Posted on 07/01/2005 4:04:20 AM PDT by johnny7
The votes are in from a new TiVo poll to find the country's "Favorite TV Dad." It's no surprise to me that the winner was Bill Cosby's Heathcliff Huxtable. What a paradox: Even though America's long-lasting warmth for Cosby and his classic 1980s series "The Cosby Show" lingers, inside the black community, Cosby is a lightning rod for criticism and abuse.
When "The Cosby Show" hit the airwaves, the star opened himself up to vicious attacks from some cultural pundits who seemed to have a political investment in racism and division and no patience for Cosby's positive portrayal of the successful black family. Cosby was such a glutton for punishment that he funded a study by two hostile academics at the University of Massachusetts, published in a 1992 book titled "Enlightened Racism." They attacked the show for promoting the "dangerous myth" that unsuccessful blacks have only themselves to blame, and that Cosby was relieving white viewers of their responsibility for racial inequality.
There is no doubt that these academics, so contemptuous of images of wealthy, well-educated blacks functioning in harmony with whites, must hate what Cosby's been doing for the last year. He has been touring inner cities with minimal publicity, challenging blacks to stop blaming the "system" and take responsibility for their own lives. He is telling them to stop doing nothing about the outrages of the inner city. He is decrying the sense of hopelessness. He is asking for the uplift of the black community in the sorriest corners of America.
Now, academics are fighting him again. Author Michael Eric Dyson has gone after him with a full-length book asking "Is Bill Cosby Right?" His subtitle answers the question: "Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?" He claims Cosby represents a snooty "Afristocracy" of black professionals denouncing the "ghettocracy" of single mothers and inner-city gangsters. Dyson complained there's "nothing like a formerly poor black multimillionaire bashing poor blacks to lend credence to the ancient assaults they've endured from the dominant culture." I wonder if Mr. Dyson has lost his mind. In an interview on his book with the New York Times Magazine, he suggested that "None of us want our children to be murderers or thieves. But Cosby never acknowledges that most poor blacks don't have a choice about these things." Don't have a choice? If this is not the most perfectly pathetic example of excuse-making, I don't know what is.
ABC's "Nightline" gained an exclusive interview with Cosby that aired on June 29. They filmed Cosby's speech in St. Louis. It was so passionate, so eloquent, so persuasive. Reporter Michel McQueen acknowledged that Cosby wins critics over when he comes into troubled communities and brings hard truths to the people there. Cosby's words speak volumes. "I'm saying to the lower-income African-American community, those of you who are living and seeing things that oughtn't be, those of you who are feeling afraid of your own people: There was a time when we were not afraid of our own children. We were not afraid of our friends' children. There was a time." How can one oppose that vision?
The crowning irony of Cosby's critics is their need to dip into the fact that Cosby has not lived a sterling personal life in his own right. ABC's McQueen felt she had to bring it up. Do "your own foibles, true or untrue, somehow disqualify you from these issues?" In 1997, the networks all covered at length the paternity squabble with Autumn Jackson, who was Cosby's illegitimate daughter, and was convicted of extorting him. Since then, there have been other accusations of impropriety. Cosby replied that if he were waving off incoming traffic from an accident scene, would you not pay attention?
Maybe the question "had to be asked," as McQueen claimed. Maybe it's a fair question -- if it was evenly applied by the media. But it's ironic that a man who is touting fidelity and talking about character-building, a comedian and a celebrity, draws more questions about allegations of his moral failings than media outlets or black leaders ever asked of presidents or civil rights leaders. Would McQueen suggest Martin Luther King's infidelity disqualified him from speaking out? The civil suits swirling around Cosby now, accusing him of inappropriate conduct, may be true or untrue. But Cosby's crusade has certainly brought him great scrutiny, scrutiny he might have avoided entirely had he comfortably retired and left the "ghettocracy" to run the inner city.
It's a point lost on his critics, but worthy of consideration.
It's a shame, really.
Cosby's a good man, he speaks the truth...and he gets slimed.
Then again, in today's world, that's commonplace.
Cosby speaks the truth and doesn't candy coat his actions and he is vilified. Hypocrites.
The black man is his own worst enemy.
Whites arent holding back blacks, They are holding themselves back by blaming the white man. Stop the blame game, get an education and start living the American Dream, the blacks who have done so are doing just fine.
Is there one major "civil rights" figure of whom that is not true? It almost seems that the failure to address the issue with MLK has imposed a spiritual curse.
"MLK gets a pass and was noted for his extramarital affairs and infidelity and is rewarded by having a National Holiday and all of the streets in the United States named after him.Cosby speaks the truth and doesn't candy coat his actions and he is vilified. Hypocrites."
And add to that Queasy em-fu-me and Jesse Jackson. I think Queasy has 6 or 7 kids, all by different women.
If Bill Cosby is a moral degenerate, it has nothing at all to do with the validity of his arguments against moral degeneracy.
Sort of like all those drug and alcohol counselors who are ex-druggies and alkies themselves.
I have been a public high school teacher for seventeen years. Our high school has a large diverse population. We have kids from one million dollar homes and others who live in apartments and trailer parks. I see them all. We have whites, Asians, hispanics, and blacks. We had 167 black students out of 900 in our last graduating class who began as freshmen. Of the 167 starting out in the 9th grade less than 20 graduated!
This hip-hop culture is killing them! Too many dress in expensive designer clothes, including $150 sneakers but can't seem to remember to bring paper or pencil to class. Too many use foul language in the hallways. Too many black girls quickly become pregnant and drop out of school.
Please don't tell me this is racism. It is culture! If he'd run, I'd vote for Mr. Cosby for president.
That's certainly true, and I'm not taking a position on whether the accusations aimed at him are true. I wasn't even including Cosby under "civil rights" figures.
There is still racism, it's called AFIRMATIVE ACTION. I'm tired of our two major whining minorities that we've coddled for generations and yet our Asian immigrants are cleaning their plows academically and in many other ways.
Crime statistics, among other things, speak for themselves, and you know the Feds would want to slant those stats, Cosby is right on point.
Quit acting goofy, start a business, go to work, strive to be a good example and get a life.
Cosby threatens the power, position and income of the race mongers so they attack and belittle him. Not unlike the actions of the left on a national scale.
This guys a piece of work. Takes the top-job at the NAACP and uses it for a booty-shakedown.
"Cosby threatens the power, position and income of the race mongers so they attack and belittle him. Not unlike the actions of the left on a national scale."
Ya beat me to it.
To see the destruction of the inner-city, black family unit since 1965 should make ANY American scratch his/her head and shout WHY?!
And MLK was a preacher!!! Bill Cosby is a great American for doing what he is doing but I doubt if any streets will be named after him.
If blacks were smart, they'd jump on the bandwagon and follow Cosby's leadership, just as they did MLK's.
Cosby is the modern day MLK. And I hope no one comes and says MLK was a communist, yada yada. It isn't relevant. The point is that Cosby has the potential to spur the black community to stop accepting the status quo, to seek the fulfillment of Liberties they took back when segregation and slavery were removed as barriers.
I wish him well. I'm tired of seeing one entire race stuck in this mindset that they cannot achieve.
The MSM gave a pass to the ultimate race pimp, thief, and huckster - one Jesse Jackson. Recall Jackson "praying" with that other low-life, Bill Clinton, in the Oval Office while accompanied by his knocked-up girlfriend. The treatment of Mr. Cosby for speaking the truth is despicable and illustrates the utter moral emptiness and hypocrisy of so much of the media, academe, and the democrat party itself.
It boggles my mind that the same people who passionately pursue voting rights for convicted felons also seem to believe that a single sin disqualifies you from speaking out on any issue. At least, any issue that might hurt a liberal's feelings.
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