The Mourners' Bench

What is the solution to the problems in the Black community? What has happened to Black men? Why are some succeeding while many Black people are failing?

These are some of the questions and issues I have attempted address in this blog. Like many others before me, I have offered suggestions, but my proposed solutions go ignored. They are dismissed as the words of someone who doesn’t know what he is talking about. Meanwhile, I have family and friends that will call me from hundreds of miles away and spend hours on the phone getting my advice on how to fix their computer technical issues. They would say, when computers aren’t working, and there are questions on how to find something on the internet, Eric is the person to call for a solution. On the other hand, if it relates to politics and social issues, “Eric doesn’t know what the heck he is talking about.”

Let me share a secret. The same God given talents of paying close attention to detail, thinking “outside the box,” and problem solving used to fix computer problems, are the same talents used in my everyday decision making process. My ability to look at a problem, examine the given parameters, and calculating a probable and logical solution quickly is a major part of how I earn my livelihood. Unlike poverty pimps and politicians, I have no vested interest in keeping a segment of the population in need. My solutions are offered for the sole purpose of addressing issues, and solving problems. Like others in the past, I am learning that sometimes the best solutions are dismissed in favor of continuing down the same ol’ path, even when that path of least resistance is a dead end.

For example, on May 17, 2004, Bill Cosby addressed the NAACP to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. In his famous "Pound Cake Speech", Dr. Cosby addressed many of the problems in the Black community.

The lack of education, crime, and out of wedlock childbirth…

Ladies and gentlemen, these people set -- they opened the doors, they gave us the right, and today, ladies and gentlemen, in our cities and public schools we have 50% drop out. In our own neighborhood, we have men in prison. No longer is a person embarrassed because they’re pregnant without a husband. No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child.

The lack of importance of education and parenting…

And these people are not parenting. They’re buying things for the kid -- $500 sneakers -- for what? They won’t buy or spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics.

The unwillingness to speak English…

I can’t even talk the way these people talk. “Why you ain’t where you is go, ra.” I don’t know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can’t land a plane with, “Why you ain’t…” You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.

And the making of excuses for criminal activity…

Looking at the incarcerated, these are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake! Then we all run out and are outraged: “The cops shouldn’t have shot him.” What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand? I wanted a piece of pound cake just as bad as anybody else. And I looked at it and I had no money.

He even offered a solution…

When you go to the church, look at the stained glass things of Jesus. Look at them. Is Jesus smiling? Not in one picture. So, tell your friends. Let’s try to do something. Let’s try to make Jesus smile. Let’s start parenting.

Despite personal and professional accomplishments and efforts to address a multitude of problems, instead of attacking the source of the problems, many people find it necessary to shoot the messenger. It seems that no matter the quality of the advice, if the solution requires effort, and demands personal responsibility it is the messenger that becomes the problem.

As the years go by, many will still wonder why some problems never get fixed. Maybe a 100 years from now, an historian will realize that with politics and social issues, “Maybe Bill Cosby and Eric did know what the heck they were talking about.”

Great minds think alike:

Bravo to Bill Cosby, by Thomas Sowell

In defense of Bill Cosby, by Star Parker

Bill Cosby Was (Mostly) Right, by Stan Guthrie