COSBY'S GREATEST LEGACY

As I was flipping through the channels this weekend, I came across a special about the Cosby Show. They were discussing how September of this week marked the 25th anniversary of the show premiering on NBC. It blew my mind on how the time had passed. I guess since the show had been in syndication for so long, you forget the last episode was in 1992. The Cosby Show had a very special place in my early childhood. I remember vividly every Thursday night at eight o'clock, me and my family were glued to the television watching that show. Before the Obamas, the Huxtables had set the bar for excellency and achievement in the black community. The patriarch, Cliff Huxtable, was a doctor and his wife, Claire, was a lawyer. They had four daughters and a son. They were Sondra, Denise, Vannessa, Rudy, and Theo. At the time, I was unaware of the historical significance of the program. The only thing I knew that it was a good show, had great characters, it was funny and educational. But as I grew older, I found out how the show transformed the way white people viewed black people. The show was able to dispel many long standing negative stereotypes about black culture and work ethic. So with the success of the Cosby Show, in 1987, a spin off show which had the Huxtable's second oldest daughter Denise attending fictional historically black Hillman College. The name of the show was called A Different World. This show was America's first look into college life at a HBCU. It is said that the show fueled an increase in enrollment at HBCU's and gave a strong sense of black nationalism that was typical in the early to mid 90's. But the impact of the show went far deeper than that. I feel the show was Cosby's way of injecting his political activist idealism that he couldn't do on The Cosby Show. A Different World dealt with the basic college lifestyle like pledging a fraternity and being broke, which is typical in most white's perception of college. But were the show differed was in its delving into issues ranging from race, gender, and economic and its affects on the black community. The show had pointed episodes which dealt directly with opposition to the first Gulf War, apartheid in South Africa, and the legitimacy of black colleges and universities. The show brought together black students from different socio economic backgrounds and with different prospectives on life to the Hillman campus. But the true genius of the show was how much the college demanded from the students even on the first day of campus. They challenged them to achieve to their greatest potential and helped shape their views of life in college and after graduation. This concept is rooted in the history and traditon of HBCU's. The purpose of these schools was to train black men and women in their desired field of study, but also to make them leaders and advocates in their communities. Even though it was a television show, the mark it left on me was deafening. At the age of 12 years old, it inspired me to want to attend Howard University and try and help in the black community. I ultimately didn't attend an HBCU, instead the University of Houston, but the common thread from the show was in me. I approached college the way as everybody else, as a place to have fun, meeting people, and studying. But utimately knew their was an education outside my books that I needed to further my growth. I went to forums held by the African American Studies Associaton and other student organizations about a wide array of topics. It was enlightening to have the regional head of the Nation of Islam, other community leaders, and intellectuals debating different issues. I also attended a rally to try and persuade the chairperson of the liberal arts department to hire a guy who wanted to take African American Studies from a minor to a major. But my most vivid memory was attending a forum about the late Lynn Eusan, who was the first black homecoming queen at U of H in the late 1960s and political activist. I remember one of the speakers talking about how he along with Ms Eusan and a few others where the first batch of black students that integrated U of H in 1964. He talked about how all the black people knew each other back then and how they had parties/gatherings in the hall we were in. Hearing him and others speak about their struggles in those days and their joy seeing a bigger black population at U of H was a heartening moment. As I was sitting in the room, I realized that I had an obligation to live up to the legacy that was bestowed amongst me. I can't admit that I was the most politcally or socially active in college, but I was politcally and socially consensus. I know that the lessons learned on A Different World planted the seeds for my curiousity. It made my college experience fuller and greater by making me increase my social awareness through the use of professors, mentors, friends, and my own personal studies. I still watch the re-runs of the show today and they hit more closer to home since graduating college than when I was a child. So as we take time to commemorate the anniversary of The Cosby Show, let us not forget the way A Different World actually brought a huge difference to our world.

Is Black Activism Dead?

As the United States enters the 8th month of Barack Obama's historic presidency, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. The economy is still on shaky ground with the unemployment rate rising. As the war in Iraq is winding down and now the war in Afghanistan is moving up in level of importance. But the issue that is dominating the talk in terms of domestic policy is healthcare reform. The president campaigned on providing affordable universal healthcare access to the 47 million Americans who don't have it. African Americans have the highest percentage rate of the uninsured people in this country. As Congress and the nation wage an epic debate on this issue, black people have pretty much been on the sidelines of this tug of war. At the raucous and contentious townhall meetings during the August recess, their was barely a black face to be seen at any of these events. The NAACP and the National Urban League, the two stalwarts in championing black issues, had organized nothing to educate black people on this issue. It was shocking that on the biggest piece of legislation to be brought to Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act 0f 1965 along with the first black president their seemed to be silence in the African American Community. How was it that with the planets aligned for the issue that affected us most with the president we loved the most we couldn't do anything? The answer to the question was sobbering at best. The problem is that the Obama campaign and changed the way people organized around issues. The centralized approach that dominated the civil rights movement from its inception was longer effective in the era of social networks and blogs. The grassroots movement which gave the power back to the people and away from a few charismatic leaders is the new order of the day. The problem in the black community was that their isn't any type of foundation for this type of movement. Besides a few black folks who went to Ivy League schools and started their own thing, their really ain't shit to talk about. We need to start public policy forums, think tanks, blogs and groups to get fresh ideas from younger generations. It has been astonishing the rate the white liberals have outpaced us in the last 5 years. Since the election of 2004, the left wing of the Democratic party has become very influential on the internet. Websites and blogs like Moveon.org, The Huffington Post, and The Daily Kos which were first seen as radical have now moved closer to the mainstream of the party. These outlets along with others like them have helped raise millions of dollars for Democratic candidates along with helping to shape policies that the party runs elections on. But we as black Americans who are seen as the soul and base of the Democratic Party, have no real power to affect anything outside of our elected officials. Besides civil rights, we have no real signature issues we can bring to the table. We have to be engaged in politics on the local, state, and national levels. For many black people, voting is the only time we are involved in political discourse and we have to be dragged out to do that. We can't sit back and say that since we got a black president that the coast is clear. We have to continue to press his adminstration about issues we feel strongly about even if he doesn't. We can't have Obama give the complex conversations to others and then tell us about this personal responsiblty crap. I think black people need to expand their minds past their own communities and think of themselves as players in the global community.But finally we have to hold black media to task as well. We can't have these guys throwing Obama and his people softball questions just so they can get interviews with them at later dates. It was discouraging to see BET show the President's Speech to the Joint Session of Congress on the issue of healthcare 1.5 hours after all the other media outlets had shown it. I guess they decided that showing the movie 'The Hair Salon" for the millionth time had precedent over the president speaking. The only reason they did it was because they knew we wouldn't care. How long are we going to let this happen?