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To: LouAvul
Bill Cosby gets a lot of slack from me, and it is well earned over a lifetime. He was a pioneer in early television, where Americans saw in him a black face in roles they had never played before. And for being a pioneer, he got a lot of arrows in the back from racist whites. He fought back not with hate, but by becoming wildly successful.

He is not anti-white, but when he was most powerful in Hollywood he was very affirmative action oriented. He saw first hand the lack of opportunities given to black people, and so when he had become powerful enought to call the shots, he put black people in every role he could, in front of the camera and behind. In the late 80's if you were black in Hollywood, your career path eventually went through Cosby.

And although he gave preference to blacks, he demanded absolute excellence from everyone he hired, probably more so than whites. He gave them the chance, but they had to perform. Many, many in Hollywood owe their careers to him.

So does that make him racist? In my view, absolutely not. He responded to the racism coming from whites and turned it into a positive thing. And when you listen to him these days when he sounds bitter towards blacks, you have to look a things from his perspective. He took a lot of arrows so that the next generation would not have to, demanded excellence in everything they did, and was confident that that would overcome everything. What he didn't see was that many blacks would turn away from that and embrace the new thug culture and rap, almost confirming the worst of earlier white stereotypes about blacks.

Here in 2011, relations are far better between blacks and whites than when he was starting out, both in Hollywood and out in America from people who grew up watching him, and he can claim his own part of making that happen.

17 posted on 04/12/2011 8:34:45 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Vince Ferrer

The murder of his son Ennis, has left him very bitter.


19 posted on 04/12/2011 8:37:44 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Vince Ferrer

He has also been a frequent visitor to the Playboy mansion and has cheated on his wife for years. I’m just sayin’


21 posted on 04/12/2011 8:40:13 PM PDT by Mountain Mary (Trump/West 2012)
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