[littlehouse36]

” Instead of focusing on some abstract notion of equality, he argues, blacks need to cleanse their culture, embrace personal responsibility, and reclaim the traditions that fortified them in the past.”

Amen, Mr. Crosby.

[Mr. Mojo]

“My problem,” Cosby told the audience, “is I’m tired of losing to white people."

No Bill, your problem is that you consider people of different skin colors to be in some sort of competition.

[wafflehouse]

i think bill cosby is a good guy. i think his opposition to the ‘world owes me a living’ attitude is great.

[2ndDivisionVet]

VERY interesting article. I hope everyone clicks thru and reads the whole thing. Thanks for posting it.

[donna]

When political strategists argue that the Republican Party is missing a huge chance to court the black community, they are thinking of this mostly male bloc—the old guy in the barbershop, the grizzled Pop Warner coach, the retired Vietnam vet, the drunk uncle at the family reunion. He votes Democratic, not out of any love for abortion rights or progressive taxation, but because he feels—in fact, he knows—that the modern-day GOP draws on the support of people who hate him.

This poor deluded author.

[Captain Pike]

Cosby almost has it. Whitey isn't keeping blacks down, they're doing it to themselves.

But in the end he still wants blacks to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps as some sort of triumph for black people. That's wrong.

Blacks will always be failures until they look in the mirror at what Martin Luther King said, and recognize that it's the content of their own character that matters, not the color of their skin.

When blacks can recognize themselves as individuals, rather than as a group of people with a particular skin color, then those individuals can finally have a chance at success. A group of people can always blame another group of people, but individuals don't have anyone to blame but themselves.

[Squeako]

Nice, long read bump.

[Tainan]

Monday afternoon I stood in a local book store and read the entire article. I was struck by the shallowness of Ta-Nehisi Coates in failing to understand the positive value of what Dr. Cosby is saying.
Its quite clear that his message, Cosby, is understood and received by the older generation, but the liberal self-appointed elites see only the threat to their power and control that truly heeding Dr. Cosby message would mean.
Ta-Nehisi Coates uses some selective quotes by 'social scientists' in his attempt to refute Dr. Cosbys message and only manages to expose his own agenda.
Its a good read in that he does give detail and substance to what Cosby is saying. And Cosby does Preach.

[agere_contra]

Cosby torpedoes his own message when he wraps it around being “proud to be black”.

Be proud of your accomplishments and skills. Don’t be proud of your DNA. That’s moronic.

[never4get]

The main message he sends is the black community is responsible to themselves....eliminate scapegoating “white people keeping us down” type positions and get your own act together. He is right.