Bill Cosby a racist?? NOT!

[MA-Caver]

http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200407121120.asp

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/07/01/cosby.comments.ap/

Cosby also said he wasn't concerned that some whites took his comments and turned them "against our people."
"Let them talk," he said.

oh and just in case you're wondering about the man's credentials... a brief and updated bio can be read here: http://www.africana.com/research/encarta/tt_074.asp
I read these articles and was very appreciative of what the man is trying to do. I will not add to his comments but will compare the people he is railing against to my own race. I'm white and I see just as bad a conditon among low-income, low educated whites as Cosby does with blacks. Society again needs as a whole get it's act together. There are problems going on all across the board and until people, society, Americans who are capable get together to help those who are incapable (or even unwilling) there's always going to be the "poor, uneducated masses".

 

[hardheadjarhead]

I'd say it is rather ridiculous to alledge a black man who is critical of blacks is a "racist". This seems to be an emotional appeal from the Left.

The Right does it too, however, in suggesting that people who are against Israel's policies regarding the Palestinians are "anti-semitic". Yet many opposing these policies are liberal Jews.

Those whites criticizing poor whites are inciting "class warfare" of course, or we see jeremiads like Jim Goad's "The Redneck Manifesto" lamenting the plight of our society's white trash.*

In each of these instances I find it intellectually dishonest to pull out the arguments of the opposition, tweak them, and then use them for one's own agenda. Its absurd. Calling Cosby a racist is simply silly.

I think he's advocating blacks stop assuming the stance of the victim and that they empower themselves. Black poverty is currently one third of what it was when I was born...and it seems Cosby and others are saying it is time that poor blacks step up to the plate and take advantage of those social systems that are in place to assist them in their upward mobility. They've never been in a better position to do so.

He isn't denying that racism exists...and it does. He's demanding accountability on the part of the black community in doing their part to improve their lot. This parallels the stance that some feminists like Naomi Wolfe take in suggesting that women quit acting like victims and start punching through the glass ceiling set above them, instead of whining about its existance.

Cosby is quite correct in pointing out that blacks ought to stop flippantly using the word "******" in reference to themselves. As he pointed out it diminishes the efforts of those civil rights champions of the fifties and sixties.



Regards,


Steve

*While I disagree with much of what Goad writes, it is an interesting book with some valid points. He plays with the English language beautifully at times, even in the middle of a vitriolic rant.