Walking in the shoes of the poor, the downtrodden, the unfortunate... the different!

The Oregonian published this opinion piece in the form of a letter to a debt collector from Ruth Rodgers, a laid off high tech worker who once pulled down a six figure salary as a software development team leader.
She found work as a medical receptionist, then as a certified nursing assistant. Working a seven day week, she now earns in that week what she used to earn in a single day. But she has also learned empathy:

"That's because, along the way, I've learned that no matter how bad things get, there's always someone who's worse off than me. I've learned compassion. I don't jump to conclusions about people."

"I look panhandlers in the eye now and smile at them. If I don't have a coin to share, I can at least acknowledge their humanity. Who am I to judge them or make assumptions about how they got to be where they are?"

Ruth Rodgers is the anti-Neil Goldschmidt, whose "perspective" was "warped" by hanging out exclusively with the rich and the powerful, the movers and the shakers, the elite. Ruth Rodgers once had money; now she struggles to pay her bills. Neil Goldschmidt was once a Legal Aid lawyer and a public servant; now he's a millionaire corporate consultant. Rodger's journey taught her empathy for the less fortunate. Goldschmidt's path led him to money and influence, and ultimately, to shame.

**************

Bill Cosby may be an example of another rich and famous celebrity who's lost touch with the common man, in this case the Black common man. His recent speech at Howard University, and another at Stanford, blasted denizens of the black lower class for failing to take advantage of the opportunities afforded them by Brown vs. Board of Education and the martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement.
Here's part of what he said at Howard:

" 'Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids – $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.'

"He added: 'They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is' ... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. ... Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. ... You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.' "

Cosby may be on the far side a growing generational, cultural, and, yes, economic chasm that separates him from "the lower economic people" he criticizes. But he apparently is not alone. Middle Class journalist
Cynthia Tucker says that "... much of black America, especially its middle class, is ready to have that conversation. In that sense, Cosby's speech was a watershed event -- a sign that black America is now comfortable enough with its accomplishments to discuss its shortcomings."
And conservative Thomas Sowell, who has always seemed a bit embarrassed by his race, says that when comparing Blacks to whites to Asians, "the differences among all these groups are in one four-letter word that you are still not supposed to say: work." For more of the same, click here and here.

Others disagree, of course. Joe Rodriguez
of the San Jose Mercury News says the criticisms are too simplistic:

"Too many gangs and drugs in the neighborhood? Just say No.

Poverty got you down? Just get married.

If you got married and you're still poor, then don't have kids until you can afford them."

And Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Village Voice weighs in with this:

"Race still matters, but largely the problems of black people today are the problems of poor people. In his last days, Martin Luther King turned his attention to class, a focus Cosby's brethren airbrushed away. They could march on Washington every 10 years without having to march on their own drug-riddled corners. They ignore the ghetto or, when emboldened like Cosby, shit on it."

In the final analysis, Cosby, like the doctor married to the lawyer in his sit-com, is something of an elitist.

************

The best book I've read on the insidious effects of racism is Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.
More on that later.

Comments

[Craig]

"elitist," not "elitest," unless you are trying to say tht Cosby is the most elite, which, economically, may not be far off. So, if Sewell's four letter prescription for black poverty is not the answer, what is?

[Ruth Rogers]

A friend of mine ran across your blog entry about my op-ed the other day, and told me about it. I thought you might be interested in knowing how it came about, and what has grown out of it. You'll find the whole story on my blog. (Be sure to note the invitation at the end!)

[Juno Mindoes]

I want iphone 4 white as my christmas present!