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April 3, 2007

YOUNG VOICES

Enough Pop Statistics - Just Mentor!
by Victor Marsh


 

Juan Williams is angry with Michael Eric Dyson, for good reason. That much comes through very clearly in his book Enough!

The book is largely written as a defense of Bill Cosby's views against Disown's mean-spirited attacks on the famous actor. Cosby and Williams adopt uncontroversial views but use some loaded language to advocate their views.

For example, while both Cosby and Williams tend to lecture poor people about buying their children expensive gym shoes - study after study have shown that poor blacks, like most poor Americans, are not wild spenders. It is America's middle class that is so gung-ho for consumer debt. So, I recommend that both Williams and Cosby cease from chastising poor blacks for being big-spenders, when proof shows that they are not.

At the end of the day, both Cosby and Williams are, with love, telling Black parents to stay engaged, and for Black children to stay in school. They are telling Black women to not get pregnant before they are married and telling hip-hop artists to be respectful. None of this is crazy, but it is also not Earth shattering.

Rather than purchase Juan Williams' book, you are better off spending your cash on a sandwich - as you take a child to lunch, mentoring the Black child that is the focus of Juan's writing. Williams wants us to take action, mentoring once a week over lunch and other activists is how to do it.

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