I think so and so do Bill Cosby and Juan Williams. Although both Cosby and Williams press for various social programs, they realize that success comes via perseverance, not sitting around and crying for someone else to save you. This has led Juan Williams to write a book that I’ll probably be picking up, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It.

Predictably, Mr. Williams taking a more Conservative approach on how Blacks can do better in America is being greeted with some scorn, just as Bill Cosby has been dealing with. In fact, for Mr. Williams lauding Cosby’s message, the same exact chief detractor of Cosby’s is being critical of him too, Michael Eric Dyson. Mr. Dyson always wants to place blame on rich White people. This is Dyson’s modus operandi and he’s sticking to it. Because Dyson defends and is part of that group of “phony leaders” who continually claim that Blacks need to be given something special. Be it reparations for a slavery we Blacks now living never experienced or just White people throwing money at Blacks out of pure guilt for what some part of their ancestral DNA may or may not have done; Dyson and others like him will always cry that Blacks can’t do well without being given something special.

So what happens when you put Juan Williams and Michael Eric Dyson in the same room together with cameras and microphones on? You get to see a true example of the “victim mentality” versus the “do for yourself view” on display. Dyson interviewed Mr. Williams about his new book on C-Span 2 program After Words, which aired this past weekend. And I must say Juan Williams did exceptionally well in representing his views. It was a most interesting debate with some heated moments that are must sees. To view the video, put this link [rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/arc_btv/arc_btv081206_4.rm] (without brackets) into your Real Player software using the File/Open command.

During their discussion/debate, Dyson continued to try and get Mr. Williams to in my opinion blame Whitey for something, anything. And given Mr. Williams’ devotion to saying Blacks need to work harder themselves, Mr. Dyson raised the following question to Mr. Williams.

(Keep in mind Dyson was directly asking Williams this.)

Are there any barriers in your mind, that present themselves to Black students who are trying to acquire education, other than self reliance or the failure to take advantage of opportunities.? Are there any other barriers that you might acknowledge?

Mr. Williams said there are others, but did not name anything specific. I’m sure Dyson would have loved to hear the words, “yea the evil White man and we need to make him give us something”, come from Williams’ mouth, but he didn’t get that level of satisfaction. I know of something holding back many Black students who work hard and do take advantage of available opportunities. I certainly wish it would have been said during their chat. And if you’ve been reading here a long time, you know exactly what I’m about to say. Black Thugism is the #1 thing holding back Black students, that want to excel and are trying to do their work. Black Thugs are the ones literally beating them in the streets, taking their books, their money and sometimes their lives. I’m hard pressed to find Blacks who do the work required to “make it” in America, that say they can’t because “America’s evil White society” is holding them back. But I’ve met many Blacks who have told me how when they were in grade school they literally had to hide their books for fear of thugs beating them up if the thugs knew they had books, or they were called racially derogatory names by Blacks for doing their school work, or some level of abuse along those lines. And I’ve posted here about how some good Black kids are murdered or nearly murdered by Black thugs. Not evil rich White Americans.

I feel it is absolutely insane that many people who claim to speak for Black advancement focus their efforts on what they can get from “rich White people”, while giving little or no attention to the people literally killing Blacks in the street who want to advance. And typically if they do speak about a Black thug, it’s to get them out of prison for crimes they were found guilty or doing or off death row. To me it is totally illogical to not have the full bulk of focus on the thugs and culture that breeds them.

So when you can, be sure to watch that entire interview between Dyson and Williams. I might have my differences of opinion with Juan Williams on some matters, but I must say he’s got things together much better than folks like Michael Eric Dyson.

Rev. DL Foster also has some thoughts about Mr. Williams’ new book.

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