Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Hopefully, my last Cosby post.
Hopefully, my last Cosby post.
I've been trying to avoid discussing Bill Cosby. To be honest about it, I think he makes more of a fool out of himself as he gets older. Cosby will always be Cosby no matter what, so when talking about him, NGCCOT (Nothing Good Can Come Of This).
Cosby is like the poster child for grumpy old men everywhere. Everything was better back in the day. This "younger generation" does everything wrong, as my own father loves to say. And since a number of black conservatives have stated some of the things that Cosby has often mentioned, they are cheering him as well.
But make no mistake; Cosby's beliefs are based on classism and ageism. It has little to do with empowerment. Despite overwhelming arguments that show that upper class blacks suffer from the same social problems as blacks in the lower income, Cosby wags his finger at the inner cities and the slums. He then insinuates that the problems popped up all of a sudden from today's generation of children and mothers, as if the roads of victimization and social degradation weren't paved long ago when he were the age of the ones he's ranting against.
But this is par for the course for a man who seems not to like anything. Whether it's George Bush or Condoleeza Rice, Wanda Sykes or Eddie Murphy, Cosby has an opinion on everything, and it's usually negative. It's as something's wrong with the whole world except him.
Looking at Cosby's philantrophy efforts as a way to justify his comments doesn't hold water either. It's always remarkable when people give to help others advance, but to turn around and bash people will not help people get on their feet any quicker. It's the equivalent of the Saudi prince who gave a million dollars to the City of New York after 9/11, then claimed it was the U.S.'s fault for 9/11 happening in the first place. Rudy Guliani told the prince to keep his money. If Cosby continues to run off at the mouth with blanket statements that miss the true problems of the black community and places the blame squarely on the people he claims to help, maybe they should tell him to keep his.
While there is no question that the problems of the black community need to be highlighted and addressed properly, using class and age as the supposed boogieman will not make things any better. Instead of going from audience to audience to rant about it, Cosby and his ilk should provide adequate solutions to the problems to all of the black community, not just some.
Posted at 01:09 am by Expertise
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