Cosby and Poussaint pull their punches on marriage.
After starting off strong pushing African-American men to step and be good fathers and role models, they wimp out on pushing them to be husbands.
In the crucial chapter on raising children, they let Dr. Xylina Bean, a neonatologist in Compton, CA, do the heavy lifting. She calls "each and every one of you" to be responsible for raising kids. Her list, though, betrays the reality that she doesn't really expect married parents to be the core of the childrearing team, nor does she really expect men to carry half the load. She specifically calls on grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, "play aunts" and "God aunts." Dr. Bean speaks bluntly to young black women to choose their baby daddies carefully. Not their husbands. No mention of husbands.
Cosby and Poussaint open the book with a strong condemnation of the huge decline in black marriages, and the bad consequences this has for kids. Their positive program, though, only calls on everyone to rebuild childrearing. They shy away from the most effective childrearing program: rebuilding marriage.
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3 comments:
I noticed that too. But, hey, it's a start.
The general decline in marriage is really disheartening.
Small steps?
Compton CA is ground zero for gangland ghetto culture.
"hey, it's a start" "small steps"
Maybe, just maybe, we should start someplace else. Someplace that still has half a chance. Say, Atlanta maybe.
Compton has been a "role model" for long enough. Atlanta is well on her way to emulating them completely, but perhaps not yet too far gone...
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