The Culture of Ignorance
The Injustice Bill Cosby Won’t See
Ever since he battered poor blacks two years ago in his infamous remarks on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education , Bill Cosby has been taking to the road to spread his bitter gospel to all who will listen. In rigged town-hall meetings, Cosby assembles community folk and experts who agree with his take on black poverty: that it’s the fault of the poor themselves.
That’s NOT what he said.
See, this sort of thing pisses me off — when people misrepresent what a person has said because they don’t want to address the issues the person really brought up.
What Bill Cosby said — and I’m paraphrasing here — is that poor black people aren’t doing themselves any favors by embracing ignorance as though it were a part of black culture.
Some of you might be thinking, what does Rebecca know about black culture?? Rebecca’s as white as white can be. And it’s true! I’m whiter than white. You don’t need to be black to understand this, though. I know the world and I know people and, despite how things sometimes seem, we’ve ALL got a whole lot more in common than what separates us.
Bill Cosby has never denied the reality of prejudice. Prejudice isn’t the only thing that’s keeping some black people poor, though. There’s a culture of ignorance in some communities — and you see this with a lot of poor white people, too, so don’t think I’m just picking on black people. In this culture of ignorance, education isn’t valued — it may even be denigrated — and an attitude of unearned entitlement is encouraged.
THIS is the kind of thing Bill Cosby’s been arguing against. It’s undeniably real and it’s at least as big as factor as prejudice in the ongoing problem of black poverty.
Yes, prejudice is real and let’s never quit working, as a society, to end it. TODAY, though… today an individual can choose to begin changing his life by embracing education and personal responsibility.
Posted by RebeccaHartong on July 21, 2006 under Uncategorized
Rebecca Hartong is directly on target concerning this issue. As a black woman, I completely agree with her analysis this “culture of ignorance” phenomenon and Dyson’s misrepresentation of the issue at hand.
The black community must stop pointing fingers and blaming others for the current state of the black union. Real change demands that we start looking at ourselves and work to transform our current situation from the inside out.
Quality parenting skills, a return to high moral standards, and respect for education should be the top priority in the black community. Once we tackle those challenges, we can re-direct our focus on the outside factors.
I don’t see any other race blaming the “man” and the system for their setbacks. It seems as if they come together and do what they need to for their survival and quality of life, despite the injustice surrounding them. When will we, as a people, mature to that point?
Until our community realizes that education is freedom, we will always be held in bondage. And…it doesn’t take a private school education to educate us. Just turn off BET and pick up at book!
http://www.eightcitiesmap.com/transcript_bc.htm
This is Cosby’s original speech. He may have modified it since. But from that original speech, I think Dyson is right. Cosby’s message has an important point, but it is only half the story.
I encourage both of you to read Michael Eric Dyson’s book, as I have, and maybe you will have a different opinion. Moreover, I find it very ironic that Mr. Cosby can talk about the importance of education when he, himself, flunked the 10th grade 3 times, dropped out of highschool and college and recieved a “honorary” degree based solely on his life experiences and not his “education”.
As a professional, African-American woman with 2 degrees, I believe strongly in personal responsibility and having a strong work ethic. No one in this world gets ahead by resting on their laurels. But to overlook other social factors that play into the ills that plague the black community is unfair. If Bill Cosby wants to give social commentary about black America then he should do it responsibly and present balanced arguments, rather than the one-sided, hateful diatribe he’s been spewing as of late.
And, Ms. V Philips, you’re right…”I don’t see any other race blaming the “man” and the system for their setbacks.” But any other race doesn’t have the same history as we do. Slavery and the remnants of it are still very much a force in all of our lives, whether directly or indirectly. Let’s not overlook that…
This is an old story that gets in the way of find real solutions. Seems to me that both men are identifying critical parts of the problem of America in general and Black America in particular. There is a “culture of ignorance” that trascends race in America; just look at pop culture (even beyond BET). The problem is, for Black folk that have been historically disenfranchised, that culture of ignorance leads more quickly to continued disenfranchisement (same is true in Appalchia, in East LA, and in reservations across the country). We would do well to stop picking sides of this argument that push our own ideological underpinnings and understand that both men give important viewpoints that reflect a multi-faceted problem of inequality of opportunity in America. Only then can we identify the mix of collective and individual actions that will improve the situation.
…from http://www.actingwhite.com:
Bill Cosby vs. Michael Eric Dyson vs. James C. Collier
Michael Eric Dyson takes Bill Cosby on head-to-head with each issue that he brings up in his now infamous NAACP speech from May 17, 2004. Here are some highlights, including my take on the exchange…
Cosby: “Just forget telling your child to join the Peace Corps. It’s right around the corner. (laughter) It’s standing on the corner. It can’t speak English. It doesn’t want to learn English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk.”
Dyson: “Cosby’s poisonous view of young folks who speak a language he can barely parse [Ebonics] simmers with hostility and resentment.” And “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Cosby’s lauded ’70s television cartoon series, won greater acceptance for a new cast of black identities and vernacular language styles. Cosby has made money and gained further influence from using forms of black English he now violently detests.”
Collier: “I think Mr. Cosby’s point is that today’s Black kids are not bi-lingual, in the sense that Black English is unique and ubiquitous, nor are they, to a greater extent, bi-cultural, to the requirements of society. The ability to move ‘seamlessly’ between the ‘standard English’ requirements of school and work and the informal language of the street is a prerequisite both for advancement and maintaining uniqueness.”
[Note from Rebecca: I've deleted the rest of this very long comment because it's already been published and can be read on Mr. Collier's own site here. I encourage you to visit his site and read the rest of his essay: Dyson vs Cosby vs Collier.]
If you don’t think another race blames “the man” for their problems, you don’t live in northern Minnesota.
Good takes all around, and I tend to agree with the ones who say we’re all really talking the same thing yet coming from slightly different angles and thinking they are different issues.
I am not black, but I definitely can attest to the culture of the stupid: growing up it was quite uncool to be smart. Getting physically beaten up for skewing the grading curve in class wasn’t fun. That tendency for kids to act like other kids and not stand out because they might make the other kids “look bad” is passed on by culture, parents, probably expanded on by the kids themselves. I fully expect being black, or Appalachian, or other cultural factors exacerbate the situation.
Unfortunately it’s going to take a lot to stop this, and I’m not sure how to go about it. It permeates our culture. Our very own President was elected by millions because he was “a likable ordinary fella” — not for his smarts. (Even if you love George Bush, you have to admit he isn’t the sharpest tack in the box. Unless you like those tacks giving unwanted neck massages to heads of state.
) One just has tokeep plodding away trying to create opportunity sopeople can go beyond the need to stay dumb with everyone else. Bring everyone up. And, unfortunately, there are enough on the flip side trying to keep people out of that upper circle, too.
Ugh. I’ve talked myself into exasperation. Sorry.
Kim,
I think Dr.Cosby’s doctorate is real and not honorary.
I could be wrong