Regarding Bill Cosby’s Comments About The Black Community

Bill Cosby has made several comments over the past couple of weeks about what’s wrong with the black community. Most recently, he made them at the Rainbow/PUSH Conference in Chicago. Here are a couple of articles about those recent words:


Bill Cosby again attacks black youth embrace of educational gap

Bill Cosby has more harsh words for black community

In my opinion, there is some truth to his words. For one thing, black people do need to realize that we can be as much to blame for our problems as anything else is. However, a good portion of what he said (and also, more importantly, how he said it) comes off as talk from an old black man who is not in touch with the current generation.

Bill Cosby comes off as an elitist, a man who engages in classism masquerading as intelligent opinions. For example, there is this quote from his earlier speech:

“Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.”

I have to wonder if Cosby thinks that people with heavy accents can’t become doctors because they don’t speak “normal English.” I’d love to hear him tell a person with a deep Southern accent that they can’t achieve anything because of how they speak.

However, what is more important than what he said is how he said what he said. Cosby did not say his message in a way meant to educate, inform and enlighten. He said his message in a way meant to infuriate, embarrass, belittle, and disrespect. I noticed in the video of his speech in Chicago that the young people in the audience were still and silent as he spoke. They did not look engaged, interested, or in any way affected by the speech. The reason why so many young people can identify with people like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton is because they do not talk down to them.

Ultimately, there is a point in some old people’s lives when instead of imparting real wisdom and knowledge, they resort to ranting and raving about how they cannot understand the way things are. This is the point where their words are known more for making people angry rather than making people think. This is also the point where their impact lessens and they become forever out of touch with the here and now. After the succession of comments by Bill Cosby over the past few days, in addition to earlier comments, I believe that Bill Cosby has just about reached that pathetic point.