Bill Cosby

 
Bill Cosby is well-known around the world as Cliff Huxtable of The Cosby Show, but now he is taking his role as "America's dad" to a whole new level. Over the last few years, Bill has traveled the country to spread the word about the violence and lack of education faced by minority youth in the United States.

According to Bill, the desperate situation of many minorities has resulted in some of these shocking statistics:

  • At least a third of all homeless men are African-American.
  • African-Americans make up 12 percent of the general population, but they account for almost half of the prison population.
  • According to the U.S. Justice Department, 28 percent of black men born today will go to prison in their lifetimes.
  • Black youth are six times more likely to die of homicide than white youth and seven times more likely to commit a homicide.
  • Homicide is the leading cause of death among African-American males ages 15 to 29.

Frustrated by these numbers, Bill gave an unexpected, uncensored speech in 2004: "In the neighborhood that most of us grew up in, parenting is not going on," he said. "They're buying things for the kid—$500 sneakers. For what? They won't buy or spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics.

"It's not what they're doing to us. It's what we're not doing. Brown vs. the Board of Education—these people who marched and were hit in the face with rocks and punched in the face to get an education, and we've got these knuckleheads walking around who don't want to learn English. I know you all know it, but I just want to get you as angry as you ought to be," he said.
Bill Cosby and Oprah

 

 
Some people criticized Bill for speaking out publicly about problems within the African-American community, labeling his speech controversial. "I said, 'Okay, I'm going to talk to my people,' and I guess there were some black people who saw some white people sitting around and then they decided that I was dragging out dirty laundry," he says.

Bill doesn't deny that he was airing some dirty laundry—but that was the point. "Have you ever seen dirty laundry? We have to clean it, don't we?" he says. "These people who talked about the dirty laundry somehow only cared about the laundry. They didn't care about the children. I said in my speech, 'Our children are trying to tell us something and we're not listening.'"

Despite the uproar, Bill says he does not regret the things he said, but he admits his comments only pertain to some members of the communitynot all. "With the drugs in the neighborhood, how can you excuse a drug dealer?" he says. "If you look at the domino effect of, [someone sells] you crack cocaine. You become an addict. You give up your body for some money to some man who has AIDS. You get pregnant. Your child is infected. It starts to domino."

Since making his speech, Bill has been on a mission to help people think about raising children with more integrity. He has traveled from city to city, lecturing about education, parenting and responsibility. In October 2007, he released a book called Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, which explains the causes of the problem and gives parents advice on how to address it.

"I never said there's no such thing as systemic or institutional racism. I also never said that we've got some people of our own that happen to be on the side of the racists. I'm saying we've got to dig in and fight. The same way that you and I were protected by our grandparents," Bill says. "We need to see the problem the same way and protect our children."
Dr. Alvin Poussaint

 

 
Bill's co-author on Come On People, civil rights veteran and renowned Harvard psychiatry professor Dr. Alvin Poussaint, explains why they chose the subtitle, On the Path from Victims to Victors. "Our whole emphasis [is] on moving people out of victimhood and [getting them to do] the kinds of things they need to do to achieve and be successful. And not making excuses for themselves, no matter what the situation is," he says.

Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Dr. Poussaint says many people have forgotten what the cause was all about. "A lot of people kind of fell into decadence that we see in the media all the time—the gangster rap, the people not caring about their neighborhood. Even since the civil rights movement, we have more black people hurting other black people, killing other black people," he says. "[There are] not enough people like Bill and others talking about what people can do for themselves."

Dr. Poussaint says one of the major issues is the absence of father figures. "Many of these fathers are not present. They're absent. Many of them are even incarcerated. Many don't have jobs," Dr. Poussaint says. "And a lot of these young men don't even feel that it's important to be a father because many of them grew up in fatherless homes. The cycle just continues."
Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Bill Cosby and Oprah

 
Bill emphasizes that children need both a father and a mother—and growing up without a father figure can have consequences. According to Dr. Poussaint, studies show that children who have dads who are involved in their lives—whether their parents are together or not—tend to do better than children with no father figure. "But the men don't know that, and we have to get a message out there that it's critical that they're involved with their children," Dr. Poussaint says.

The absence of fathers often leaves children feeling abandoned, which Dr. Poussaint says can lead to more negative feelings. "There's the grief and the [sadness], and later they get angry, and who knows how this is all playing out in terms of even the violence that young males have toward each other," Dr. Poussaint says.

Although it's not easy to break the cycle, Bill and Dr. Poussaint say in their book that the situation is not hopeless. "We just have to get these fathers to realize that the children they sired are their children and will always be their children. By walking away, they have punished their children. Once they come and claim their children, and feel the joy and beauty of a hug, they will at least begin to understand what fatherhood is all about. But let's not kid ourselves, either. This is much easier said than done."
Blair was fatally shot on a city bus.

 
Annette and Ronald Holt know firsthand about violence among teenagers. In May 2007, their 16-year-old son, Blair, was riding home from school on a city bus in Chicago when the unthinkable happened. An armed teenage boy allegedly walked onto the bus and opened fire, killing Blair and injuring four other people. According to police, the alleged shooter boarded the bus with the intention of shooting an adversary, not Blair.

Ronald says his son made the ultimate sacrifice in order to help another passenger. "He died a hero. He protected a schoolmate. He shielded her," he says.

Months after those heroic final moments, Annette is still struggling to move on. "He was a good student. He was writing rap music. We were encouraging him to write good, clean, wholesome music. He was politically conscious. He was an avid reader, loved by a lot of people," she says. "You know how you're just supposed to let your children follow your lead? I'll have to follow his lead the rest of my life."

First-degree murder charges have been filed against two teens in connection with the shooting. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Ronald and Annette

 
Annette, a firefighter, and Ronald, a police officer, say they never thought something like this could happen to them. "To lose Blair to the very thing that I fight against and enforce against has been very horrific for me, my family, friends, and everyone who knew and loved Blair," Ronald says.

"We see so much of this in the streets, and we knew what we were dealing with out here, and we just thought that we were doing everything to protect him and get him to college," Annette says. "We had dreams and plans and they're all just gone. That was our only child."

As parents, Annette says she and Ronald tried to do all the right things. "We went to movies together. Even as a teenager, I would take him to parties. I would pick him up. I would meet the parents. I didn't trust the streets to raise my child."

Annette says parents need to realize that violence can touch anyone—and it's everyone's responsibility to change things. "Everyone owns a part in it, not just African-Americans and Hispanics. All of us. Because it could be any of your children, any of your nieces, nephews, any of your parents. It could be you," she says. "If we all don't step up to the plate and do something, we're all going to be living in a world that we're afraid to go out and just do anything in life. We're going to be shut inside."
Bill Cosby

 
When Bill and Dr. Poussaint take questions from the studio audience, Angela, a Head Start teacher in Chicago, says she has grown frustrated in her attempts to get parents involved in students' schoolwork. "I just wanted to ask Dr. Cosby if he has any suggestions?" she says.

Bill says he learned one way from a student teacher whom he met at Florida A&M University. "She said, 'What I do is, when the bell rings, the child that I'm interested in at the time, I follow that child out of the building. The child usually leads me to an adult. And I say, "Hi, I'm So-and-so's teacher. And who are you? I've been trying to reach you all this time."' So maybe you might try that."

Angela's struggles remind Oprah of Ron Clark, the recipient of the 2000 Outstanding Teacher of the Year award for his commitment to education in Harlem. Before the semester would begin, Ron went to the parents of his incoming student to let them know what he expected. "He's a young white guy. And he said at first, the parents thought he was crazy," Oprah says. "Once they realize how much you really care, for a lot of them, it encourages them to care."
Dr. Alvin Poussaint and Bill Cosby

 
Trudy, who is white and says she lives in a predominantly white community, asks about the use of the n-word in music her children listen to. "It's not used in my home, I've never heard people in the community use it, but yet all of the kids know it," she says. "All of the white kids know it because of music and movies and they think it's like no big deal." So what can Trudy tell them about using that word?

Dr. Poussaint says Trudy needs to be forceful in telling her children what she thinks. "You tell them that it's a vicious, awful, demeaning word that has led to the killing, lynching and the demoralization and feelings of inferiority in black people—and that you can't make that word positive," he says. "It really damages our children. It's damaging all the way through. You should never justify it."
William

 
In 2005, Bill met a young man named William whose story he says he will never forget. William, a self-admitted "mama's boy," grew up in a poor crime-ridden neighborhood outside of Washington D.C. When he was just 10 years old, he says he woke to the terrifying sound of his mother screaming. He rushed outside to the driveway and found his mother's boyfriend dragging her.

"He just started immediately loading his gun and then he went over to my mother and then he put the gun up to her face," Williams says. "And he just shot her about two times in her face and she dropped right on the floor immediately. And I just remember all of this blood coming out of her mouth and just going all over the floor. And then he went to my brother and then he shot my brother. Then he came to me and he put the gun to my head."

William says he begged for his life. "I looked up into the sky and I was like, 'God, please, please don't let him kill me,'" he says. "And then for some reason, he just pulled back. And then he said to me, 'You can leave.'"
William and his grandmother

 
Despite everything he's been through, William will be the first in his family to graduate from college. He says his life was turned around because of the efforts of one woman—his grandmother. "She jumped right in that day and she's been going ever since," he says.

In addition to his grandmother's love and support, William says he drew inspiration from teachers, friends and his sister. Without this support network, William says he could have ended up on the street selling or using drugs. "I was susceptible to that, going in that direction," he says.

William's sister, Manyka, who was across the street at the time their mother was murdered, says she went down the road William avoided. She says she sold drugs, including cocaine, as she was growing up...until the efforts of her grandmother, teachers and coaches turned her life around.

"I was a victim, but I had a village around me," Manyka says. "I thank the Lord that he put people in my life, because I can now stand and not have to remain in that spot as a victim."
Manyka works for a community advocacy group.

 
No longer selling drugs, Manyka now counsels young people who face the same choices she did. "I'm giving back to the community because they gave to me," she says.

Manyka says her experiences—both selling drugs and learning that selling drugs is wrong—inform how she helps her community. "I [say, 'I] was in your shoes, but I'm standing now. They told me that I would never be anything, I wouldn't make it. But I'm standing because I had a choice,'" Manyka says. "I did all of the wrong things, thinking that I was no one and nobody and nobody cared. But somebody reached out to me—my coaches, my grandmother, the teachers, my pastor."
Dr. Poissant, Bill Cosby and Oprah

 
Oprah says one passage of Come On People speaks to the importance mentors can have on kids. "Low expectations coming from a teacher can cause a child to fail," she reads. "But coming from a parent, low expectations can crush the soul."

High expectations must begin early, Dr. Poussaint says. "You can see it on the street [with parents saying], 'You're stupid. You're an idiot.' So even before [kids] get to school, many of them are damaged in the way they think about themselves," he says. "Parents from the very beginning have to respect and care and nurture their children and not do bad things for them."

Studies illustrate the lasting harm parents' actions have on their kids. "A lot of the inmates in jail, particularly for violent crimes have been victims of child abuse themselves," he says. "Violence begets violence in the home."

Bill says he has a friend who thinks parents can keep track of their kids by adopting the "shake down" philosophy used by prison guards. "He talks to his congregation, telling parents why they don't have to knock on a door—a bedroom door—of a child, and say, 'May I come in?'" Bill says. "Why? Because you don't pay any rent. This is not your place."

Parents need to know all about what their children are doing—they should look under beds, monitor Internet usage, know who their friends are, Bill says. "We have parents who don't know what subjects the children are taking, who don't know when the test is coming, who don't know if they're finished, don't know the grades," he says. "We must know."