'Meet the Press' transcript for Jan. 11, 2009

MR. GREGORY:  And we're back, and joined by Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Bill Cosby, Mayor Adrian Frenty--Fenty, rather, of Washington, and Representative Maxine Waters.

Thank you all for being here to, to launch an important series on, on leadership tests that this president faces.

Bill Cosby, you and Dr. Poussaint wrote this book, "Come On, People," in order to effectively say there is a crisis in the black community.  It is educational, it is economic, it is social.  We've just spent the last 20 minutes talking about the economic distress in this country, and in the African-American community it is felt even more strongly.  Here are a couple of facts to bear that out.  The unemployment rate by race:  among whites, 6.6 percent in December; among African-Americans it's already in double digits, 11.9 percent, up three points.  And there is this sobering assessment from the Economic Policy Institute from back in September:  "The overall social well-being of African-American communities depends upon strong job growth. The historical evidence shows clearly that strong job and wage growth are the keys to reducing black poverty.  Without reductions in child poverty, we can expect continued lower educational achievement, higher rates of teen pregnancy, and a higher than average rate of crime in black communities." These are discouraging facts.  Bill Cosby, let's start with you.

MR. COSBY:  Well, I, I think Alvin, Alvin has something to say about--go ahead.

DR. ALVIN POUSSAINT:  Well, I think all the things that you mention are severely, like, aggravate all the things are happening--bad things happening in black community:  the unemployment rate, the poverty rate.  We know that the poverty and the unemployment distresses families.  At the same time that you have this high unemployment rate you also have, with the downturn in the economy, a cutback in all kinds of services, particularly that poor people need, that children need.  The schools get cut back, so the, the schools are also having a more difficult time in educating young people.  So the crisis is very, very serious and may get worse, because the poverty rate certainly will go up because of the economic downturn.  And it's likely that even more young people will not find any kind of, kind of work.  I mean, the high school dropout rate in a lot of urban areas is, like, 50 percent among--particularly among African-American youth in the major cities.

MR. GREGORY:  Uh-huh.

DR. POUSSAINT:  And when they drop out of high school they've very likely--got a six out of 10 chance of ending up at some point in, in prison. So all of the things we talk about in the book--the high incarceration rate, the high high school dropout rate, the violence in the black community--what are people going to do if they don't have any money?

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

DR. POUSSAINT:  Is that going to increase crime?  Very, very, very, very likely.

MR. COSBY:  But I also--I'm sorry.

DR. POUSSAINT:  Go ahead.

MR. COSBY:  I, I think we need to do some work with numbers.  For instance, if in a city the--to educate a kid in public school it would cost $8,000 per child, let's use that figure; to incarcerate, keep that person, is 41,000.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

MR. COSBY:  All right.  So if, if we know that the lack of education leads to a person's chances of committing crimes because they are not skilled at anything in particular, perhaps even illiterate or functionally illiterate, then why not try to educate all of our children, try to educate all of our children?  So eight from 41,000 leaves you 33,000 left.  I think we need to do the math on that and put more children in a position who are not doing well...

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

MR. COSBY:  ...to help them do well, because these children are not--you--some of them may be different, they learn differently.  So instead of just moving little Alvin along, let's educate Alvin to move along so he can catch up with Bill.

MR. GREGORY:  Congresswoman Waters, enter President-elect Barack Obama.  How does the nation's first African-American president take on these problems?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA):  Well, let me just say that despite the economic crisis that we're in, President Barack Obama is talking about the biggest stimulus package that's ever been discussed in the history of this nation. And we're in a situation where, yes, people are hurting.  You just told us what the unemployment numbers are.  But you know, a rising tide lifts all boats, and so what you're going to have is an infusion of dollars in the community creating jobs.  That's for everybody.  You're going to have jobs that are in the construction industry, because we're talking about now infrastructure repair in ways that we have not talked about it before, the roads and the bridges, and these jobs are for the skilled and the unskilled. So I'm hopeful, very, very hopeful that many of these unemployed youth that are probably at about 28 percent unemployed will get jobs, and some of us are working very hard to target some of those jobs to the worst areas of our country.

MR. GREGORY:  And Mayor Fenty...

MAYOR ADRIAN FENTY:  Yes.

MR. GREGORY:  ...I mean, if there is going to be a bigger social safety net, you're going to need it here in the District.

MAYOR FENTY:  That's right.  Yeah.  And, and I think President-elect Obama is hitting the stimulus out of the park.  I think he's doing exactly what's needed in the immediate term, and it's going to take us forward for a couple of years.  But I point people also towards what I think will also be a signature issue for the Obama administration, and that's education.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

MAYOR FENTY:  His choice of Arne Duncan as secretary of education is a choice out of Chicago, out of the box, someone who is going to challenge status quo, traditional ways of doing things.  And I think all these things--jobs, the crime, housing--are driven by this unbelievable statistic of how poorly African-Americans and Latinos are educated in the inner city and in rural parts of the country.

MR. GREGORY:  Bill Cosby, I want to come back to you.  I want to pull back for just a second.  Will you tell me what it was like for you to go in and vote for Barack Obama?

MR. COSBY:  Well, I took my father's picture, I took my mother's picture and I took my brother James, he died when he was seven, I was eight.  And I took the three of them into the voting booth in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, and I pulled the curtain and I took their pictures out and I said, "And now we're going to vote." And I--we only, I only voted once.  But--and I did that and their pictures were out, and then I put them back into my pocket and I opened the curtain.  And it, and it was wonderful.

MR. GREGORY:  And here you are on--have been on this journey in the course of your life and career, now you're on this journey to get people as angry as you are, as you've said in, in a speech.  What do you expect of this new president, who happens to be our first black president?

MR. COSBY:  Change, challenge for all of us.  I believe he's asking us to be honest.  I, I, I believe he's, he's asking us to be honest.  I believe he's asking us to look around and see in all honesty what we can do and what makes sense as opposed to what will go into our pockets or make us feel good or who we can punish according to our religion.  I think it's time for all of us to, to do things in terms of community, to stop worrying about what other people think of us and, and just go right on in and begin to talk to our youngsters about correct choices, to not be afraid to, to challenge them and be honest with them and, and, and to not be afraid to just stand and, and work with him and think that we're working with him to make change and choices and challenge.

MR. GREGORY:  One of the things that really strikes me about this book, "Come On, People," is that as a parent with three young kids, I think it just has a transcendent message.

MR. COSBY:  Yes.

MR. GREGORY:  Which is that parenting matters.

MR. COSBY:  Yes.

MR. GREGORY:  That you got to be involved in your kids' lives, you got to let, let them know that, that you love them.

MR. COSBY:  That's true.

MR. GREGORY:  The, the president-elect back in June, on Father's Day, spoke about some of these issues in a pretty blunt way.  Let's listen.

MAYOR FENTY:  Sure.

(Videotape, June 15, 2008)

PRES.-ELECT OBAMA:  If we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that too many fathers are also missing.  Too many fathers are MIA.  Too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes.  They've abandoned their responsibilities, they're acting like boys instead of men, and the foundations of our family have suffered because of it.  You and I know this is true everywhere, but nowhere is it more true than in the African-American community.  We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent houses.  Half.  A number that's doubled since we were children.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  The president-elect, his father wasn't around.  He left when he was two years old.  Raised by his mother and his grandparents in Hawaii.  The idea of the president-elect as a role model, you write about that in the book, and this is what you say:  "For many black males, chances for success seem slim in many fields because they lack role models. ... These kids see all the bad role models you can imagine--drug dealers, pimps, you name it.  But positive role models do exist.  We're talking about ordinary black men doing an honest day's work as cab drivers, counselors, bus drivers, doctors, lawyers, and businessmen." And now we add this, president of the United States, as we take a look at, at the first family.

DR. POUSSAINT:  Yeah.  Well, I--yeah, I think what he's saying is, is very important, and I think parenting is very, very important and that needs to be emphasized.  And the fact that the president is talking about that, I think we need to talk about it much more so that, you know, it's not just single parents or two-family homes, it's whether you're a good parent or not...

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

DR. POUSSAINT:  ...is very, very key.  And so everyone needs to be educated in that way.  I would like to see, like, a national conference call, you know, on parenting...

MAYOR FENTY:  No, you're right.  No, you're right.

DR. POUSSAINT:  ...you know, and get everybody on that same kind of wavelength to make a difference for their children.  Because particularly now, it's going to take time for the stimulus to kick in.  Families are going to be under stress.

MAYOR FENTY:  Mm-hmm.

DR. POUSSAINT:  And when families are under stress, children are under stress right now, and depressed and anxious.  And there's going to be increased homelessness, at least...

MR. COSBY:  And abandoned.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

DR. POUSSAINT:  And, and feeling abandoned.

MR. GREGORY:  And let--let's talk about, Congresswoman, let...

REP. WATERS:  Well, it's--yes.

MR. GREGORY:  The role of role model.

REP. WATERS:  Yes.

MR. COSBY:  Mm-hmm.

MORE FROM MEET THE PRESS

Meet the Press Section Front

Nov. 8: Casey, Barbour, Rendell, roundtable, Brokaw Nov. 1: Tim Geithner, David Plouffe, roundtable Oct. 25: Cornyn, Schumer, Burnett, Sorkin, roundtable Oct. 18: Jarrett, Dodd, Kyl, Shriver, Podesta Oct. 11: Levin, Graham, McCaffrey, Myers, roundtable Oct. 4: Ambassador Susan Rice, roundtable Sept. 27: Bill Clinton, Paterson, Kyl, Webb Sept. 20: President Obama, Sen. Graham, Rep. Boehner, roundtable Sept. 13: Durbin, Cornyn, Dean, Gingrich, roundtable Sept. 6: Axelrod, roundtable Meet the Press Section Front   Add Meet the Press headlines to your news reader: