On the week that Bill Cosby made his remarks two years ago, I was at my grandfather's house for a funeral in the family. The day before, I decided to walk to Sam and Terry’s barbershop to get a hair cut. For 50 years Sam and Terry’s has been one of the few enduring institutions in the African American community in Tacoma. I got my first haircut there in 1983, at the tender age of five, from Sam Moore, the co-founder still going strong in his 9th decade. Anyone with a inkling of sense, history or any sort of cultural sophistication knows that the African American barbershop is one of America’s great conservative institutions, a sort of folk lyceum, where a democracy of Ideas is permitted to flow free from politically correct discourse and dogmatism. A lot of my pragmatic Hurstonian conservative philosophy comes from the hundreds of conversations I have overheard and had at Sam and Terry’s, as well as my taste in soul music and African American literature. I also owe a lot more to Sam personally, because he was the last man to cut my father's hair when he was in the hospital, rife from the spiral meningitis and complications from diabetes that would kill him only a few weeks later; an act he didn’t have to do, because for the last 20 years of his life my father was a degenerate dope fiend.
Over the past several years, however, my contrarian paradise has crumbled. The barbers that I was raised with have either retired or died off, and a new generation of kids, raised on the brutal ethos of the streets and filled with the same sense of brutal entitlement that gangstadom has spawned, have made it a different place altogether from my memory. A deep division between young and old (over the discovery that one of the younger barbers was just cutting hair as cover for his burgeoning crack dealership, which explained why he drove to work in a Bentley), led to a mass exodus of people, and the tacky gangsta nationalism of most of the young barbers, demands you accept their psycho-racial-sexual dogma but ostracizes you if you don’t.
On that particular day, my number was called. My crimes that afternoon were two. I committed the transgression of wearing a tweed jacket, black sweater, black slacks and glasses, a no-no for the “ thug barbers" there because to be an appropriate African American by their standards was to wear saggy pants, sport jerseys and doo-rag caps. My second transgression was to bring a book, James Baldwin’s Notes of A Native Son. It didn’t matter that Baldwin was one of the greatest prophets on race relations in the history of the 20th century. The fact that I brought a book to read deeply offended their sensibilities, because to read, in their mind, was acting white.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I've heard much the same things you say in this essay when I was on the board of an anti-poverty agency n St. Paul. Many of the other board members were black, and sat with me over cups of coffee and cherry pie telling me - a white man, but fellow board member - how much it hurt them to see the kids in the neighborhood turn away from the ideas of success that these oldsters had fought so hard to make possible.
I'm not arguing politics or policy here. You live in America. I don't any longer. But I'm going to have to translate this article into Hebrew.
There are lots of blacks who live here. Ethiopian Jews who hve fled from the Jew hatred of their native land to come home. And they too find themselves discriminated against. I want them to see the reality that YOU describe - so that they never become foolish enough to copy the gangsta culture of your country. It would be terrible to see these attitudes that you describe above overcome the Ethiopian kids here. They came home to find freedom. They deserve that AND posperity.
Kol hakavód - all honor to you. This couldn't have been easy or pleasant to write.
2 - Victor Plenty
This is bigger than Bill Cosby, and even bigger than the African-American community. Every racial group has a subclass of mindless thugs with growing cultural influence, telling all of our young people it's not cool to read, not cool to learn, and not cool to do honest work. Every racial group has an expanding clique of entertainers who glorify the pimp, the drug dealer, and every other exploiter, with no concern for who gets hurt by whatever criminal activity brings in the "bling bling."
Like many other social ills, this disease has been hitting our society hard and early in the black communities. Not because black people are somehow inherently more susceptible, but because leaders of both left and right have consistently neglected (and in many cases actively undermined) the health of the black community.
Just like tobacco can make a person more likely to die from diseases of the lungs, racism makes a whole society more vulnerable to social disorders that gain their first foothold among the targets of racism.
Bill Cosby is right about the need for a greater sense of personal responsibility, but that need is not limited to black people. We will all be at risk until every one of us feels personally responsible to do all we can to support our black brothers and sisters in their struggle against a social decay that threatens everyone's future.
At the very least, we can thank those who continue to fight the good fight against overwhelming odds, refusing to accept a racist definition of how they should live their lives, even when the racism twists its tentacles around to come at them from their own community.
Thank you, Robert.
3 - John Owen
Since I'm a white dude from rural Ohio, I almost feel like I'm barely qualified to comment on your incisive essay - six years of higher education have made political correctness a reflex that I must fight against.
But whatever.
Right on, Robert. Right on.
4 - Bing
Bill Cosby is saying that blacks must take responsibility for thier own lives and stop using racism as en excuse for everything?
No wonder the racial demogogues like AL SHarpton and Jesse Jackson critisize him.
5 - zingzing
al sharpton and jesse jackson came into power in a different time, when the white man WAS the african american's worst enemy, but they did not come to power on a platform of hatred. times have changed, but not much... now the black man must deal with what years of the white man's racist attitudes have wrought.
bing, racism is a reality. it's just that sections (the thugs, the gangbangers, whatever you want to call them) of the african american community have either started to believe it, or they have reacted to it by saying "this is what you want, this is what you get." it's a myth that the white man invented, and, sadly, it has become something of a reality. that's not saying that whites are to blame, or that this reality is what anyone deserves.
but, bing, you sitting on your high horse is really fucking sickening. al sharpton and jesse jackson are looking out for their people. they are not racial demagogues. they are decent people who see some real issues. maybe they don't like to see one of their own criticizing what they see. maybe they come from the old "we have to stick together" school of thought.
they rose to power fighting for civil rights. they did not rise to power spouting racial hatred.
african americans do take responsibility for their own lives. some still use racism as an excuse. racism is all around. it's not an excuse for "everything" (as you so beautifully put it), but it is a reality.
bing, you should think about the things you say.
"Bill Cosby is saying that blacks must take responsibility for thier own lives and stop using racism as en excuse for everything?" YES! did you read the article? do you remember two years ago? jesus christ, if you are going to say something, don't just repeat what's just been said. your second sentence makes no sense either if you bothered to fucking know what you are talking about. yes, they criticized him. not because they are racist, but because they didn't bother to understand what he was saying either.
6 - Andy Marsh
I hate to tell you this, but Al Sharpton sure as shit did come to power on a platform of hatred! He first came to national, that's national, not NY prominence, back when he declared that a young black woman had been raped and beaten and marked up with racial slurs in NYC. It came to light just a short time later that the whole story was contrived. That's a platform of hate...he attempted to do nothing but drive a stake between folks in teh city.
and for you to say that jesse jackson doesn't use race as an excuse for everything is just BULLSHIT!
7 - Albanesse
Thank you for your article and even though I am white I have heard of the term Herb. When I see most of the kids today I think back to what I was like as a teenager and even though I was a little wild growing up in Brooklyn I prefered that life to what is now. The lifestyle now for every "cool" kid is about making money and not working. Not about being a kid. I do blame parents more than anything for not growing up themselves and letting their children go to places with then and being taught to listen and learn. Last night on the news they showed a group of 13-14 year olds in Jersey City beating and robbing a mad of a plastic shopping bag (clothes and a photo albumn inside). So sad... and now the parents are probably saying those kids were just kids... My family came to this country poor and my father worked two jobs most of his life and still does, but we were taught to listen and learn, to be respectful and above all else see every living thing as having a soul. We never talked about a Benz or Caddie. Every Sunday we had breakfast together, since it was the only day of the week we were all together. The simple things are what make great things.
8 - zingzing
bullshit. defending your own against racial injustice is not hatred. get your fucking terms right. maybe al sharpton is rough in the way he goes about things, but he's not out there to "kill whitey," he's just trying to get equality for his own. jesse jackson does not use race as an excuse, he just points out that racism exists, and that effects the daily life of every minority, including women. get your head out of your ass and look at the world.
9 - Andy Marsh
Al Sharpton out and out LIED about what, if true would have been a very serious allegation against NYC police! He wasn't defending shit...HE WAS LYING!!! Pull your head out of your ass! I like mine where it is...so nice and warm up there!
10 - Andy Marsh
From wikepedia -
Tawana Brawley
In the Tawana Brawley case, a 15-year-old black girl was found smeared with feces, lying in a garbage bag, her clothing torn and burned and with various slurs and epithets written on her body in charcoal. Brawley claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by six white men, some of them police officers, on November 28, 1987 in the town of Wappingers Falls, New York.
The FBI was called in, and Brawley was questioned about what had happened. She claimed she had been raped by unidentified white men. When a rape test came back negative, she changed her story, saying that she hadn't been raped, but had been sexually abused. Further examinations revealed that Brawley had received no real injuries, nor did she show signs of exposure. Testimony from her schoolmates also indicated that she had been at a local party during the time of her supposed abduction.
The incident made headlines nationwide, and her cause was taken up by Sharpton, along with Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason. The three turned the incident into a media sensation; among other acts, they identified New York prosecutor Steven Pagones as one of the men involved, despite the lack of any evidence, and they likewise attempted to implicate higher officials in the State government.
Accusations flew in both directions; an ex-boyfriend of Brawley's told Newsday that Brawley had made the attack up, and admitted so to him. A grand jury was convened, and after seven months of examining police and medical records, the jury determined that Brawley's assault was a hoax.
In 1998, Pagones was awarded $345,000 (he sought $150 Million) in a suit for defamation of character that he brought against Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason.
yeah...that's "defending" ones own!
11 - bill
please keep writing. please keep on writing. that was very real and a problem i have seen but never been able to articulate, especially telling was your barbershop story. I have seen it replayed as well.
keep writing, its inspiring.
12 - Brian Sorrell
Everything that I've read today has been a real treat, and this piece stands on top of them all. It's knockout stuff.
As a poor white boy in college who ran with the militant revolutionary crowd, I learned quickly that these same sorts of discriminations cross class lines, religious lines, gender lines, and just about any line you can think up.
It is my opinion that we're probably entering a time when it will be necessary to revisit thinkers like Harold Cruse, Ralph Ellison, W.E.B. DuBois, and the like to bail us out of the illiterate, ignorant ditch that we've dug ourselves into.
You're spot on about the crisis and the ways in which it's deepening. Keep writing these sorts of personal essays -- find them an audience -- and you can't help but make a dent.
Cheers.
13 - zingzing
the current reality of black america can no longer be blamed totally on the white "man." it's a combination of what we've done in the past, what still goes on today, and the fact that certain african americans just give up in the face of it all. or they just give in to the glorified idea of it.
to say that racism doesn't exist today is just ignorant. it's a self-perpetuating disease. interracial attitudes have always created these tensions. fighting against these attitudes is not only right, it's noble and it's necessary. it's the sign of a civilized nation. if no one was out there, pushing people to fight against it in a political, not violent, way, then eventually it would lead to all-out race war.
if you were al sharpton or jesse jackson, and you had seen what white people did to black people back in the day... YOU CAN'T DRINK OUT OF THE SAME WATER FOUNTAIN AS ME!... i would have been very surprised if you had the humanity in you to not bash some fucking white man's head in and drink from his water fountain. that they didn't, that they didn't even follow malcolm x, that they followed a peaceful man goes to show that they are decent human beings who realize that skin color does not equal an attitude.
14 - zingzing
mmmhmm, and if you had heard that *yet another* black person had been beaten up by nyc police, you would have jumped all over it too.
maybe he got in too quick too deep, but it wasn't racism that guided him. i'm sure the case is deeper than that. he can't help it if the girl lied. she SAID she was beaten by six white cops. she SAID that she had been raped. she SAID that she had racial slurs written all over her body. turned out it was a hoax. perpetrated by her.
you ever been duped? he was defending his own. turns out his own lied. whatever.
he's not out to hate anyone. he's out to make sure that whites don't get away with shit (like... say... LYNCHING) ever again.
15 - Welfare Cheese
I am a "white boy". I grew up on the East side of Detroit. White people in detroit are a very small minority. I've met more than my share of racist black people so I find it hard to sympathize. When 90% of the country is hispanic, white's and black's can be "held down" together. How is racism attributed to the 70% of black babies born to a single parent?
16 - Jumper Bailey
Robert --
This is a superb piece.
17 - Andy Marsh
so then...it's ok to go national with bullshit? It's not necessary to check the facts? Do you by chance work for the NYT??? I bet Al ain't a big fan of Cosby's...
18 - zingzing
hrm... in reading up on the brawley case, it's not 100% sure that it was a hoax anyway... look at the facts of the case, and look at the civil suit that guy brough in 1998.
no-- you no longer can blame the high number of single parent black households on white people. but, this is not a new statistic. it's been like that for a long time, ever since slave families were "sold separately," ever since black men went in search of work in the north to escape the prejudice and lack of opportunity in the south, ever since african americans were unfairly penalized for the same crime as their white counterparts, and ever since our segregated neighborhoods devolved into white suburbs and black ghettos.
70% is a high number. you can't help but think that there is some deeper sociological ill that is causing this.
19 - zingzing
no, it wasn't okay to go national without checking the facts. yes, sharpton jumped the gun. that doesn't make him a racist.
20 - Andy Marsh
alright...I'll agree with you, it doesn't make him a racist. That doesn't mean I have to like him, does it?
21 - zingzing
dislike him all you want. i don't even particularily like the guy. i think he is a bit to harsh in his rhetoric, and doesn't always think about what he is saying. but, he is effective, he makes people think and he's real fun to listen to.
fiery, angry black leaders are necessary. someone needs to express anger about the inequality in society on a national level. they also need to be able to separate anger from hatred and violence. al sharpton is a great example of that. if he wasn't around, it's very possible that someone who couldn't express the anger without also advocating hatred and violence would really fuck things up for us all.
22 - Bing
Zingzing, take your white liberal guilt and shove it up your ass.
23 - Welfare Cheese
From "Family Structures," Encyclopedia of American Social History
"Although slave marriages and family ties lacked legal sanction, and owners were free to sell husbands away from wives and parents away from children, most African Americans married and lived in two-parent households both before and after emancipation. Fathers played a larger familial role than previously thought. The nuclear family received support from an involved network of kin. Indeed, the kinship system forged under slavery would continue to function in twentieth-century rural and urban communities as a source of mutual assistance and cultural continuity."
24 - zingzing
bing--i don't feel guilty.
in fact, i feel pretty good about myself. i don't hate anyone, i'm not racist or bigotted, i believe in the same rights for everyone, i don't see the point in violence, but a little anger never hurts... it facilitates heated discussion, where real issues can possibly be resolved, without anyone getting hurt.
it's really a nice feeling to have. do you feel like black people are trampling on your rights? i should hope not.
25 - zingzing
"The nuclear family received support from an involved network of kin."
still happens today...