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• Dr. Cobbs' bio
• My American Life: From Rage to Entitlement excerpt

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Tavis: I'm honored to welcome Dr. Price Cobbs to this program. The renowned psychiatrist and author penned one of the seminal books of the civil rights era, 'Black Rage.' The L.A. native is also a successful business consultant, the founder and CEO of Pacific Management Systems of San Francisco. Details of his unique life are told in the pages of his new autobiography. The book is called 'My American Life: From Rage to Entitlement.' Dr. Cobbs, always an honor to see you, sir.

Dr. Price Cobbs: Thank you. Thank you very much for having me, Tavis.

Tavis: Glad to have you on the program, sir. Let me start, for those who are not familiar, we're gonna give them some suggested readings here. But for those who are not familiar with the book you penned back in 1968, co-authored, called 'Black Rage,' what was that book about?

Dr. Cobbs: Uh, Bill Grier and I, two psychiatrists, we came together in San Francisco. The world around us, the civil rights movement was flourishing, and we, through our patients and our social lives, in ourselves, were very much able to see black people are angry. And we then wanted to pen a book about that. We also wanted to have a manual, because therapists were trying to figure out what's going on.

And we wanted to have a manual so that people could look through our book and begin to see that what may appear irrational, outrageous, was really very, very predictable, given how people were responding to what was going on in the world.

Tavis: Compare and contrast to me that black rage then with the rage potentially that black folk have now, around issues of race and class, etcetera, etcetera, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Cobbs: One of the things that I think - I have been over the last weeks on a - book tour. It's very akin to a focus group. I now find as I look back, I see African Americans of all classes very angry. Very angry in terms of the response to Hurricane Katrina that occurred some weeks ago. And I think that will translate itself into some kind of rage. To me, the trick is how do we focus it and make it positive? How do we move it so that some of the issues that we have seen begin to be addressed? But I think it is the first time in many years that I have seen black rage as focused on something as it was in the fifties and sixties.

Tavis: And by rage, so we don't scare people, you're not suggesting race riots in the streets.

Dr. Cobbs: Not at all. Not at all. By rage I mean, something that comes along that evokes anger, and beyond that anger evokes feelings of "What can I do about it?' And that was very, very much what I used to see in the sixties as I would talk with patients. People would talk about the first teller in a bank. I remember a guy who was the first painter on the Golden Gate Bridge.

And he would talk about a constant sense of danger because he was the first black painter on that bridge. And he would come home, and he was just enraged. And I think what I have always wanted to do is help people identify it, of course, but then, how do I effectively manage it? How do I focus it? How do I use it to fuel my intellect? How do I use it to fuel activities that I may want to go about?

Tavis: If everybody in black America met at your house this Sunday after church for dinner, and we had a chance to ask you, since you know our psychiatry, our psychology, our behavior, you've studied this for years. Since you know us so well, you are one of us, if we were at your house this Sunday after church for dinner and asked you, "Dr. Cobbs, what do we do in this moment to maximize it, around this rage that we feel, this angst that we feel?' You'd say what?

Dr. Cobbs: I would say let us look at what we are entitled to. I would say it in a way that let's focus on our healthy entitlements, not "give us something," not "you owe us something.' As Americans, we are entitled to a response from our government, at the local level, at the state level, at the federal level. If we have seen that absence, how then do we focus our efforts so that we can then say 'never again?' I would focus on entitlement. And I always want to say healthy entitlement.

The genius of America is that people came and continue to come to America and feel entitled. One of the things that African Americans have continually struggled with is that sense of American entitlement. I was struck when I now look back, and it's some weeks ago. I still think of it when I see that sign, "I am an American.' I felt that way when I was in Germany, and I was in the army, an all-black outfit with all white officers.

And I remember I would walk around and think, gee, as people would look at me, a corporal in the army, discriminated against, come back to see my company commander or captain. And he would tell me, "You know, Cobbs, - you gotta let that go. ' And I was in the army. I knew what court-martials were. But as I would leave, I would think to myself, "I'm in an American army protecting democracy, and people treat me like that.' When I saw that sign, that was what it evoked.

So I would focus those people in my dining room, I would focus them on "how do we continue to push for our American entitlements?' Nothing more, nothing less. Our American entitlements.

Tavis: When was your first exposure, it clearly wasn't when you were in Germany. As a child, you write in this book, about your first exposure to that kind of black rage as a kid growing up here in L.A. Tell me the story.

Dr. Cobbs: I was about nine years old, and I had a playmate across the street, Frankie Prentiss (sp?). Frankie was white. We were in that neighborhood, one of the few black people at that time. The neighborhood subsequently became much more black. Frankie and I played, spent time together, in and out of each other's homes. In those days you would not have called it sleepovers, but we certainly had sleepovers. And I was playing with Frankie and something happened, as with nine-year-old kids, a ball, this, that, you have the bat, give me the glove, and Frankie called me a nigger.

Tavis: This is - your boy.

Dr. Cobbs: Yeah, this is my cut buddy, as you would say. This is my friend. And Tavis, I'd certainly heard the word, but I had not heard the word directed at me from a friend. And it was just devastating. And I was aware that somewhere - and Frankie was a nice kid. So it was not - this was a kid I knew. And I was aware that, oh, in times of crisis, people reach for that which will hurt you the most.'

And intuitively by then Frankie had learned, oh, if you're with someone black and you really want to hurt them the most, you use that word. And I put that in the book because it was really a shaping experience for me to be reminded that people always have the capacity to pull something out and to stick it in you.

Tavis: Your dad was - what they call a race man back in those days.

Dr. Cobbs: Yes. Growing up in Los Angeles, my father was a physician. He was very active in our community and beyond. My father was always considered a left-winger. During the 1950s with the McCarthy Era, in California we had a state Senator Tenney, and my father was on various lists. He was red-baited. Was he a card carrier, was he not? Tavis, I had an interesting experience as I grew up with my father.

We had many political discussions. I respected my father immensely. Clearly, one of my role models. But we would have these discussions, and I was the more conservative person. My father was the more radical person. It was a complete reversal of the usual father/son, or father/daughter or mother/daughter. I was the one pushing him about his radicalness.

Tavis: You were picketing as a kid one time. It's a fascinating story. Share.

Dr. Cobbs: You know, the usual little - in those days, there weren't that many supermarkets. I went in the market and the man thought I was gonna steal something, was very rude to me. And so I left. And then I thought, "What can I do?' And I remembered my father some years before had been picketing on Central Avenue in Los Angeles. And he was picketing on "Don't spend your money where you can't work.' And so it occurred to me as a kid, 'well, I don't want to spend my money where I'm not gonna be treated right.'

So I made my little picket sign, walked up in front of the market a couple of days after school. Naturally, I thought big things would happen. I don't think anybody paid any attention. But I also had the sense of, oh, if something happens to you, if you feel aggrieved, rather than just sit there and stew with it, do something. So that was really my first instance of picketing.

Tavis: That consciousness was working.

Dr. Cobbs: Yes. Very - much so.

Tavis: How do you respond to folk watching us right now who say, "But Dr. Cobbs, you are the epitome of the American dream. You are the example that America does work.'

Dr. Cobbs: I certainly want to be an example of America does work. But I also never want to feel that I have it made so much that I cannot continue to help America improve. I remember once hearing Jackie Robinson say, "I never thought I had it made.' And once he said that, what he really meant was, yes, of course, I'm a successful ball player. But I also have a continuing obligation to point out those things in America that continue to need redress. The playing field is still not level.

I was talking with a young woman not too long ago and was saying it can be fatiguing at times to constantly be wary, to be cautious, to look around, is this happening, is that happening? So, yes, I'm a success story, and I certainly believe that, have incorporated it. But I am not the success story who would read his own press so much that he would say, "Everything is okay for everybody.' I continue to feel an obligation, a really moral obligation to push back and to bring light into corners that have not had that light.

Tavis: If, after all these years and the writing of this book, your memoir, 'My American Life: From Rage to Entitlement,' if after all these years you still believe, and I'm not certain you do, you'll tell me. But if after all these years and after the writing of this book you feel that racism is still perhaps the most intractable issue in America. Tell me as we sit here why you still, and I assume you do, having read the book, remain hopeful.

Dr. Cobbs: I remain hopeful, one, because I have always responded to people who were hopeful. I marched to Selma. And one of the reasons I marched to Selma was because Dr. King was always hopeful. I think somewhere embedded in the American national character, is at least an attempt to improve. Beyond that, I think African Americans, as we get more and more focused, understand ourselves more, put pressure on ourselves, put pressure on our externals, I think that would be another thing that allows me to feel hopeful.

Also, I am never thinking that we don't have allies. I find far more allies now, people who are struggling like all of us to be tolerant, to view a multicultural world, to participate in diversity. I find far more people able and willing to do that now than I ever found 50 years ago. So I'm hopeful because that's the nature. I'm not a goody two-shoes. But I'm hopeful because I think if we can focus people on a task, get leadership, get a strategy, understand what our goals are, I think we can move mountains.

Tavis: If you think this conversation was empowering, if you think this conversation was empowering, you have to read the new book by Dr. Price Cobbs, 'My American Life: From Rage to Entitlement.' Dr. Cobbs, always an honor to talk to you, sir.

Dr. Cobbs: Thank you very much. I really appreciate being here.

Tavis: Glad to have you here. That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and keep the faith.