He was staying off the stage, although I had seen him as Master of Ceremonies all night. He was not present as Sean Combs was receiving a prestigious award.
Sean had delivered from Broadway to Hollywood to music to fashion to liquor and countless other industries plus done so much social political and philanthropic work in his young career. He has been a true role model to me.
So there I was about to give the man of the hour his award but still I wondered where Bill Cosby was, the evening’s MC. I knew I had once said he was too judgmental of black folks and especially rappers, but I also knew for sure that he had dedicated his life to the betterment of our people and I have come to understand his feelings that we and the next generation had let him down. We didn’t march through the doors he, Harry Belafonte and the Civil Rights movement opened.
When I look back, I feel remorse for judging him. And it has been a source of a “rap beef” for years. He has been critical of the poets but I have maintained that the entertainment, especially most of the poets, are simple reflections of cultures of truth. Anyhow, I wanted to find him to apologize, to tell him I was sorry about my statements and to tell him that I loved him. Suddenly I turned and he was behind the curtain and I said “I love you" and he responded on some real hip-hop, “Get the f*ck out my face!”
I took it in stride but I wondered if he recognized the effect of the heroin or crack epidemics had created. Or worse “the war on drugs” that became the war on poor black America, sending diseased kids to jail and educating them in criminal behavior then dumping them back as hardened criminals to poison the communities. Still today, the only factory giving out jobs in many urban cities is the corner drug stores and the education for those jobs is the street corner life.
Or does he see the systematic white supremacist attitude that, although it may be subtle, is still a burden to many African-Americans. I wondered if he understood what Elijah Muhammad said about the condition of some of black America; that some black men’s brains had been so tarnished or chained during slavery, Jim Crow and even now, that when the chains come off they still don’t move. [Global Grind]
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