Commentary by Jayar Jackson
Back in 2004, Bill Cosby spoke out at an NAACP gala marking the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.
Cosby went into a bit of a rant, sharply criticizing the behavior of many poor Black people in poor Black communities.
In the weeks that followed, he continued to speak out on in the mainstream media. He told CNN’s Paula Zahn that the problem begins with the parents, not parenting or talking to their children.
While many leaders in the Black community spoke up and defended Cosby. I was infuriated. Not because Cosby was “airing our dirty laundry,” or because the things he was saying were not true. They were just being said to the wrong people.
People not associated with the Black community that don’t even know what really goes on there only saw “Papa Cosby” tell his people the same thing others have been wanting to say to them with a their detached, critical eye.
This only perpetuates negative stereotypes from people that enjoy putting up more barriers to the few that fight horrible situations to make it out of the hood, the way Cosby did.
Cosby simplified the situation the way an ignorant, affluent, and detached person of another race would assess it. To simply say, “get up and do better” doesn’t cut it when you don’t factor in why the parents aren’t being parents, or why 12 year old kids feel that they need to stand on a dangerous street corner and sell drugs.
If Cosby’s actions were foolish, Adam 'Pacman' Jones’ were grotesque. Headlining stories about a rich, young Black man sparking such a melee in Las Vegas will always overshadow anything positive many young Black men do for themselves and their families.This millionaire athlete with his entire life ahead of him has decided to ignore advice from his family, coaches, employers, and apparently the multiple warnings from law enforcement to stop acting like he has very few choices to escape an abhorrent lifestyle many of us get involved in.
It seems that Pacman grew up with negative things affecting him…his father was shot in the back of the head and killed when he was only 5 years old.
These kinds of things shape a person, but now its time for him to get some help, to realize that beating on women and threatening a bouncer’s life because he was doing his job aren’t ok because you have money in the bank.
Maybe Pacman and Bill should get together and have a talk sans the microphones, cameras, and handcuffs, so that Cosby can tell one of the people that actually needs to hear it.