Essay 1413

From The Chicago Tribune…

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Cosby’s universal message

Two years ago, entertainer Bill Cosby caused a ruckus with some famously blunt comments. “The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal,” Cosby said. “These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids--$500 sneakers for what? And won’t spend $200 for ‘Hooked on Phonics.’”

Cosby got a lot of heat from critics who said he was unfairly criticizing African-Americans. Perhaps that was a fair assumption on the part of the critics, since his speech was pegged to the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.

No fair, Cosby said. He wasn’t singling out anybody based on race. The controversy has simmered along since then. So perhaps people expected a dust-up when Cosby came to Chicago on Wednesday at the invitation of Rufus Williams, the president of the Chicago Board of Education.

No dust-up. Rather, Cosby had an important and universal message, one that’s critical for students--black, brown, white or whatever--and their parents.

Parents, whether you’re rich or poor, your greatest responsibility is to make sure your kids get an education. Fathers in particular need to be … fathers.

This was the Cosby of pitch-perfect comedic timing, the Cosby whose contorted facial expressions can add a kicker to any punch line. The delivery was funny, but the message was cold sober.

Cosby talked about growing up poor in the housing projects of Philadelphia. Older neighbors were part of an extended family that provided kind words and tough discipline to the kids, sometimes in equal doses.

He said he’d heard stories about uneducated parents, some illiterate, who nevertheless made sure their children made it through college.

“The street you live on, the apartment you live in, doesn’t make a difference if you have it in your heart that that child of yours will go further than you ever went in your life,” he said.

Perhaps Cosby was preaching to the converted--these were parents who took time out to attend workshops on how to help their kids succeed in school. Cosby acknowledged that. But he encouraged the people there to go home and, in essence, proselytize.

He spoke to a largely African-American audience. But Cosby’s message can be absorbed and in turn preached by any parent to everybody on the block.

They’re your kids. You have no greater treasure. You have no greater job than to push them to succeed.