AFTER attempting to elucidate the problems facing African-Americans, Bill Cosby remains under the scope of criticism. His scathing observations of personal values held by low-income blacks and the parenting skills of low-income parents has received much applause across the country with some discontent among the audience.
Cosby's language cannot fully be appreciated by everyone, but his attempt at discussion -- albeit jaded by obvious elitism -- commands respect. Simply put, the discussion of the problems with the black community has been subdued to political correctness.
Last Wednesday's second annual "Conversation with Black Men" was a continuation in the process pioneered by African American Affairs Dean M. Rick Turner to facilitate the discussion in the Charlottesville community (which includes the University), providing the attending group with the tools of knowledge and networking to address black community concerns.
For weeks building up to the discussion, The Cavalier Daily, as well as the multiple e-mail lists that I subscribe to, felt the deluge of reactions from mostly incensed and angered students, assuming a self-segregating motivation behind the conversation.
I expected to see a gathering of volatile students prepping for a protest or, more realistically, a potential 15-minute rant on the supposed race war propaganda of Turner.
Apparently, Turner's discussion does not command the listening afforded the star of The Cosby Show.
While Cosby rants, black males, packed in a large Physics room, began an education, which is often lacking in the black community. The congregation of approximately 80 black males worked to address the poverty of knowledge and discussion concerning the social and economic problems of the black community.
The discussion laid the framework for viewing the issues facing the black community and provided profound insight as a result of the discussion's diverse composition of young, ripening and seasoned black males from the nearby Charlottesville high schools, the Charlottesville working community and the University community.
Turner split the group into six smaller groups, presenting each with a question and large sheet of sketchpad paper. After plowing through the inherent issues with each question, the smaller groups reconvened as a larger group and discussed the issues that arose in the small group discussions.
Touching on issues that ranged from racial inequalities, treading through assimilation and black pride issues,and concluding with the role of black males within any community, this group of intellectual and world-experienced black males (all different shades) concluded that black males along with their black sisters must continually work to rebuild the black community.
The foundations for addressing the health of community and the diseases that rip at its core floated throughout the conversation. The black males present must recognize the steps and progress made in the conversation and the framework they metaphorically created through their discussion: "Destroy the misconceptions of blackness," "There is not one exact blackness," "There must be community building" and black males must "interact with and learn" from the Charlottesville community.
The challenge that the conclusions of the conversation posed to us black males was to make the words become reality. Dr. Martin Luther King, in his last book, "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?" said: "Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy."
Through Dr. King's words, I frame the question for black males: If you see the ills that daily erode the fabric that constitutes the black community, what choice do you make as a black male?
And for those fearing the language of my article or the bonding that occurred among the congregation of 80 or more black males, I present you with the few words from a speech that Malcolm X originally presented in April 1964 at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio: "Speaking like this doesn't mean we are anti-white, but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression."
As I fairly speculate Malcolm X would say, we are working to strengthen black males, black people, and the black community, and in the growth of all three, we work for the growth and cultivation of a more enriched American and world community.
Kurt Davis, Jr. is third year in the College and a Cavalier Daily Health and Sex columnist.
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