On the Shoulders of Giants(cont.)
............................................................................................................................
POUSSAINT: There is also a perception that elders and young people
can't really talk to each other. But we have found that when they're given the
opportunity to communicate with each other on substantial issues, the dialogue
is extraordinary.
STONE: What happens when you bring the two groups to the table?
POUSSAINT: Honest dialogue! We had a roundtable with Dick Gregory, and
the focus was intergenerational differences in Black humor. We used the film Barbershop
as our starting point. Dick felt that the humor in Barbershop, such as the remarks
about Rosa Parks, had gone beyond what is appropriate. All the youngsters said
they thought the movie was great. None of the elders had seen it. And not one
of them was interested in seeing it. The young people said, "Why is this
such a big deal to you?" And the elders started telling them what they had
gone through. They shared their own stories of being refused service, or coming
back from a war and discovering that they couldn't sit in a restaurant. And toward
the end of it, the students started to understand and ask, "Why haven't I
heard these things before?"
STONE: What were some surprises in your interviews?
POUSSAINT: The wonderful thing is that so many of the elders are at a stage
in their lives where they can talk freely. And they can laugh at themselves and
talk about mistakes the made. Andy Young talked about how he never paid attention
in class, and how he probably had attention deficit disorder and was always talking
back and not respecting authority. At Howard, he said, he majored in partying.
And Andy told me that the most frightening experience of his life was not facing
down the mobs in the civil-rights struggle--it was knowing his parents were on
a train, coming up from New Orleans to Washington, D.C., to attend his graduation,
and he didn't know if he had enough credits to graduate. But he also mentioned
that shortly afterward he began to take control of his life.
COSBY: One of the funniest responses I remember is from Shirley Chisholm.
I asked what was the most difficult thing she had endured during her presidential
candidacy. And she said, "Men." All kinds of men. Black men, White men,
Latin men. All kinds of men just got in her way.