the stage. He said he knew some of the teens in the audience were having trouble in their foster-care placements and some might be struggling with drug addiction.
“I know it’s not easy,” he said. “There are a lot of people here today who are here to help you. You don’t have to walk the road alone.”
That’s where Cosby came in. His intent was to break through to the kids and get them to realize they need help. The main thrust of his message: Exercise personal responsibility to improve your life. Don’t listen to those who say combating systemic racism is the way to improve your life.
Part of his talk involved questioning the young audience members. One 18-year-old said she was raped by an uncle twice, once when she was 9 and again when she was 15
“I never blamed myself because it wasn’t my fault,” she said when Cosby asked her if she ever wrongly felt responsible for what happened to her. “It has caused me to look forward, graduate from high school and realize that what hasn’t killed me made me stronger.”
A 20-year-old man said his sister was raped by a family friend. The siblings told their parents, but they didn’t believe her. Cosby asked why that was.
“I just think they weren’t good parents,” the man replied. “I don’t think they liked any of us.”
Similar stories followed.
“This is life, full of horrible, nasty people,” Cosby said. “But there are good people here, professionals who can help you to become more than you ever thought you could become.”