The Louisiana Weekly
Work in progress to address Cosby's criticisms
By Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Washington Correspondent
06-21-04
WASHINGTON (NNPA) -- While comedian and philanthropist Bill Cosby was
busy criticizing low-income black people for not fulfilling their
obligations to society and to their race, there were thousands of
people already engaged in helping the very people Cosby was
upbraiding.
"We run a wide range of after school programs across the country. And many of them are successful. We touch probably about 600,000 to 700,000 kids a year, which is considerable," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. "For example, we have a male responsibility program that we run in Chicago. I said to the director, 'How many people do you serve in a year?' He said, '300.' I said, 'How many could you serve?' He said, 'Awe man, I could serve
5,000 if I had the resources.'"
More than 100 Urban League chapters around the country, most surviving on corporate donations, foundation grants or government contracts, reach as many people as possible with after school tutorial, job training, leadership development and responsible decision-making programs.
And they would be doing more -- if they had the resources.
"On an overall basis, one of our core competencies, one of the most important things we do is reach out and serve youth in America's urban communities," said Morial, former mayor of New Orleans. "But one thing I have noticed is that even with our most successful programs, we're not touching the ones we need to touch because of money."
The Urban League is among thousands of organizations that seek to address many of the age-old problems cited by Cosby.
Speaking in Washington, D.C. at an observance of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Cosby complained that "the lower economic people are not holding up their end of this deal."
He said, "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'...They're on the corner and they can't speak English ..."
Psychologist Julia Hare, co-founder of the Black Think Tank based in San Francisco, said Cosby's comments would have been more helpful had he suggested ways to address the problems.
"He should have said, 'Following this meeting and this feel-good
session of Brown v. Board of Education, I am going to personally
gather together the Jack and Jills, the Links, all of the Greek letter
organizations, the coalition of this, the coalition of that, like 100
Black Women, 100 Black Men and the Black Church," Hare said. "You (Cosby) throw out all of these criticisms and you don't have any kind of solutions, I've got to look at you and I just wonder if you're just floor showing."
The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA), the oldest of the black
Greek-letter sororities, has operated its Ivy Reading Academy for
grades K-3 has for nearly two years with $1.5 million from the U.S.
Department of Education. 
Linda White, AKA's national president, eagerly explains why her
organization chose to focus on the early years of a child's life.
"Children who have not developed the basic reading skills in the very early years find it extremely difficult to become competent readers in the later grades," she said. "And when they are unable to read effectively, then they don't perform well in the other subjects and other higher-level educational tasks and they don't finish school, they can't function in society."
She adds, "Most of us would not be where we are today if someone had not reached back and helped us, whether it was the neighbor next door who encouraged you or the teacher in your school. Most of us did not come from well-educated well-to-do backgrounds. What matters is the person who shows some caring and love and provide encouragement for that child."
Hare said children too often get the blame for circumstances over
which they have no control.
"They're not responsible for the ebonics," Hare states. "They're not responsible for the situation that causes them to stand on street corners. If you look at the figures, you have a society that will not employ their mothers, will not employ their fathers. In fact, you have a society that sent most of their fathers to prison."
DeLacy Davis, a sergeant in the East Orange, N.J. police department and executive director of the department's TRY (Together Redirecting Youth) program, is using the police department to help rather than lock up troubled youth.
"They come every day and they go straight to the police department. We give them access to the Internet. They do their homework at the police station. My staff comes from behind the desk and the children take over. We teach them office skills. We show them value and love," Davis said.
"We call it giving an overdose of support services for that child. In
other words, while the parents may be drug addicted, it doesn't mean that child can't make it. They may say, 'I go to the gang because it's protection. I go to the gang because they feed me. I go to the gang because it's my family.' What we're going to have to do is make sure that child is eating every day, that we remove all of the factors that our children have told us as reasons for them going to gang activity. We take those arguments off the table."
And the program is working, says Davis, who is also president and
founder of Black Cops Against Police Brutality.
"Two children last year who failed every subject, they were 15 and 16, they were held back in the 9th grade and now are on honor roll."
Such support and encouragement is crucial, said MaryLee Allen,
director of Child Welfare and Mental Health Division at the Children's Defense Fund, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that researches and advocates on behalf of children.
"We try to ensure that there are comprehensive services and supports available to the children and their families because you can't separate a child from the family and community in which they're living and in which they're being raised," she said. "There are gaps in terms of being able to reach the needs, but there are some things that we know work. But what we've got to do is try to make those things work for many, many more children."
The federal Head Start program is a terrific example of a
comprehensive program that provides an early childhood education to children three to five years old, Allen said. But Head Start serves only 60 percent of eligible children, more than a third of them black.
Allen said Head Start should be expanded to serve children from birth to age three as well as assisting their parents.
Morial said everyone has an obligation to help the needy.
"Anybody who's halfway enlightened understands the interdependence in society," he said. "You can't build a wall around yourself and pretend to be successful if there's pain and suffering all around."