Articles on Education
Michael Eric Dyson: Armed for the Class Wars
By Mark Anthony Neal, Special to AOL BlackVoices,
Posted: 2005-06-23 16:22:31
With roots in working class Detroit, author and scholar Michael Eric Dyson has been a factory worker, a single father and welfare recipient. That was long before he walked the halls of some of America's most prestigious institutions, like the University of Pennsylvania where he is a professor. Versed in the ways of the Ivy League and armed with cylinders of data on class, race and culture, Dyson also knows, from intimate experience, the ins and outs of growing up poor in America. That's why he took personally comments made by Bill Cosby during the past year about the black poor and their failure to be socially responsible. In his new book 'Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind,' Dyson responds at length to what he calls Cosby’s "bash-the-poor tour."
AOL BlackVoices caught up with him recently to talk about Cosby, race, poverty and the class wars in America.
Bill Cosby has spent a great deal of energy talking about black people and the importance of personal responsibility. Is he wrong for that?
To talk about personal responsibility is only a small piece of the responsibility pie. Now, good behavior is fine and it is its own reward in many ways. But the problem is: If you don’t make the society and the state and the political conventions responsible to provide opportunity within which people can exercise their responsibility -- all the good behavior in the world cannot create the jobs that responsible people are supposed to take to show their responsibility.
What's really happening with the black poor in this country?
AOL BlackVoices caught up with him recently to talk about Cosby, race, poverty and the class wars in America.
Bill Cosby has spent a great deal of energy talking about black people and the importance of personal responsibility. Is he wrong for that?
To talk about personal responsibility is only a small piece of the responsibility pie. Now, good behavior is fine and it is its own reward in many ways. But the problem is: If you don’t make the society and the state and the political conventions responsible to provide opportunity within which people can exercise their responsibility -- all the good behavior in the world cannot create the jobs that responsible people are supposed to take to show their responsibility.
What's really happening with the black poor in this country?
Most people who are poor are working poor people. They work every day of their lives -- 40 and 50 hours a week -- and yet they can barely, if ever, make it above the poverty level. All this stuff Cosby is missing. He's also missing that all these people who are the working poor are not lazy. They’re overworked but underpaid. And then, they’re working two or three jobs. They can’t get time off to go to Sally's or Shanequia's [performances] up at school. They can't even take care of their health problems. The emergency ward has become the health maintenance for poor people You can be as responsible as you want to be, but the concentration effects of poverty, through zoning and the lack of political clout, means that you are a vulnerable citizen in the state. Cosby has nothing to say about that.
What are your gut instincts about what is really bugging Mr. Cosby?
A lot of people point out that perhaps Mr. Cosby is dealing with some kind of post-traumatic stress from the vicious murder of his son . You can understand that, in a sense, he might look around and say "all these niggers ain't doing nothing. All these poor black boys and girls ain't doin' nothing and my son who was working on his doctorate degree was murdered." You could understand that.
The other part of it is that rich black people hate poor black people -- let’s break it on down -- rich niggas hate poor niggas. Part of the problem that we are confronting is that the black elite, the "Afristocracy," simply hates the "ghettocrats." There’s a huge class chasm within our own community. What we don't understand is that these are ancient tensions that have been in our community for far longer than people are willing to recognize.
What were some of the challenges that you faced in writing your new book?
I realized from the very beginning that I was going against the odds in writing this book. Most black people come up to me and go : "you know what, I was with Cosby" -- even poor and working class black people. And I’m not surprised by that because the poor watch more TV than anybody else. They buy into the vicious stereotypes about them more than anybody else. Or, they are sold a bill of goods about why they are poor and they hope that it is true that if you think right and speak right and behave right that you will be prosperous in this country. They are told this by everyone from the churches they go to with the prosperity gospel on down to Bill Cosby and other bourgeois Negroes. This is warfare, bruh, and my book is a weapon in that warfare.
Doesn't Cosby's willingness to give money to black causes make him a leader? Doesn't it give him a right to say what's on his mind?
Cosby's philanthropy is unquestionable. If he never gives another dime for the rest of his life, he's done more than a lot of people for 10 lifetimes. But the question is: Can we allow philanthropy to silence dissent or to squash opposition? Money giving can't be the litmus test for authentic black leadership. [That would make] Bill Gates the greatest black leader we ever had -- that cat done gave about $120 million to Negroes -- so it can’t be that. In one sense, it's easier to give money, as opposed to stepping on the front line during the civil rights movement and putting your face out there. That would give [your contribution] more legitimacy. But it would also cost you some of your cultural standing with the white folk you want to cross over to.
About the Author
Mark Anthony Neal is the author of four books, including the recent 'New Black Man.' He is Associate Professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke University.
What are your gut instincts about what is really bugging Mr. Cosby?
A lot of people point out that perhaps Mr. Cosby is dealing with some kind of post-traumatic stress from the vicious murder of his son . You can understand that, in a sense, he might look around and say "all these niggers ain't doing nothing. All these poor black boys and girls ain't doin' nothing and my son who was working on his doctorate degree was murdered." You could understand that.
The other part of it is that rich black people hate poor black people -- let’s break it on down -- rich niggas hate poor niggas. Part of the problem that we are confronting is that the black elite, the "Afristocracy," simply hates the "ghettocrats." There’s a huge class chasm within our own community. What we don't understand is that these are ancient tensions that have been in our community for far longer than people are willing to recognize.
What were some of the challenges that you faced in writing your new book?
I realized from the very beginning that I was going against the odds in writing this book. Most black people come up to me and go : "you know what, I was with Cosby" -- even poor and working class black people. And I’m not surprised by that because the poor watch more TV than anybody else. They buy into the vicious stereotypes about them more than anybody else. Or, they are sold a bill of goods about why they are poor and they hope that it is true that if you think right and speak right and behave right that you will be prosperous in this country. They are told this by everyone from the churches they go to with the prosperity gospel on down to Bill Cosby and other bourgeois Negroes. This is warfare, bruh, and my book is a weapon in that warfare.
Doesn't Cosby's willingness to give money to black causes make him a leader? Doesn't it give him a right to say what's on his mind?
Cosby's philanthropy is unquestionable. If he never gives another dime for the rest of his life, he's done more than a lot of people for 10 lifetimes. But the question is: Can we allow philanthropy to silence dissent or to squash opposition? Money giving can't be the litmus test for authentic black leadership. [That would make] Bill Gates the greatest black leader we ever had -- that cat done gave about $120 million to Negroes -- so it can’t be that. In one sense, it's easier to give money, as opposed to stepping on the front line during the civil rights movement and putting your face out there. That would give [your contribution] more legitimacy. But it would also cost you some of your cultural standing with the white folk you want to cross over to.
About the Author
Mark Anthony Neal is the author of four books, including the recent 'New Black Man.' He is Associate Professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke University.
2005-06-14 15:58:14
