[...] But the truth is that education and economic indicators show that African-Americans are doing better than they've ever done, largely because of the gains made by those low-income blacks, according to data from "Black Americans: A Statistical Sourcebook."
And in some cases, the poorest African Americans do a better job than upscale African-Americans in outperforming their white counterparts, the book says.
True, there are some social indicators that are more than troubling. According to U.S. Bureau of Census, in 1940, 77 percent of all black families were husband and wife. Eighteen percent were single moms. By 2000, only 48 percent of black families included two parents. Forty-three percent were headed by single women.
Other indicators in the book, however, are brighter.
Consider these statistics from the U.S. Department of Education:
Thirty-four percent of blacks over age 3 were enrolled in school in 2000. For all races, the average was 27.5 percent.
On the high school level, the combined verbal and math SAT scores of African-American children improved by 173 points from the 1975-1976 school year to the 2000-2001 school year while the scores for their white counterparts improved by 116 points. While the racial gap shrunk, African-American scores remained more than 200 points lower than white scores.
The high-school dropout rate for blacks fell to 5 percent in 1998 from 8.7 percent in 1975. During that same period, the dropout rate for whites fell to 4.4 percent from 5.4 percent.
In 1975, one in five African Americans age 18 to 24 were attending an institution of higher education. By 2000, that number had increased to nearly one in three.
From 1980 to 2000, the number of blacks receiving bachelor degrees climbed by 78 percent. The number of blacks receiving master's degrees had increased more than 100 percent.
And those improvements were not primarily because a lot of middle-income black kids are going to school, experts say. According to Ryan McDay, national director of communications for the United Negro College Fund, 92 percent of the students at the historically black schools his organization serves are on some form of financial aid. Six of every 10 are the first members of their family to attend college, he said.
To further examine Cosby's premise that low-income blacks don't "hold up their part of the deal," look at some statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau on civic participation.
From 1970 to 2000, the number of black elected public officials increased to 9,001 from 1,479, according to the Census Bureau.
Helping that happen were low-income blacks, who, unlike upscale blacks, outvoted their white counterparts in 2000, census figures show.
That year, a higher percentage of African-Americans in families earning less than $35,000 -- particularly those at the bottom end of the rung -- were registered to vote than whites of that same income range. Not so for African-Americans making more than $35,000. They were registered to vote at a lower percentage in 2000 than their white counterparts, according to the Census Bureau.
Those same lower-income blacks -- all those making less than $35,000 in family income -- went to the polls in greater percentages in 2000 than whites of their same income levels, according to census figures. Even African-Americans who were unemployed outperformed their white counterparts at the polls that year.
But not upscale African-Americans. Black voters in households earning more than $50,000 went to the polls at a lower rate than whites earning the same amounts, according to census data. [...]
| There's more data in Ron Harris' St. Louis Post-Dispatch article "The reality of low-income black Americans falls far from Cosby's criticism"
[...] A similarly antagonistic, dead-end conversation was initiated seven years ago. But it wasn't Bill Cosby, the comedian; it was his wife, Camille Cosby, educator, author and mother.
Camille Cosby wrote a stinging commentary the day after the conviction of Mikhail Markhasev, the confessed murderer of the Cosbys' only son Ennis, 27. The essay, "America taught my son's killer to hate blacks," was published in "USA Today" on July 8, 1998. Cosby wrote that racism is "omnipresent" in all of the country's institutions, including the media. Reportedly, Markhasev, an immigrant from the Ukraine, called a friend and bragged about shooting Ennis Cosby.
"I shot a nigger. It's all over the news," Markhasev said.
Camille Cosby argued that Markhasev didn't learn black hatred in the Ukraine (where, she said, the black population is zero); racism in America influenced him.
"All African-Americans, regardless of their educational and economic accomplishments, have been and are at risk in America simply because of their skin colors," Cosby wrote. "Sadly, my family and I experienced that to be one of America's racial truths."
Camille Cosby's essay failed to generate the same enthusiasm as her husband's recent comments. Many whites, especially those in conservative circles, trumpeted Bill Cosby's remarks as a timely and a much-needed ingredient for real black progress. But conservatives roundly criticized Camille Cosby.
There's another interesting contrast in the responses to the 1998 Cosby criticism and the 2004 Cosby criticism. Today, conservatives urge black leaders to heed Cosby's advice because he created his own success. In 1998, conservatives gave "America" the credit for allowing the Cosbys to succeed.
The contrast was evident in best-selling author and editor David Horowitz's syndicated column wherein he addressed "Mrs. Cosby's racial paranoia."
"What can be said about a grieving mother who exploits the tragic death of her own son to deliver a racist diatribe against a nation that has showered her with privilege, making her family wealthy and famous beyond the wildest dreams of almost anyone alive?"
Black conservative Larry Elder echoed the same sentiments:
"Somehow, some way, racist America allowed the Cosbys to amass a fortune large enough to include them among 'Forbes 400' list of richest Americans," Elder wrote.
Today, many defend Bill Cosby's right to say what he wants, no matter if it offends the status quo. The same courtesy wasn't extended to his wife in 1998.
The Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group, criticized NBC for airing Camille Cosby's comments on the evening news. The group accused the network of lending "credibility and heft to Camille Cosby's racist vitriol."
Syndicated columnist Mona Charen said Cosby's grief was no excuse for "wild statements regarding American society."
"Some blacks, alas, including Mrs. Cosby, are remote from reality, still imagining that they live in America of 1920. Her facts are wrong, and her indictment is slander." [...]
| Go back for all of Sylvester Broome's St. Louis Post-Dispatch column "Much of debate appears to be finger-pointing"
posted in articles on June 5, 2004 3:44 PM | t (2)
« Previous phile: Catching up with Farmer Brown.
» Next phile: 'Write your own world, with your own stories.'
Black people lack true leadership; and Dr. Bill Cosby's comments (and Jesse Jackson's approval of them) prove my point more than anything.
Dr. Bill Cosby has spent so much time playing fictional characters in Hollywood that he has lost touch with reality and the laws of cause and effect.
During the turbulent, racist 1960s, blacks were told to march and follow the orders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and The Black Panthers. And black people loyally followed and thus made the 1960's Civil Rights movement a glorious success. A success that gaymarriage couples are still benefiting from nowadays!!! AMEN?
But now that "Doctor" Cosby and Jesse "dead beat dad" Jackson have become millionaires, now all of a damn sudden they have contempt for the "poor people"?!?!?
Black people just don't have good leaders like we did in the 1960s. And Cosby's silly, non-scholarly opinion proves it!!!
When Farrakhan asked for a Million Man March, over a million black men showed up!!!, But was did Farrakhan do with them besides "pass the bucket"?!?!?
SO WHAT THE HELL IS "DOCTOR" BILL COSBOY TALKING ABOUT?!?!?!?
He would not be where he is were it not for the "poor people" out in the streets fighting police dogs and water hoses during the racist 1960s. DAMN UNGRATEFUL BASTARD!!!
BILL COSBOY IS NOT A DOCTOR, HE IS THE PROVERBIAL EDUCATED FOOL, WHO NEEDS TO SEE A DOCTOR!!!
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a real doctor and are real leader, and proved it by giving his life for his country and his people instead of just having an "opinion".
And Dr. Bill Cosby, you are no Dr. Martin Luther King; a true leader if there ever was one!!!
Bill Cosby is neither a doctor nor a leader. He is still a sambo slave, who dosen't have the sense to even know it.
You would have thought the car jacking of his son by the Russian Mafia would have snapped him back into reality. Because "poor" black people are also fighting against "organized crime" in addition to historic racism.
Bill Cosby's sons, as well as Michael Jordan's father were not "immune" from the same forces that black people fight everyday.
Super athelete Magic Johnson had to get AIDS before he came back down to Earth and humbled himself and began to help the "poor" black people.
The very fact that they are "poor" requires that they need hlep. DHUHHH!!!
AAAAMEN!!!
Bill Cosby is exactly right as is his wife. America is still a racist society, albeit better than 100 yrs ago, and everyone has a responsibility to work toward making things better. Everyone including African Americans. Recognizing racism does not mean we have to accept it and allow it to keep us down.
I will not comment on the insentitivity of Cosby's crusade to "open the eyes" of poor blacks. I will comment on how offended I am by it. As I do have a right, being as how I am first generation college student at one of the best universities in the country. I have many other thing going on for me and so do my friends. Point being not all poor blacks are complacent or blame society for their misfortunes. Put simply, not all of us fit the description, so can we get a little credit. I don't like being placed in a category with others, so when Cosby disparages black people, he's talking about my freinds and I,as well as people who are trying to progress and get out of the ghetto. Not once has he commended anyone for beating the odds.It seems to me that he is inadvertantly blaming black people for the death of his son. As if to say,"If you change, maybe people won't hate you". Wrong Cosby! White people love to see black people doing bad and they love to hear blacks talk badly about other blacks which is exactly why you have their support. And just like you, when blacks do good, they don't give them any recognition.Soon as they we do something wrong, they want the world to know. We are doing much better than we were years ago and WE WILL continue to do so, despite what any statictic or Cosby has to say. Oh and FYI, I don't think his son was killed just because he was black. I think he was killed because he was black and RICH. Why? Because whites hate to see rich/successful blacks.
First of all, if we are going to post comments, can we at least make sure our grammar is correct? Now, for Mr. Cosby: no, every poor black is not responsible for the ills of the race as a whole, and yes, he would have done well to commend those of *us* (myself included) who made it out of the 'hood and became educated, productive members of society. However, generalizations aside, he was on target! I teach inner-city kids, and I can tell you that their mothers will pay any amount for the latest shoes or clothes, but ask them to buy a book and it's worse than if you'd requested the fat of their first-born child! I think Mr. Cosby was simply saying that our priorities are screwed up, and newsflash! They are! Black America needed a wake-up call, because we are not doing well; despite gains made, we are still grossly behind our white counterparts. I know we believe in keeping "family business" inside the family, but that approach is no longer working. It's true that we lack a leader (I'm sorry, but Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Please!), but how sad is it that we require others to tell us when and where and how to march and follow orders? Do we not have the gumption to look around and see that there are problems in our own communities--our own homes--that need to be rectified and then do so?? Maybe it's past time for someone to air our dirty laundry so that--finally--it can be cleaned.
Return to top of page