Ramblings' Journal

Cosby saying the right thing

This morning, someone suggested to me that Bill Cosby might be someone worth the Bush Administration's attention for the post of Secretary of Education.

I got that same quizical look on my face that probably is on yours at reading that statement. But after his continued vocal defiance of the "Soul Patrol" who would rather he dummied up and kept our collective "dirty laundry" in the closet, one has to wonder.

'Let them stay mad," Bill Cosby told CNN's Paula Zahn last week.

But Cosby has no plans to shut up. "This is about little children and people not giving them better choices," the 67 year-old actor-comedian told Zahn. "How long you gonna whisper about a smallpox epidemic in your apartment building when bodies are coming out under the sheets?"

At a Jesse Jackson confab in Chicago over the summer, Cosby kept up the scolding, despite being accused of airing African-Americans' dirty laundry in public. Cosby shot back that this dirty laundry is displayed on a daily basis by black youths who use profanity, call each other the "N" word, and think they're hip even thought they're barely literate.

He blasted blacks who hurl the same racial slurs at each other that are used by racist whites, and who don't take advantage of the opportunities that were so hard won by the heroes and heroines of the civil rights movement. And he offered no soothing words for black men who passed up the chance to get a high school education, but now vent their anger at not being able to earn a good living on the women in their lives.

Cosby's educational credentials are well known and respected.

He holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His doctoral thesis used his Fat Albert characters as a basis for teaching aids in the classroom. He was involved in the early seasons of CTW's (now Sesame Workshop) The Electric Company, and he created and produced Picture Pages for CBS and PBS' Captain Kangaroo. His Little Bill is currently part of the lineup of educational programs on NickJr.

Cosby's more recent outspoken stance toward education and personal responsibility has earned the ire of many from the "Soul Patrol" sector of black America, but because of his background and history, many other blacks are listening.

Perhaps it is time to bring his no-nonsense truth and wisdom to the Education Department.

Posted by mhking at November 16, 2004 09:00 AM