Bill Cosby is working the graduation circuit right now, and continuing to make controversial comments. (Another article here.)
I have to say that I’m of two minds about Cos’s comments. First, there’s a grand tradition in America that “if you work hard, you’ll succeed.” As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to understand that’s not always true, and I know from personal experience that the reverse–”if you aren’t succeeding, it’s because you aren’t working hard”–is not always true either.
At the same time, there’s no denying that there’s a definite correlation between education (which requires some work) and lifetime earnings, at least in the US. The full details can be found here , but let’s look at a few stats up close:
- According to the Federal Reserve, in 2004 the median income for a worker with a high school diploma was $35,600. Workers with a college degree had a median income of $73,000.
- According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1972 a male high school graduate below the age of 35 had a median income of $42,630 (in 2002 dollars). In 2002, that same category of worker earned a median income of $29,647.
- Under-35 male college grads have seen declining wages, too. In 1972, these younger workers earned a median income of $52,087 (in 2002 dollars). In 2002, these workers earned a median income of $48,995.
- Several studies that show of the people that live in poverty in the US 92% of them share these characteristics:
High School drop-out
Teen parent
Un-wed parent
Early alcohol or drug abuse
- Only 9.6 percent of high school graduates are poor, compared to 22.2 percent of those without a diploma.
- Of those people who complete some college, only 6.6 percent fall below the poverty line.
- This drops to 3.3 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
And a quote from this article that’s stayed with me: “It’s not that college grads are earning so much more. It’s because high school graduates are earning so much less.â€
I don’t have access to the article, because the NY Times charges for access to their online archives, but they did a story a couple of years ago about how African immigrants were coming to America, taking advantage of gov’t programs set up for African-Americans (by which I mean descendents of American slaves), and having great success with them–founding their own businesses, getting advanced degress and becoming professionals, the whole nine yards.
One of the analysts interviewed predicted that this would eventually lead to tension between the African immigrant and the American Black communities. Why? The success of the immigrants begs the question–if racism is still so pervasive that even these gov’t programs aren’t enough to help you (a charge frequently leveled by some American Blacks), why is that people just off the boat from Africa are able to leverage those same programs and avoid/pull themselves out of poverty?
I guess it’s like what one woman I know once said: no matter how harsh the circumstances, at some point you’re going to have to do at least some work for what you want. I mean, think about it: even if someone walks up to you and hands you $50 million free and clear, in order to make it last so you can enjoy it the rest of your life, you’re going to have to get off your duff and learn what’s involved in managing a large personal fortune.
And I think ultimately that’s what Cosby is trying to say. He’s not a very good job of saying it, however.
Cos has used “these people” and “those people” to speak of poor blacks, which has pissed off a lot of people of all colors. I tend to think of his use of “these/those people” as similar to Chris Rock’s famous riff about the difference between being Black and being a “n******”. The difference is that Rock said it as part of his comedy act. Cosby is saying it in dead seriousness.
The other thing: this whole mess is being interpreted as a race issue. I think it’s a class issue.
Forty-odd years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 , we have a larger black middle class than ever before. Until the crack cocaine explosion of the ’80s, American blacks were poised for astonishing upward economic and social mobility (see “Why Do Drug Dealers Live With Their Moms?”, the third chapter of Freakonomics, for a reader-friendly recap on how crack undid decades of civil rights progress).
Now the Black community is separated by money, more than ever before. And we’re starting to act like it. Many middle class Blacks have contempt for poor Blacks, sometimes even if they came from the same poor background, sometimes especially if they came from the same poor background. When blacks move up in class, we do like everyone else–we look down on the lower classes. And since familiarity breeds contempt…we look down even harder on our own folks. We reason–I was able to make something of myself–why haven’t you?
It’s not easy, the boot strap route. And we forget that people don’t start from the same level playing field. But it’s so damn hard not to get frustrated when you see people who won’t even get into the game. “They” have the same opportunities–hell, some of “them” may even have better opportunities–but “they” don’t take advantage of them.
So you start to separate yourself from “them”. You don’t see them as fellow Blacks, you see them as thugs who make you look bad, no matter what you’ve accomplished.
Cos is speaking from that sense of frustration. He’s literally given away millions of dollars over his lifetime for scholarships and grants for Black students–only to encounter Black students who tell him how they were made fun of for “acting White” because they liked studying and made good grades in school. There’s a stomach-turning acceptance in our community for the idea that the only way to be authentically black is to live poor and in a ghetto–and idealize the “ghetto fabulous” lifestyles popularized by gangsta rappers like 50 Cent and Biggie Smalls. Even Blacks who came from solidly middle class backgrounds (I’m looking at you, Sean “Puff Daddy P-Whatever” Combs) sometimes feel the need to reassert their Black identity by acting like thugs. ‘Cause, you know, that’s “keepin’ it real.” But it’s fake, fake as hell. And what really frosts my cupcakes is that we’re not telling each other to “keep it real” by acting ghetto–we’re acting ghetto because it commands respect and admiration from the White folks.
So Cos is frustrated, and I’m frustrated. And Michael Eric Dyson and Roland Fryer are frustrated, too.
I wonder if this well ever be resolved in my lifetime.
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