There's Something About Cosby

I'm trying hard to understand why everybody is so mad at Bill Cosby.

(Yes it is my birthday and yes I'm still talking my s#&$. I can't stop like Diddy. Take dat, take dat, take dat)

At the Spellman graduation this past weekend he made another one of his personal responsibility speeches. This time calling out for black women to step up and take control of their lives and the black community. He said something to the effect of 65% of black women attending college graduate compared to 35% of black men. Our men are not stepping up into the positions they are needed and women must not wait around for them to find their way. Women need to be prepared to lead. They need to use the power of education and success to change their communities. I'm sure he touched on the misguided youth and backwards thinking of the hiphop generation, that always gets the crowd going.

Michael Eric Dyson is pissed. Dr. Dyson super pissed. He's been ranting and raving all week about this. He can not stand these comments. His whole argument is Cosby's comments do nothing but reinforce the negative stereotypes prevalent in the America. Cosby is taking the elitist stand point over common black people and condemning them for their actions without considering the social, economical, and mental effects of racism that have put them in their desperate situations. He says Cosby is perched far above the rest of society buffered form the hardships we all endure by celebrity and money. His comments are unhealthy to the struggle and demoralizes black people.

Dr. Dyson and his fellow anti-racism buddies are sort of right. When Bill Cosby speaks about personal responsibility he say nothing of the systemic racism and dominant white privilege cultural thinking that has created(and in some ways continues to create) obstacles to slow and stop the progress of colored people. He says nothing to the white people about how wrong they have been and what they have done to harm black Americans.

Why can't Bill Cosby get up and address what he feels is causing the problems of his people? Why does he have to be a traitor to the race because he doesn't scream to the mountaintop about how evil white people are and how racism has hindered us?

That's not his agenda. Bill Cosby is like a Pepsi rep that comes by the grocery stores (I used to be a store manager in my former life). If you talk to the Pepsi rep you can't demand that he talk about all sodas. You definitely don't want to ask him about Diet Coke. He's pushing Pepsi products, he's gonna talk about Pepsi products. Personal responsibility is his product.

Bill Cosby holds a particular place in society thanks to the image he created on The Cosby Show and all the things he's done for people over the years of his extremely successful career. What Dr Dyson and all his critics want to hear from Bill are their own agendas. They want him to prove their point. They want to hear that same "racism is bad" "blame the white man" stuff they preach to the masses. They are upset because he has not got in line with them and has dared to take an approach that is super critical of black people themselves. They can't go on with their crusade against those who they have indentified as the oppressors of black Americans, if a figure embraced by both white and black people speaks of the wrongs we are doing to ourselves.

Dr Dyson should let him talk. He speaks for a lot more people than his critics give him credit for. He speaks for people like me that lived tough lives and have created a better situation for themselves through trials and tribulations. People like me that get more outraged at the people that riots and scream about injustice oh so quickly when once a month a white guy does something to a black person, and you hear nothing from them, NOTHING!, when every other day of the month black people rob, rape and kill other black people. Racism didn't take my couch. I want to help my people by getting them to see and correct the weakness and wrongs in their lives. Not to judge them or codemn them. To give them the hope that they are missing in their lives that causes people to give up and settle and become victims of the system.

Like I always say no situation in life if as simple as it seems. Every piece of life that adds to the problem has to be addressed and corrected. You don't lose weight by excersing and keeping your diet the same. You don't become successful by getting a college degree then going home and watching tv all day. Our social, economic and mental problems as a people won't be solved by just fighting racism and blaming it for everything that has ever gone wrong in every black persons life. Like wise it won't be solved by just shaming everybody by citing their every flaw.

It can be helped, if not solved, by doing both. All the time Dr. Dyson spends challenging, dismissing, and vilifying Dr. Cosby he could be blazing his own trail to saving our people. I'm sure the two paths will meet somewhere between here and racial empowerment.

Besides all that ranting about the same thing all the time makes his show pretty boring.