Michael Eric Dyson (31 page)

44
Wilson, p. 311. For a discussion of the “Big” designation, see Betty M. Kuyk,
African Voices in the African American Heritage
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 42.

45
Wilson says that more sons were named for their fathers because owners usually recognized “uterine ties” and as a result paternal ties were “much more vulnerable.” Also, he suggests, “there may also have been a traditional patrilineal sense” operating as well. Wilson, p. 312.

46
Berlin, p. 240.

47
Ibid.

48
Berlin, p. 321.

49
Wilbert Jenkins,
Climbing Up to Glory: A Short History of African Americans During the Civil War and Reconstruction
(Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 2002), p. 154.

50
Stanley Lieberson and Kelly S. Mikelson, “Distinctive African American Names: An Experimental, Historical, and Linguistic Analysis of Innovation,”
American Sociological Review
60:6 (December 1995), p. 930.

51
Wilson, p. 314.

52
Ibid.

53
Ibid.

54
Ibid.

55
Ibid.

56
Ibid., pp. 314-315.

57
Ibid., p. 315.

58
See Lieberson and Mikelson, p. 932, for claims of the relation
between black power, black nationalism, distinctive black culture and unique names. According to Wilson, a study by Jerrilyn McGregory (“Aareck to Zsaneka: New Trends in African American Onomastics,”
Proceedings of the XVIth International Congress of Onomastic Sciences
[1990], pp. 389—396) that examined unusual names in Indiana found that “one quarter of girls’ names were distinctive in 1965, but 40 per cent by 1980. Boys’ names remained more traditional from the custom of naming them after fathers, but here too there was a clear trend towards distinctive Black names. McGregory relates this development to the disillusionment which followed the ‘success’ of the Civil Rights movement.” Wilson, p. 315.

59
Jet
, June 31, 1993.

60
Lieberson and Mikelson, p. 930.

61
Ibid.

62
Ibid., p. 931.

63
Ibid., p. 933.

64
Ibid., p. 934.

65
Ibid.

66
Ibid., pp. 935-936.

67
Ibid., p. 936.

68
Ibid., p. 937.

69
Ibid., p. 939.

70
Cathy M. Jackson, “Names CAN Hurt!”
Essence
, April 1989.

71
Clifford Thompson, “Inventing Our Names, Our Selves: African Americans’ Personal Names,”
Commonweal
, March 24, 1995.

72
Ibid.

73
Ibid.

74
On ABC TV’s newsmagazine
20/20
, black reporter Jami Floyd did a piece that took off on Bertrand and Mullainathan’s study, which is discussed in the text that follows. Floyd assembled a group of black professionals who didn’t believe that their unique black names would prevent them from getting a job. Floyd put twenty-two names to the test, and had the group post two identical resumes each on popular job Web sites: one with their real name, the other with a white-sounding name. Predictably, the white-sounding names got the nod at least 17
percent more than their unique black names. During the piece, Floyd interviewed conservative essayist Shelby Steele, who, predictably, laid into the unique black names and blamed the folk who bore the names, not the society that courts prejudice against them. “I think it’s a naiveté on the part of black parents to name their children names that are so different than American mainstream names. It suggests to people outside that community who hear those names a certain alienation, a certain hostility.” Steele argued against giving kids unique black names. When Floyd asked Steele, “So, you’re telling black folks, don’t name your child DeShawn or Laquita?” Steele replied, “Yes.” Floyd said, in response to Steele’s answer, “Name your child John or Robert or James or William,” and Steele replied, “I’m saying don’t name your son Latrell. Don’t do that. He’s going to live 50, 60 years in the future. Give him a break, call him Edward.” Thus, Steele concedes the argument to dominant culture’s bias, and counsels no resistance at all on the part of parents or other blacks to such bias. Fortunately, Floyd also interviewed sociologist and author Bertice Berry, who argued that when black folk who have power have unique or unusual names, folk learn to say them. “We’ve learned to say Condoleezza. And you just can’t get more ghetto than Condoleezza. . . . We hear Leontine and you think opera. But it’s ‘Leon-tine,’ ‘Colin’; when they are associated with power and wealth, we learn them.” See transcript, “The Name Game: Can a Name Hold You Back in Job Search?”
20/20
, August 20, 2004.

75
Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, “Are Emily and Brendan More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination,” Chicago Jobs Council.

76
Kendra Hamilton, “What’s In a Name? Study Shows That Workplace Discrimination Begins Long Before the Job Seekers Show Up for an Interview,”
Black Issues in Higher Education
, June 19, 2003.

77
Bertrand and Mullainathan.

78
Robert J. Barro, “What’s in a Name for Black Job Seekers?”
Business Week
, November 3, 2003, p. 24.

79
Ibid.

80
Ibid.

1
“Woman Makes Groping Allegations Against Bill Cosby: Cosby’s Lawyer Says Claims Are ‘Categorically False,’” January 20, 2005,
NBC10.com
. For the claim of being a “great friend and mentor,” see Jonathan Kingstone and Ian Robertson, “Bill Cosby ‘A Mentor’ to Accuser,”
Toronto Sun
, January 22, 2005.

2
Jonathan Kingstone and Ian Robertson, “Bill Cosby ‘A Mentor’ to Accuser,”
Toronto Sun
, January 22, 2005. Constand’s name was first used in this Canadian paper, and not in American papers, which have usually observed a ban on naming accusers/alleged victims in their news accounts of cases.

3
Brodie Fenlon, “Cosby Denies Assault; Woman Claims She Was Drugged, Fondled in Star’s Home,”
The Ottawa Sun
, January 21, 2005, p. 5.

4
“Family Defends Woman’s Groping Allegations Against Bill Cosby: Cosby’s Lawyer Says Claims Are ‘Categorically False,’” January 21, 2005,
NBC10.com
.

5
Kingstone and Robertson.

6
Ibid.

7
Ibid.

8
Ibid.

9
Maryclaire Dale, “Cosby Lawyer Asks Why Accuser Took So Long,”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
, January 21, 2005.

10
Ibid; “Woman Makes Groping Allegations Against Bill Cosby.” In the end, district attorney Bruce Castor decided not to file criminal charges against Cosby.

11
Mark Stamey, Murray Weiss and Andy Geller, “Actress’ Bombshell: Cos’ Rubbed Me the Wrong Way,”
New York Post
, March 2, 2000, p. 14.

12
Ibid; Michael Starr, “Cosby: Tabloid Lied,”
New York Post
, March 8, 2000, p. 81; Mark Armstrong, “Cos Cracks ‘Enquirer,’” March 8,
2000,
Eonline.com
; “Cosby Threatens to Sue Tabloid over Sexual Abuse Story,” March 7, 2000,
Cnn.com
; “Cosby Wants Retraction,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, March 8, 2000, p. 52.

13
Stamey, Weiss and Geller, p. 14.

14
Ibid.

15
“Cosby Threatens to Sue Tabloid over Sexual Abuse Story,” March 7, 2000,
Cnn.com
; Mark Armstrong, “Cos Cracks ‘Enquirer,’” March 8, 2000,
eonline.com
.

16
Ibid.

17
“Family Defends,”
NBC10.com
.

18
William Raspberry, “Bill Cosby’s Tough Love,”
Washington Post
, December 13, 1989, p. A25.

19
Lawrence Christon, “The World According to Cos,”
Los Angeles Times,
December 10, 1989, Calendar, p. 6.

20
Ibid.

21
Raspberry, p. A25.

22
Bill Cosby,
Fatherhood
(New York: Doubleday, 1986).

23
Frank Walker, “Cosby Daughter Fights Addiction,”
Sun Herald (Sydney)
, June 10, 1990, p. 17.

24
Ibid.

25
Ibid.

26
Ibid.

27
Ibid.

28
Ibid.

29
Elinor J. Brecher, “The Megastar’s Daughter,”
Miami Herald Sun
, June 15, 1992, p. 1C.

30
Ibid.

31
Ibid.

32
Ibid.

33
Ibid.

34
Jacqueline Trescott, “Erinn Cosby’s Heavyweight Bouts; from the Tabs to Her Dad to Mike Tyson, the Comedian’s Daughter Has Come Out Swinging,”
The Washington Post
, May 18, 1992.

35
Ibid.

36
“Cosby Daughter Says Tyson Assaulted Her 3 Years Ago,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, May 10, 1992, p. 41.

37
Trescott.

38
Ibid.

39
Brecher.

40
Trescott.

41
Brecher.

42
“Erinn Cosby Weds During Private Ceremony at Parents’ Philadelphia Home,”
Jet
, October 12, 1998, p. 32.

43
See “Erinn and Evin Cosby Discuss the Foundation Their Family Has Started for Children with Learning Differences,”
The Early Show
, March 25, 2002.

44
David W. Chen, “Bill Cosby Was Target of Extortion,”
The New York Times
, January 21, 1997, p. B3.

45
Ibid.

46
Ibid.

47
Ibid.

48
Benjamin Weiser, “Cosby, an Unerring Father on TV, Speaks of Affair in Extortion Trial,”
New York Times
, July 16, 1997, p. B1.

49
Ibid.

50
Ibid.

51
Ibid.

52
Ibid.

53
Benjamin Weiser, “Question in Cosby Case: Scheme or Plea for Help?”
The New York Times
, July 10, 1997, p. B1.

54
Weiser, “Cosby, an Unerring Father,” p. B1.

55
“Blood Test Planned over Cosby Paternity,”
The New York Times
, July 29, 1997, p. B2.

56
Ibid.

57
Weiser, “Question in Cosby Case.”

58
Weiser, “Cosby, an Unerring Father.”

59
Ibid.

60
Benjamin Weiser, “Paternity Issue Remains Alive in Cosby Case, Despite Denial,”
The New York Times
, July 17, 1997, p. B3.

61
Ibid.

62
Bill Hofmann, “Jailed Autumn Begs Cosby to Meet Two ‘Grandchildren,’”
New York Post
, November 6, 1998, p. 12.

63
Benjamin Weiser, “3 Are Found Guilty of Trying to Extort Money from Cosby,”
The New York Times
, July 26, 1997, Section 1, p. 1, Metropolitian Desk.

64
Benjamin Weiser, “Reporter’s Notebooks; Defense Lawyer Weighs Paternity Suit in Cosby Extortion Case,”
The New York Times
, July 28, 1997, p. B3.

65
Bob Herbert, “In America; No Mercy for Autumn,”
The New York Times
, July 11, 1997, p. A27.

66
Ibid.

67
Ibid.

68
W.E.B. Du Bois and Augustus Dill, editors,
Morals and Manners Among Negro Americans: A Social Study Made by Atlanta University, Under the Patronage of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund
(Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, 1914).

69
Ibid., p. 85.

70
Ibid., p. 82.

71
Ibid., p. 83.

72
Ibid., p. 85.

73
Ibid., p. 85.

74
Ibid., p. 86.

75
Ibid., p. 87.

76
Ibid., p. 86.

77
Ibid., p. 87.

78
Ibid., p. 89.

79
Ibid., p. 86.

80
See William Julius Wilson,
The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987); William Julius Wilson,
When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996); Michael Katz,
The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare
(New York: Pantheon, 1989); Michael Katz,
In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America
(New York: Basic Books, 1996); Robin D.G. Kelley,
Yo’
Mama’s Disfunktional: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1997); Elijah Anderson,
Streetwise: Race, Class and Change in an Urban Community
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Katherine Newman,
No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).

81
Ward Harkavy, “The Numbers Beyond the Bling,”
Village Voice
, January 4, 2005.

82
Barbara Ehrenreich,
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
(New York: Holt, 2001); David K. Shipler,
The Working Poor: Invisible in America
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), p. ix.

83
From Michael Males, cited in Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Mushmouth Reconsidered: You Can’t Say That on TV—But Bill Cosby Can,”
Village Voice
, July 13, 2004.

84
Lawrence Linderman, “Playboy Interview: Bill Cosby—a Candid Conversation with the Kinetic Comedian-Actor-Singer-Entrepreneur,”
Playboy
, May 1969, pp. 170, 172, 175.