The Cos on the March

Once again, Bill Cosby lives up to his reputation as America's Father Figure, and it looks like people are starting to get his message.

---

Cosby tells parents to stop the foolishness

1,800 pack Detroit campus to hear his message on raising kids
January 14, 2005

BY CECIL ANGEL and CHASTITY PRATT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby, who played America's favorite TV dad in the 1980s, mixed humor and preaching Thursday as he urged African-American Detroiters to be more responsible for the lives and futures of their children. Although some would say that the community's youths are out of control, Cosby suggested, "it's not what they're doing to us. It's what we're not doing."

"We're not explaining. We're not educating our children. We have bought into keeping our mouths shut," he said.

More than 1,800 people packed Wayne County Community College's downtown campus to hear Cosby's message. Some stood in the rain at 4 p.m., three hours before the start of the event, to ensure they got a seat to see the comic. "It must be his celebrity status because his message isn't pretty," said Lynda White, 38, of Detroit. "He's saying things that make us uncomfortable."

That may have been Cosby's point -- facing the realities of life as a black person in America today is not a comfortable proposition.

"It was not long ago that I used to say to myself, African-American people are the only people who do not have any good old days," Cosby said, going on to tell the crowd that in "teenage pregnancy per capita, we became No. 1. In the household, the female is the leader. In the prisons, we win hands down in population. Our children, the ones that drop out, quit studying in the third grade. We have funerals because our children are shot. ... And I'm amazed that some people say we did better when there was segregation. ... I don't swallow that."

As he tours the country with his forum, A Conversation with Bill Cosby, he tells the crowds that he is not a savior and that the answer to the community's problems lies with them.

Before going on stage Thursday, Cosby visited three overflow rooms. As he moved through a maze of hallways, he shook hands, hugged, joked and even did his trademark Fat Albert, "Hey, Hey, Hey."

If he had any critics then, it didn't show.

Each time he entered a room, he was greeted with universal applause and cheers.

"You're going to leave here knowing you were right all the time," he said. "You're going to leave here knowing you have something to say. It's time to stop the foolishness."

In another room, Cosby told the crowd that often people tell him he's preaching to the choir.

Some nodded or said "yes" as Cosby told them that the problems were of "epidemic proportions."

"These are our people -- our people -- our young people, and they have to be taught and retaught and we have to do it and mean it," he said.

"You can't throw them up against the wall anymore. You can't curse at them anymore," he said. "We've got to bring them home, sit them down. We are the elders, and we got to demand our place."

In the gravity of his message, Cosby maintained his sense of humor.

"You young fellas, we need to pass the word. You old fellas, we need you to keep the word. And you women, we're coming," he said to a burst of laughter.

Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley hosted the event, which was sponsored by the newspaper. Riley set the mood by saying the conversation is not directed at all black parents but a specific group in need of help and change.

"If your child is walking around in thousands of dollars worth of clothes and doesn't have a dime's worth of sense -- he's talking to you," she said.

Before Cosby spoke, there were at least two-dozen speakers -- the stage was a Who's Who of people trying to make a difference in Detroit.

In 2-minute speeches, they offered inspirational poetry and information on how to get tutoring, how to reach teens, teach youngsters to read and volunteer. One told about a slain father; another told of a carjacking averted with a loving conversation with a gun-toting teen. Their words differed, but the message was the same.

"Do you think this was supposed to be our destiny?" asked Weusi Olusola, president of Pioneers for Peace, a Detroit-based violence prevention and awareness program. "There's a crisis in the black community, and we can no longer let that be."

Everyone knows what the solutions are, Cosby said.

"Do you believe in yourself?' he asked. "Open your mouths. ... March!"

Cosby called on the faithful to put their religion to work.

"You call yourselves Christians? Jesus didn't sit in the house," Cosby said. "He walked in the streets."

Parent Malinda Russell-Williams agreed with Cosby about apathy in the community.

"He's so right," she said. "We all sit there, and we don't do anything. We've got the power. We are no longer the minority. I hope it starts in the church."

Cosby said that systematic racism is a problem, but it's not insurmountable.

"Maybe we can't get back to the old days that we old-timers used to see. But I tell you, now 87 percent" of the city is black, Cosby said. "We are not a minority. ... It costs no money to open your mouth. It costs no money to tell people to stop. It's something in us."

The audience was packed with active parents from community groups who now say they must take the message to the streets.

"Yes, the parents are listening. That's why he's getting so many reactions," said Keith Davis, whose son is a freshman at Cass Technical High. "The solutions are very straightforward lessons from when we were raised. Why abandon them?"

Detroit Public Television, WTVS-TV (Channel 56), taped the event and will broadcast it as a 1-hour special at 7 p.m. Feb. 13.

Contact CECIL ANGEL at 313-223-4531 or angel@freepress.com.

---