Several months ago I had the opportunity to listen to and question Dr. Kevin Cosby, a man who speaks with the authority of one who has earned his bona fides in black America. As a child he stumbled over the feet of Martin Luther King when King was a guest in his family’s home. For 32 years Cosby has pastored what has grown into a church that runs some 10,000—mostly blacks—in its services and serves as the President of Simmons College.

Here are a few highlights from what he said:

• The black community in America has a leadership core offering solutions to problems that no longer exist. They persist as race antagonists and prey on blacks to keep themselves in power. He called them “poverty pimps.”
• The civil rights movement wasn’t about equality, it was about equal opportunity. You become equal by taking advantage of the opportunities that are afforded you and maximizing them. His message was basically one of: get an education, be a good citizen, work hard, and develop yourself.
• The last piece of civil rights legislation was the open housing law passed in 1968. This law made it illegal to discriminate against blacks in housing; no more white-only subdivisions. Prior to passage of this legislation, the black community was economically integrated. Affluent blacks and poorer blacks lived side-by-side in neighborhoods and communities. The communities remained socially and economically vital. However, with the passage of the 1968 open housing legislation, more affluent blacks began moving out of the inner cities into the suburbs. As a result, no one left in the inner city but the poor, who became socially isolated. As Cosby put it, “Segregation led to desegregation which led to integration which led to disintegration” of the urban core of urban America.
• Racism will slow you down, but the lack of education, character and a marketable skill will wipe you out.
• The cure to what ails black America is salvation and education.
• The church has many critics but no rivals when it comes to transformation.
• You can’t fix what you won’t face and can’t heal what you won’t reveal.
• Cosby said that blacks in America have been allowed equal opportunity, and when they got it, the didn’t take it. When I asked him why he said that the modern welfare state has created a culture of dependence which disabled black self-determinism.
• I asked him what percentage of the black culture espoused the philosophy he shared and he replied many did. He said that the black culture was generally very conservative and that the reason many of us thought otherwise was because only the loud-mouthed “poverty pimps” got press. Essentially he said the view many white folks like me had of black America was a media creation that didn’t accurately reflect black culture.

I like Cosby. He’s extremely articulate and well-reasoned. It’s a shame we can’t have guys this sharp running the country. But, it’s a blessing that we’ve got guys like this rebuilding the inner cities and running the educational institutions that will create the next generation of Christ-followers.