What Progressive Journalists Should Do Now: Focus on Real Problems and Solutions, Not Cosby

W.E.B. Du Bois argued that journalists had a duty to tell of the evils of white supremacy -- not just the overt racism and violence that it fomented, but the internalized racism that caused non-whites to participate in their own destruction. Late in his career, he added to that charge the following prophetic worry about the changing nature of the media:

“Mass capitalistic control of books and periodicals, news gathering and distribution, radio, cinema, and television has made the throttling of democracy possible and the distortion of education and failure of justice widespread."

The failure of justice is increasingly evident in the torrent of recent reporting and analysis of Bill Cosby's charge that too many black parents are failing to do right by their children, and too many black men are failing themselves and their loved ones. While a few news outlets have done a commendable job of trying to initiate constructive conversations that discern truth from hyperbole, they haven't gone for enough.

The major problem that black writers, artists, intellectuals, activists, parents, preachers and teachers face in trying to get control of their families and communities is that the institutions that transmit ideas and values to black youth and adults are perverted by the corporate commodification of blackness. Rather than having their self image and goals shaped by the authority figures in their own homes, neighborhoods, schools and religious institutions, they are being molded by an amoral popular culture that will use anything to sell products.

Right now, that popular culture, which has been driven by an appropriation and caricaturing of African American culture since the days of Stephen Foster, teaches that authentic blackness includes a disdain for formal education, hypersexuality, and mindless,amoral acqusitiveness. This picture of who black people are and what we value is a cynical lie that a few blacks participate in perpetuating, because the corporate marketers figured out that the suburban kids whose dollars fuel hiphop don't want to hear from people with a mentality like Chuck D's:

I didn’t want to rap about ‘I’m this or I’m that’ all the time . . . . My focus was not on boasting about myself or battling brothers on the microphone. I wanted to rap about battling institutions, and bringing the condition of Black people worldwide to a respectable level."

To turn the tide, here are some of the questions I want to see journalists asking:

1. 
   While Kanye West makes fun of people who try to educate themselves, how many college dropouts is he employing? Are the people who handle his legal and business affairs college dropouts?
   


2. 
   What does Lil Kim wear when she meets with her attorneys? Why are she and other artists promoting styles of dress and behavior that lead young people to waste their money on things that will not help them in the job market, or in life?
   


3. 
   We need press coverage of some of the initiatives that have worked and are working! For example, while there is a dearth of black scientists, there are also programs such as the Cooperative Research Fellowship Program and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, which have helped dozens of blacks get Ph.Ds. in mathematics, physics and other scientific and technical disciplines.
   


4. 
   While we're at it, let's make some of those black achievers more visible, and involve them in conversations about the problems in our community. Scientists such as James West have been running successful community-based science education programs for 30 years, but they are never called upon during these discussions.
   
   If Jim West is too "civil rights generation" to be listened to, then how about mathematician William Massey a co-founder of the Conference of African-American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences.
   
   Still too old? How about young leaders such as Rahsaan Harris?


5. 
   Let's have some reporting on the state of the institutions that some successful blacks have created to reach back into their communities. Where is the Coalition of 100 Black Men these days? Where's BEEP? What about the the various ethnic affinity groups in the nations top corporations? What are they doing to address these problems? What do their successess and failures tell us?


6. 
   Conservatives seem to think they have the answers to the problems Cosby outlined. Between faith-based initiatives, school voucher programs, and the No Child Left Behind Law, conservative approaches have received substantial support over the last several years. If Cosby's charges signify the need for a close examination of what parents are doing, don't they also suggest the need to scrutinize these programs as well? Yet I'm not aware of any comprehensive examination of this type?
   

The next frontier for black people in this country is, indeed, to learn to intelligently and strategically use the substantial resources and opportunities that we have. To do this, however, we have to be able to put everything that we are doing on the table for examination and discussion -- the good, the bad and the ugly. What's more important, we have to be able to have a conversation about how to use our resources to serve our interests. That's what progressive journalists need to be talking about.