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Imagine if…

Posted by TONY CAMPBELL, Columnist in At TMV.
Jul 15th, 2008 | Comments

Bill Cosby were running for President and told black folks that they need to “cowboy up” and take responsibility over their lives instead of blaming white folks. Well, that happened yesterday at the NAACP National Convention from presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. This is an excerpt from the speech last night:

“Teaching our daughters to never allow images on television to tell them what they are worth; teaching our sons to treat women with respect, and to realize responsibility does not end at conception; that what makes them a man is not the ability to have a child but to raise one. That’s a message we need to send.”

I have two initial personal feelings about the above statement. It is absolutely disappointing that we need any politician to tell us what should be common sense regarding personal responsibility in that one, women should be treated with respect, and two, fatherhood is a lifelong commitment and not a biological act. The statement also reveals something about Obama. He is willing to cross the boundaries of “political correctness” and perceived social alignment to tell the NAACP what they have rarely heard for almost one hundred years; that their failure as a social empowerment organization is not to be blamed primarily on white America, rather, by the lack of leadership themselves.

Don’t get it twisted. I know that there is still racism and sexism in this country as is evidenced by the backlash of the cover art of The New Yorker and its’ satirical commentary on race, ethnicity and gender. The question is how do we move forward as a united people? Is it up to Obama and McCain to lead us beyond our fears, failures and prejudices; or, is it up to each of us to find the strength within ourselves and take action?

Politically, the question is more intriguing: How would the media cover a story that might involve John McCain going to the Christian Coalition convention to tell their parents to turn off the television, put away the video games and be better parents? Only time will tell…

  • A risky but courageous thing for Obama to do. Cosby caught untold amounts of flack and outright hatred for his comments in that area, and I agree that it speaks well of Obama that can can stand against the wheel and encourage responsibility which is not just a shortcoming in any one racial community, but all across the demographics of America today, sadly.
  • daveinboca
    Cosby & Obama sound like Booker T. Washington and the early MLK before the civil rights movement turned into welfareama & crack wars.
  • AustinRoth
    I hope that this doesn't backfire on him. When you take positions unpopular with your friends, the backlash is usually much worse than when you criticize your enemies.
  • Rambie
    “Teaching our daughters to never allow images on television to tell them what they are worth; teaching our sons to treat women with respect, and to realize responsibility does not end at conception; that what makes them a man is not the ability to have a child but to raise one. That’s a message we need to send.”

    This doesn't ONLY apply to "black folks" as you can find examples in any racial group. Agree with above posters, it's a courageous thing to say but could end up hurting his support. I guess the truth does sometimes hurt.
  • pacatrue
    It is interesting. I haven't read the whole speech, so I have no substantive comment. However, Shraub linked to an interesting blog post in response to media reports of the speech that is also relevant here. Here's the link to it.
  • pacatrue
    Sorry, Shraub's link was in his Civil Rights Round Up a few posts below this one.
  • DLS
    Note also that if anything, it would be the Christian Coalition going in front of more mainstream Republicans and telling _them_ to get their kids away from the TV, and so on.
  • Neocon
    I'm almost surpirsed that he did not get problems on this being as how he is only 1/2 black. I guess the NAACP has eased its standards on who can lecture them on not being deadbeats.

    Makes you wonder if Jesse Jacksons open mic moment caught the exact sentiment I bet many blacks are feeling right now about Obama but is afraid to air.
  • aba23
    "...the cover art of The New Yorker and its satirical commentary on race, ethnicity and gender. "

    A satire on what now? That's an interesting take.
  • runasim
    Wait just a second. This strikes me as off tune:
    "their failure as a social empowerment organization is not to be blamed primarily on white America, rather, by the lack of leadership themselves"
    ----------------------------
    That strikes me as unloading the responsibilty from one race and shifting it to another, in its entirety. The off hand, 'yeah, yeah, there is racism, but get over it' attitude is ill informed, to put it gently.
    Racism isn't just a snub to be endured in a club room. It is generational, institutional and has a cumulative effect It has been whites who have brought that situation about.

    It is one thing, the appropriate thing, to call on blacks to do the best they can, even in a bad situation.
    It is quite another, an unacceptable one, to put the entire onus on blacks to deal with the consequences of what whites have done.
    Moral responsibilites cut both ways, and there are institutional injustices that an individual may not always be able to overcome.
    For that we all bear responsibity.
  • AustinRoth
    runi - you again show your love of expanding others comments to fit your whim. Barack said "not to be blamed primarily on white America'. That does not put the 'entire onus' on the black community. It does mean Barack meant it is now mainly a black failure, but not solely. Of course, that may not satisfy you either, and definitely does not satisfy many others, who believe that any and all black social issues can only be described as primarily the fault of whites.
  • runasim
    AR,
    i can't have 'expanded' Obama's words, becuse what you cite (primary responsiblilty) are not Obama's words.They come from this post.
    That was my pont. From Obama's statement about responsibility, this post and some of the comments veered off into NAACP bashing and PRIMARY responsibilities.

    There is nothing incompatible between the principles of the NAACP and personal responsibility. The NAACP combats institutional racism, but that hardly means that individual blacks have no responsibility for their own behavior. In fact, Jesse Jackson himself has said something similar to Obama's speech in the past.

    The possible backlash from the NAACP or other blacks that some commenters are gloating over I don't believe represents an ideological difference. It's more a question of not wanting to have the community's dirty laundry displayed in public.

    I believe you are 'expanding' my comment when you claim it means that "all black social issues can only be described as primarily the fault of whites."
    i just don't think in those terms, ever.
    I can't begin to guess where in my words you found such an idea, so i can't explain it for you.
  • AustinRoth
    runi - I took it from your line 'It is quite another, an unacceptable one, to put the entire onus on blacks to deal with the consequences of what whites have done.'
  • pacatrue
    I typed this in a different comment thread, but it really belongs here, so I apologize for pseudo-duplication:

    Regarding Obama's NAACP speech, many people seem to fall quite quickly into the idea that blacks are particularly irresponsible. (The topic was apparently only 2 paragraphs of Obama's entire speech, but that's all many people saw in the speech.) Would they applaud so heavily if a candidate had gone to Dayton Ohio, where the economy has declined recently, to lecture the people there that they need to shape up because their troubles are their own fault? How about Appalachia where low education and low standard of living has been common for decades? Does this reveal the moral flaws of the entire people living there? I grew up in Louisiana which consistently is rated either the worst or next to worst in education. One of the reasons (only one) is certainly (this is just personal experience) the way that education is viewed by the white farmers I grew up with. Do we think someone needs to lecture them about education?

    I'm sure you all get the idea. The reason for the problems in these areas are complex -- due to a combination of geography, history, economics, government, as well as, surely, some personal moral flaws. We all understand this and so any solution which is just "yell at midwestern farmers for being stupid enough to lose their family farms" is only scratching the surface of what's going on.

    And yet with black Americans, many seem to be quite at ease at reducing the issues to lack of responsibility. Why would Filipinos in Honolulu, white rural Louisianians, Hispanics in L.A., and blacks in Baltimore all drop out of school early when it's to their clear long-term detriment? Is it because they all have irresponsible families, or are there many different factors at play? I'm guessing the latter. I don't mean to say that personal responsibility is unimportant. It's arguably the most important factor in leading a successful life. But things don't start and stop there.
  • runasim
    AR,
    "'It is quite another, an unacceptable one, to put the entire onus on blacks to deal with the consequences of what whites have done.", is a sentence you've expanded way beyond my meaning.

    Since it's your expansion and not my sentence that is troubling you, deal with it.
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