Yuk It Up Mr. Cosby
I was surfing the internet looking for photos I could use for an up and coming article regarding movies for the black community and how they have changed over the past twenty years. One of my favorite old school black movies featured Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier and so I wanted a suitable photograph of the two. I go to Google and type in the appropriate parameters and start my search. Low and behold I found this photograph of Bill Cosby yukking it up with George Bush in some ceremony where the President is presenting Mr. Cosby with some medal for his service to the country. The date associated with this photo is sometime in 2002, a few years before Mr. Cosby embarked on his “Black People Ain’t Doing Shit” tour of America. I looked at the picture and all the disappointment with Mr. Cosby came roiling back to the surface of my mind.
Back in the day, knee high to my dad, I used to watch Bill Cosby with the rest of my family when he was a young comedian doing his stand up routines. It must have been part of the Flip Wilson show or the Ed Sullivan Show. He would talk about the fat kid in his neighborhood named Fat Albert. I vaguely remember when routine when he talked about how they would open a fire hydrant to cool off in the summer and how Fat Albert could sit on top of the hydrant and direct the water with his body. Fat Albert had such control he could use the water to knock a cigarette out the mouth of the driver of a car passing by without getting the vehicle wet. I didn’t fully understand all the jokes. But I understood enough to make a connection with Mr. Cosby. I grew up thinking this man understood me.
I watched the cartoon Fat Albert when it was a television special that only came on television once or twice a year. I celebrated our good fortune when we were able to watch the Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids cartoon every Saturday morning. I watched Bill Cosby as he pushed Jell-O down our throats and made us thirsty for Coke Cola. I watched Bill Cosby when he did I Spy with Phillip Culp. I watched the original Cosby series when he played a bachelor high school coach. I started watching the Cosby Show with the Huxtables from the very moment the show appeared on the NBC television network. I watched a lot of Bill Cosby.
But one day I was watching the Huxtables go through their motions of playing a black family in America and I realized I had no connection with these people. Somewhere along the way we took two different directions. The Cosby Show went Middle American and I stayed black American. The Cosby Show never showed anybody who could have remotely considered themselves from a Fat Albert type neighborhood. The problems of the people in the Cosby show were never the problems for people in the black community but the problems from a Middle America perspective. The Huxtables might as well have been the Brady Bunch. Even when the show was adjusted to bring in their wayward cousin the show never showed problems from a uniquely black perspective. That and the fact that the show stopped being funny were enough for me to stop watching. Yet I continued to support Mr. Cosby and give him the benefit of doubt.
But then Mr. Cosby had to get high and mighty and share his contempt of black people by standing in front of his rich white mindset peers and declare the black community as a failure. Mr. Cosby made very broad and general strokes of criticism about the black poor and the black underclass that gives credence to some of the worse African American stereotypes. Mr. Cosby stands in front of the upper crust of society, people who have the disposable income to pay a couple hundred dollars to have dinner and hear Mr. Cosby speak, and then rakes the people in Fat Albert’s community across the coals. Maybe he though he was being clever and funny. But in actuality he was being judgmental, narrow minded, and racially dishonest. Mr. Cosby’s betrayal of the black community runs deep. His blatant bigotry hides under the cover of some claim of concern for the black community. Then again maybe his point was to demonstrate and reinforce the other stereotype that black people have no loyalty to other black people when money is involved.
Mr. Cosby doesn’t hesitate to say that the black poor and the black underclass use incorrect grammar. But he hasn’t said jack about the President and his inability to correctly pronounce the word “nuclear”. Mr. Cosby won’t say a thing about a man who is more than willing to spend a half trillion dollars of the national treasure and four thousand American lives on the quagmire in Iraq but won’t spend a hundred dollars for his own copy of Hooked on Phonics.
Mr. Cosby and his collaborator Dr. Alvin Poussaint blame black parents for the conditions of the black community because black parents don’t guide black children. But the truth of the matter is that if any black people are to blame for the condition of the black community it is black people like Mr. Cosby who do a masterful job of distancing themselves from the black community. Mr. Cosby, and many other black who do financially well, will take their fortune and runaway from the traditional black community into the waiting arms of neighborhoods that are far less dark racially speaking. Black property values plummet while home values in other neighborhoods are enhanced. And the black middle class do less fortunate black people a disservice to focus only on personal accountability and responsibility of black people but are mum to the fact that the lower class black community is often saddled with inferior medical care, inferior legal representation, lack of government services and representation, racial profiling by police, inferior educational services and opportunities, and discriminatory employment practices.
And when black people like Mr. Cosby turn their back on the black community they get medals of Honor from Presidents that are apt to ignore an entire city of black people drowning and suffering in the aftermath of a hurricane. So yuk it up Mr. Cosby, you’ve done very well. The white mindset community will hold you up as the role model for all black people. Following your example all black people have to do is convince other black people that they have no one to blame for the subjugation for themselves and they too can be rewarded for keeping the status quo. But Mr. Cosby, it saddens me to say that I hope you choke on that medal around your neck. I used to look up to you. We had a connection. Now your connection is with people who wouldn’t even care to know Fat Albert or any other of the Cosby Kids characters you created. People who just so happen to be just like you.
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Just a Quick Note
Pictures don’t lie! But the Trump administration will! Ain’t no way the attendance of the the Trump inauguration comes close to the attendance of the Obama inaugeration!
Peace
brotherpeacemaker 
Good Post… You seem to have a voice on the blogs so don’t be just another mouth with the runs. Why not offer a solution to “Black Flight!” My suggestion would be the slogan, “forget not from which you came!” I think money attracks money, therefore black flight is understandable. But should they not reach back and pull others out with them. This is the real problem. The black community cannot blame anyone but ourselves if we don’t reach back…
J
Thanks for the feedback J,
There are a ton of answers! But the answers are just ideas until the black community can come together and speak with unity to demand things such as universal healthcare, more educational opportunities, more employment opportunities, more representation in our government for the African American community, more legal representation in our judicial system, etcetera. People in the black community are more concerned with immediate and personal gratification than with becoming an activist for the black community and investing in our long term future. A lot of black people are more apt to look for the answers to all of the black community’s problem from other people as if they have all of the ideas rather than try to exercise their mental facilities to come up with their own ideas to bring to the table. My first idea is to do what I can to wake the black community up. When more black people are aware and the voice of the black community grows then we cannot help but be heard. What ideas do you have? Don’t be just another reader content to just sit on your ass.
Peace
hey man,
Great post, and great blog. If it’s okay with you I’m going to copy it and forward it to come people to check it out. i’ll also send them a link to your homepage.
I have a question though. I’m an outsider. I’m black, but I’m African and what I know of America is from tv. My question is simply this: isn’t bill cosby just asking the black community to take responsibility for their plight and stop looking to the government or anyone else for change? If that’s the case, what’s so wrong about that?
I hate injustice, but sometimes I wonder. I look at how black entertainers portray black people and it makes me sick. I can’t listen to hip hop anymore because I’m sick of seeing half naked sisters shake their thing on camera. I’m tired of all the cussing. It makes me mad that the only unified message I hear from the commercial version of this music genre is money, money, money. Oh, and bling!
Hey, don’t get me wrong, I agree with a lot of what you wrote, but I can also understand the man’s frustration.
What do you think?
If that’s the case, what’s so wrong about that?
The fact that no one else in the country was ever required to do the same.
This is the first time that i’m reading your blog. I’m agree with alot of what your saying but I must tell you this. I grew up with West Indian parents (Jamaican and Trinidadian), they migrated to this country and rose up to the highest ranks. They always gave me these long preachy lectures on not becoming like these “black Americans” (blacks who are natives of the U.S.) They stressed hardwork and personal responsiblity.
My father tells me about his experiences when he first came here as a lone immigrant with very little support since much of my family was still in the islands. He got his first job at a corner store in 1982 and is now one of the top brokers on Wall Street, the only in his sector. My mother is a small business owner. She had a similar situation.
Neither one would deny that racism is a problem, they speak about how ugly the racism is in this country. They tell me that that should be more of a reason 2 fight!! They both told me that more than anything, they were shocked at the state of Black Americans and they each say yes their is racism and it is bad!!! But they feel that when you are ambitious and fight, you can make it. They both have…as immigrants. So the idea of what Cosby said isnt new but he did go to far. I grew up differently from you, I guess, I was raised in a black middle classed family with plenty of doctors and lawyers, college grads with PH.Ds, architects etc… So watching the Cosby Show was like home There are many black people in this country that fit this description. To also assert that their was nothing different from ‘Brady Bunch” that a push. There were many elements of black culture esp. jazz and black art among other things that is often ignored in the mainstream of the last 30 years.I believe that Cosby was trying to show an alternative of black life that is more postive than what is so often shown. They also wore a lot of t-shirts and sweatshirts bearing college names. To end this long comment, I feel insulted everytime a black person insults the Cosby Show. I understand that you couldnt relate but hopefully one day you could relate.
Thanks for the feedback Rhonda!
Mr. Cosby does have a point. Right now I am living in a black neighborhood with a lot of black people who have given up on becoming anything professionally successful. I would like to see them motivated just as much as anyone else. A lot of black people are just making due instead of making plans to get out of this predicament. I grew up in this neighborhood and I have watched it decline and gentrify as people who worked hard to own their homes passed on and left their homes to their children who don’t care about keeping the welfare of the community. I know what Mr. Cosby says makes sense.
But the last thing he should have done was taken his concerns about black people and use them as fodder for rich white people. Yes black people need to do more to change their predicament. But the idea that white America is not actively involved with what has happened and is happening to the black community is ridiculous. When did Mr. Cosby say anything to the black community about all the mistakes the white community has made? When did Mr. Cosby stand in front of the white community and make charges for their contribution to the condition of the black community?
If we have a social connection we should be able to talk to each other about our problems without getting third parties involved. If you and I are friends and I have a problem with you the last thing I need to do is go up to strangers and start telling them all of your problems. Such a maneuver would not be helpful. I’m sure you would resent me for doing so and our friendship would not recover.
I’m sorry if you feel insulted about my comments about the Cosby Show. But it is interesting that never once did the show discuss issues that affect so many black Americans. If the Huxtable family could have been white and still kept all the elements of black culture. A white Cliff could still play black jazz and a white Claire could still hang black pictures and where clothing from black fashion designers. And the show would suffer not one bit. There was never an episode where Theo called home because he was arrested for being black, none of the children got into fights for being called a racial slur, no one ever suffered anything from this racist culture, no one ever talked about not being able to be employed because of racist employment managers, no one was denied admission to a school or even discussed the problems of affirmative action, no one ever discussed poverty in the poorer black neighborhoods. The Huxtables lived an American fantasy. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids at least attacked issues of children living in impoverished ghettos.
I apologize if you find this insulting. I find it insulting to see black celebrities ripping the less fortunate in front of white people. I too grew up around black professionals. My mother was the nursing administrator for a local children’s hospital. She was one of the first blacks to attend her alma matter. My grandfather was an entrepreneur automobile mechanic. I had an aunt that also worked in nursing. Our neighbor was a mathmatician. I do my work as a database application developer. My brother is a computer programmer as well. I have another brother who is an electrician. One of my sisters works as the manager for employee training at a national conglomerate. My other sister is a school teacher. I am very familiar with black professionals.
But as young black professionals do financially well they leave the traditional black community to fend for itself while they claim that they have transcended the need to identify with black lowlifes. Instead of trying to make a difference in the black community we have a disposition to leave the black community for more ethnically diverse areas such as the suburbs. The value of the traditional black community diminishes as so many professionals take flight. And then the next thing you know the white professionals move back into the city in the areas so many black people have abandoned. And suddenly all the property value returns with a vengeance.
This is something I cannot relate to. And I hope I never will. Black professionals cannot simply wash our hands of the people in the black community and say that they are not doing enough. We all have a role to play in helping the black community recover. Black people and white people working together to stop the subjugation and the collaboration while we work to help the traditional black community recover. I find it insulting that people think that after so many generations of existing as a subjugated people, the entrenched mindset of second class status from the black community will just somehow evaporate and black people will recover while we are constantly being bombarded with messages of racism.
Peace
PS – Jamaican and Trinidad! I’ve never been to Jamaica. Too commercialized for my taste. But I love Trinidad! I’ve only been there twice and I loved every minute of it. Have you ever been?
Rhonda,
I read your comment and felt that you made a lot of assumptions right off the bat. What makes you think that just because someone can’t identify with the Cosby show that they were probably living in a poor family. I can’t identify with the Cosby show and I know that I lived in an upper middle class household that was probably close to that of the Cosby show family.
I did not see any issues on the Cosby show that were not generic. They had NO real black issues. No racism, no other problems that blacks have to deal with. It was aimed more at white families who never have to deal with racism aimed inwards.
I do not feel that the Cosby show aimed at the black community. I understand that it was a serious contrast to other shows aimed at blacks. But Cosby should have used his platform to chronicle things that could have opened white minds and helped blacks at the same time.
Thanks
Mac Walton
Great post. I agree with everything you said. In fact, I wrote an article on Bill Cosby after he appeared on Meet the Press stereotyping all black women and whores and all black kids as gangbangers. Keep up the good work.
————————————————–
Dear Mr. Cosby:
When I hear you, I want to do some preaching of my own.
Regarding your book and your narrow views on the black family, here’s what I want you to know:
1. I love you, Bill, but I’m sick of your talking points which could have very well come out of the mouths of white racists going back at least as far as American eugenicists and Hitler in the 1930’s.
2. Understand, Bill: Cultural analysis (even if valid on occassions) without so much as a nod to their more important structural underpinnings are incomplete at best, and at worse, egregious, especially where race is concerned, because they blame victims and enable racists.
3. Face facts, Bill: You are a learned African American but an old man who steadfastly refuses to indict white America, even the sorry Bush Administration, for enriching multi-national corporations at working people’s expense (corporate welfare). In your haste to do black bashing by measuring all black women by sisters in projects and all black boys by young brothers in gangs, you fail to demand that the US government repair structural deficiencies in welfare policies to help families stay together, provide greater funding grants so poor and working people can go to college, gets healthcare so they’ll able to work and develop tougher penalties for businesses that discriminate against qualified applicants.
4. And do some reading of your own, Bill. Check out New York city’s 2004 study which showed that the reason for high levels of black unemployment in that city was not because blacks didn’t want to work but because a lot of manufacturing jobs had left the city and because white businesses refused to hire blacks, especially black men. Hence 49% black unemployment in New York City.
4. Bill: Get your head out of the clouds and come down into the 21st century. Understand that this is not the economy of the 50’s but a global economy where US corporations are investing overseas where labor costs are low and unions don’t exist. Don’t you get it, Bill: These multi-national not only don’t want to hire black males, they don’t want to hire white males either. They want to hire workers in China, India, Pakistan and Mexico to work in plants they’ve already built, to make the products so they can ship them to the US and sell them to outlets like Wal-Mart and Target to the same people they refuse to hire.
In between your favorite comedy routine of black bashing women and children, please say something about changing tax laws and agreements like NAFTA that’s causing all types of Americans to lose jobs.
Now how does that make you feel? Good! Remember that the next time you try to preach to black folks about their problems.
Mac Walton
Thanks for the feedback Mac!
You have made several great points. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see through the propaganda of all this. If My. Cosby wanted to do a fair and balanced assessment of the black community we wouldn’t have a problem. But he is as balanced as Bill O’Reilly on the FOX network.
Peace
Dear Bill,
Please speak about your own glass house before throwing stones at others.
When you begin to talk about your daughter’s drug addiction and how she was able to stay off drugs, then I’ll listen.
When you talk about your sex addiction and how you were able to stop cheating on your wife, then I’ll listen.
Until that day, you will always appear to be a phony to me.
Thank You for your feedback,
Brother peacemaker yes I have been to both countries. For you to say that Jamaica is too commercialized is pretty ignorant. It has the largest population amongst the English speaking islands of the Caribbean therefore, it is the most well known. If you go there you will realize that it is far, far from commercial. Since you have never been as you admitted, then all of what you hear about it is probably from the media or other secondary sources. If you are willing to draw assumptions about a place based on what you have heard from secondary sources then I don’t know what to say to you. I found that too be offensive. I am sick of people assuming that they know anything about the place when they have never been and know nothing about it. What is commercialized is the fact that much of our culture has been appropriated and ripped off by American society and many European societies. I sensed a bit of belittlement in that statement. I would like for you to elaborate on what you meant by commercialized please???????
Secondly, I did admit that Cosby went to far in some of the statments that he made and that he did it in the wrong place.
I will admit upon reviewing my comment that I left out saying that I have always felt that The Cosby Show should have included issues that plagued the black community like the ones that you mentioned. That is my biggest criticism of the series. However when I hear people attack the series I often hear them attacking it on the basis that black people don’t live like the Huxtables in that they are more affluent and the parents are lawyers and doctors. I take offense to that in that there are many blacks that live under those circumstances. In your post, you made it seem like you were coming from that standpoint because you mentioned the fact that they were middle classed. I feel that the Cosby Show was trying to portray the black family in a different light from how the mass media has portrayed it. Yet it did go wrong in not including issues that plague the black community that many middle classed families have faced. In theory the show was good but aspects of its execution were not. Also, the Cosbys lived in Brooklyn. I live in Brooklyn right now in a brownstone in Park Slope, I used to live in Harlem. Where I live there are many black upper and middle classed folks who have decided not to live in the suburbs like myself. So the Cosbys did not live in the suburbs. I grew up in the Bronx in the predominantly West Indian northeastern section so I didn’t grow up in the suburbs either but my parents moved us their while we were in high school and I hated it. I definitely agree with you that their is a big disconnection amongst upper and middle class blacks. I despise it but the reason why many of them act the way they do is because they feel that they were able to make something of themselves in society and they dont see why others can’t so the same. I find that to be very arrogant and I speak out a lot against that. My family often has those sentiments which make me thoroughly upset.
Yet with all that put aside I still liked watching the Cosby Show and I liked A Different World (the spin off more) because I think it came from a real place.
Black Sentinel,
Talk about all the assumptions that Brother peacemaker made about me in his response including the belittling of my heritage. Thank You.
Rhonda,
I am sorry that you feel that Brotherpeacemaker was belittling your heritage. I didn’t see his post before making my own. So I probably had nothing to note at the time.
I can’t speak for his intention nor what he meant by those comments. What I was speaking about with respect to assumptions was the fact that your parents said that when you have ambition and fight you “will” make it.
I know that there are a lot of people with drive and ambition who don’t make it. And just because people in the black community don’t make it does not in any way necessarily be because they have no ambition or fight. Or with all the racism they have lost this fight and ambition.
I am just saying that this is one of the main things I hear from blacks who hail from outside the U.S. is to immediately began criticizing a level of disparity that they don’t fully understand. Then simplify everything with if you just, or if they would only do…
That is the assumption I am speaking to.
Thanks.
I agree with you, I brought it up to explain that comments like the ones Cosby had made aren’t new and many feel that way. I never said that I agree. My parents do understand the disparity which they believe should make a person want to fight harder. It isnt because they dont understand racism and oppression its because they come from a culture that stresses hardwork and personal responsibility. My parents like many feel I made something out of myself, why can’t you. Where I volunteer, I find that many of the youth do lack ambition and its not because of their own personal shortcomings, its because of the shortcomings of our society. I dont understand how someone could expect a child/young person to excel in the horrible schools that exist in New York City and in innercity neighborhoods all over this country. The schools are hostile enviornments, our neighborhoods are hostile enviornments and the way we treat one another is horrible. My mother was a social worker and probation officer. She saw first hand this destruction and the disparities and it has made her upset. But as she told those she aided, “…in order to change society you must start with yourself”.
I totally agree with this sentiment. It is hard for one to just overcome such hostile environments without some sort of help. It does start with yourself, but it is more doable with help. And yes people DO accomplish this but the majority need help. And it is commendable that you are helping and volunteering to do something for those that need it.
This is all “I” ask of Bill, is that he actually roll up his sleeves and get into the muck with you and others doing their part. Don’t just sit and chastise.
Thanks
“For you to say that Jamaica is too commercialized is pretty ignorant.”
Rhonda,
For you to make your assumptions about me was ignorant as well. However, instead of pointing out your less than considerate manners I chose to overlook this issue and focus on the bigger issue or main subject of your message. My views of Jamaica is based on the fact that the tourism industry of that country promotes white people canvasing the islands with happy-go-lucky black people just eager to please and jump through hoops for white people. This trait that is being espoused does not appeal to me. Watching commercials of black Jamaicans doing their best to make white tourist happy does not instill a sense of longing for Jamaica. I find the commercials offensive.
I thought you and I could have an adult conversation about things. Obviously you are here to argue and trade insults and assumptions. You think that since black people don’t care for the Cosby Show that we must not care for it for the exact same reasons. It is human to make assumptions. But for some reason you choose to take offense. I find your sense of bourgeoisie offensive. Not all black people hate black lawyers and doctors. We need black professionals of all walks of life to keep the black community strong and diverse. It was black people like Thurgood Marshall that made the legal arguments that helped give black people what little we were able to obtain through the civil rights movement. It is/was black lawyers like Johnnie Cochran that are fighting for reparations for the black community. For someone to assume that I don’t care for other black professionals simply because they are successful is rather small minded.
Nobody is belittling your heritage. Another one of your offensive assumptions. Nobody hear said anything about you being one of those “black Jamaicans”. I have the right not to find Jamaica and/or the Cosby Show appealing. You need to understand not everything appeals to everyone. You talk about the schools and neighborhoods being hostile. You talk about your family being very arrogant. But to be honest, I find you hostile and arrogant.
Peace
You need to visit the country. Tourism goes on the North coast and many of the Jamaicans are actually against the tourists but as any other island, it drives the economy. Where my family is from (St. Andrew) there really are no tourists. I can’t believe that you go by commercials .Those are commercials that are far from what Jamaica as an island and as a people represent. I can’t believe that you would actually make such a generalization. My culture doesn’t have anything to do with what Super Clubs (which is run by whites) use for commercial again. Then I guess when a white person reduces the entire black community to a hip hop music video you should not say shit. By the way, what do you mean by one of those “black Jamaicans” how would that be offensive?? There you go again.
You obviously missed the point of what I was saying. When I talk about hostility I talk about the fact that a young person can not come to anything in a society that fails them. The teachers and administrations treat students like criminals, the police unfairly discriminate against black youth, the schools are horrible and inner-city neighborhoods are often dangerous because of poverty…that is the hostility I speak of.
In addition, I wasn’t saying that you had an issue with black professionals I said that many people who insult the Cosby Show (both black and white) often say that blacks in this country don’t live like that and that is what I find to be offensive. I think I made that clear in my second comment. I agreed on the fact that they did not bring up issues that many blacks faced whether upper class, middle class, working class or poor or immigrant.
You are the one who is arrogant drawing stereotypes about an entire group of people, their existence, history and culture based on what you see in commercials.
“You are the one who is arrogant drawing stereotypes about an entire group of people, their existence, history and culture based on what you see in commercials.”
Please!! Because I say I don’t care to see Jamaica because of commercials designed to draw me but instead repel me I have made a stereotype about an entire group of people. I really have misjudged you. Like I said I thought we were going to have an adult exchange. The reference to those “black Jamaicans” is a reference to your original comment referring to those “black Americans” where your family has made stereotypes of the entire group of black people here in America. If anyone is making all these stereotypes it is you and your family. Simply more of your assumptions. You see one thing and jump to the most extreme conclusions.
I do owe you a couple of apologies. I made a personal observation to you about Jamaica and Trinidad that you found so offensive. That was very presumptuous of me. I apologize for thinking I could share a personal opinion with you. Suddenly I’m making stereotypes of an entire group of people, their existence, history and culture because I don’t like how Jamaica’s tourism industry tries to sell itself as a country of subservient blacks to white people. Obviously I had misjudged your ability to handle criticism. I apologize for overestimating you.
Secondly, I apology for telling you that I welcome your opinion. But I honestly thought that we were going to do more than make personal attacks. I really do think you will find other sites more welcoming.
Peace