Jackson invites Cosby

I had never seen the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson cry in public. And
he's seldom upstaged. Until, Bill Cosby came to town.

Last month Jackson invited Cosby to the annual Rainbow/PUSH conference
for a conversation about controversial remarks the entertainer offered
May 17 at an NAACP dinner in Washington , D.C. That's when America 's
Jell-O Man shook things up by arguing that African Americans were
betraying the legacy of civil rights victories.

"The lower economic people," he said, "are not holding up their end in
this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for
their kids. $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for "Hooked on
Phonics!"

Thursday morning, Cosby showed no signs of repenting as he strode
across the stage at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom before a
standing-room-only crowd. Sporting a natty gold sports coat and dark
glasses, he proceeded to unload a laundry list of black America 's
self-imposed ills. The iconic actor and comedian kidded that he couldn't
compete with the oratory of the Reverend but he preached circles around
Jackson in their nearly hour-long
conversation, delivering brutally frank one-liners and the toughest of
love.

The enemy, he argues, is us:
"There is a time, ladies and gentlemen, when we have to turn the mirror
around." Cosby acknowledged he wasn't critiquing all blacks-just "the 50
percent of African Americans in the lower economic neighborhood who drop
out of school," and the alarming proportions of black men in prison and
black teenage mothers. The mostly black crowd seconded him with choruses
of "Amens."

To critics who pose, it's unproductive to air our dirty laundry in
public, he responds, "Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30
every day. It's cursing on the way home, on the bus, train, in the candy
store. They are cursing and grabbing each other and going nowhere. And,
the book bag is very, very thin because there's nothing in it."

"Don't worry about the white man," he adds. "I could care less about
what white people think about me . . let 'em talk. What are they
saying that is different from what their grandfathers said and did to
us? What is different is what we are doing to ourselves."

For those who say Cosby is just an elitist who's "got his" but doesn't
understand the plight of the black poor, he reminds us that, "We're
going to turn that mirror around. It's not just the poor-everybody's
guilty."

Cosby and Jackson lamented that in the 50th year of Brown vs. Board of
Education, our failings betray our legacy. Jackson dabbed away tears as
he recalled the financial struggles at Fisk University , a historically
black college and Jackson 's Alma mater.

When Cosby was done, the 1,000 people in the room all jumped to their
feet in ovation. Long after Cosby had departed, I could not find a
dissenter in the crowd. But in the hotel corridor I encountered a
vintage poster for sale that said volumes. The poster, which advertised
the Million Man March, was "discounted" to $5: Remember the Million Man
March?

In 1995, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan exhorted "a million
sober, disciplined, committed, dedicated, inspired black men to meet in
Washington on a day of atonement.

In 2006, perhaps all that is left of that call is a $5 poster. We have
shed tears too many times, at too many watershed moments before, while
the hopes they inspired have fallen by the wayside.

Not this time!

Cosby's plea to parents: "Before you get to the point where you say 'I
can't do nothing with them'-do something with them."

Like:

Teach our children to speak English. There's no such thing as "talking
white". When the teacher calls, show up at the school.

When the idiot box starts spewing profane rap videos, turn it off.

Refrain from cursing around the kids.

Teach our boys that women should be cherished, not raped and demeaned.

Tell them that education is a prize we won with blood and tears, not a
dishonor.

Stop making excuses for the agents and abettors of black-on-black
crime.

It costs us nothing to do these things. But if we don't, it will cost
us infinitely more tears.