Bill Cosby's confused notions of 'responsibility'

The Black Commentator

Bill Cosby has some nerve talking about “personal responsibility.”

On May 17, with no warning, the 67-year-old multimillionaire comedian ambushed three venerable Black organizations – the NAACP, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Howard University – fatally disrupting a gala celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Brown desegregation decision. Cosby drew from the hip (or the lip) to spray the hall with generalized insults against people who weren’t even there: the Black poor who, he said, “are not holding up their end in this deal.”

Apparently, Cosby thinks he is one of the deal-makers, and that he’s been cheated. The mostly Black, tuxedoed attendees at Washington’s Constitution Hall, forced to bear witness to Cosby’s tirade, were also to blame “in this deal” since they had collectively failed to sufficiently call the “lower economic people” to account for their “personal responsibility” deficits. 

Not once did it occur to “Cos” that he owed his immediate and larger audience the benefit of a well-prepared presentation. Dr. Cosby saw no need to buttress his rant with a single reliable fact, nor to provide a coherent structure for his argument, so that reasonable people might arrive at some useful conclusions. Instead, he played the elderly “shock jock,” frothing and flailing away, spewing a sewer of abuse that, if directed against other ethnic groups, would be considered blood libels. (See a compilation of “Cosbyisms” at the end of this essay.)

The super-successful entertainer, famed for his practiced timing and flawless delivery, the evangelist of education – the discipline in which he received his Ph.D. –  displayed an utter disrespect for his audience and for the august occasion of the anniversary. His extended outburst, presented without the evident benefit of even the most rudimentary preparation, was a gross violation of professional and personal discipline – an affront Cosby would never commit against a half-drunk nightclub crowd, much less the corporate and university audiences he regularly addresses. Yet he gave free rein to his inner demons in front of a throng of African Americans at Constitution Hall on the anniversary of Brown.

The irresponsible icon

Icons always have apologists; Cosby has a media-full. Black people who should be insulted, instead make excuses for Cosby’s shameful, impulsive, totally uninhibited behavior that, in a non-icon, would invite suspicions of substance abuse.

USA Today’s Black columnist DeWayne Wickham – normally a smart fellow – sugarcoats Cosby’s bile as “talking black” – as if Black discussions of public policy, including subjects as momentous as the Fate of the Race, are by definition devoid of substance, structure, precision or logic. A similar exculpatory current runs through most corporate newspaper columns penned by Black writers in the wake of the Cosby abomination. 

Amazingly, the out-of-control, grotesquely self-indulgent comedian was roundly praised for his “courage” in confronting the supposed Black phobia against “airing dirty linen” in public, i.e., within hearing distance of whites. How perverse and ironic! Much of the Black talking classes forgive Cosby’s clear lack of a sense of “personal responsibility” and elementary decorum, precisely because to do otherwise would risk diminishing a Black icon – in front of white people! Better to let Cosby’s insults to African Americans, slide.

And since when was it an act of courage to badmouth poor Black people in America?

To read the rest of this article, please click here.

But wait, there's more! Click here to read Jelani Cobb's piece on Cosby's now-infamous tirade missive.

Comments

[eric oriol]

It is also unbelievable that while we are being led by a bunch of racist criminals in the white house that Mr Cosby would pick tis particular moment to attempt at teaching moral virtues to Black folks>>>Is the man mad or what?If he truly abhors such deep feelings towards bad behavior,why doesn't he show some real courage and attack the Bush administration and it's republican gang members?If the purpose for Mr Cosby's ravings was to bring us up to the same level of respectability being enjoyed by white folks,I fail to get the message....Our country is in the process of using it's military to destroy another country and massacre it's population...Where was Mr Cosby when the Regan administration used it's power to invade our neighborhoods with a weapon of mass destruction called crack?
.......In order to realistically expect for the underclass of any society to rise from the ashes,the fires need to subside for a while>>>Every time the race makes an attempt to move forward,an evil segment of the power elite finds a way to knock it back down.....Even rich educated people finds it necessary to medicate themselves in order to stay sane>>>>Why is it so surprising when a poeple who is being attacked from all sides do the same?Are we supposed to be somewhat different from others because of the color of our skin???????
Black folks are doing their best with what they got>>>>>>>At least they have a legitimate reason why they are they way they are......What reason do white folks have for when they act stupid and insane?

[headlefty]

Dr. Cosby is on point! On point so,that I'll follow the same path that he has chosen. Now,that I'm married,I'll cheat on my Wife(...like Dr. Cosby). At the end of the year,my Wife and I will have a combined income well over 6 figures. Therefore,we'll move out of our Afro-American neighborhood and move to where it is more White and affluent(Dr. Cosby's CA. house is in the same area where the late President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan live). Of course, when we have childern,I'll be too self-centered on my income,bitch-on-the-side,and new address to see that one of my Children is on Crack(...like one of Dr. Cosby's Daughters). Yes, I will live the way that Dr. Cosby's lives. Because his way of living life is nothing like the lives of the poor,stupid,Black People that don't hold up to their end of the deal;and carry themselves with dignity like Dr William Cosby,PHD.

[YJ]

I also agree with Bill on many of his points. his message is the cold-water-in-the-face wake up call we needed evidently to begin an internal discussion of what we, not whites, can do. I see the main problem is a lack of pride and the lax morality that is hitting this entire nation. My opinion is that most of the people Cos talked about have actually bought into racist stereotypes of Black people themselves. They don't think they can achieve, so they glamorize and justify the existance they have. I just wish he had called out so-called Black leaders who have made themselve wealthy but provided very little in the way of actually helping our people gain the life skills they need to achive. And yes to achieve we must leave some of these behaviors behind. Morals are really just common sense. Teen pregnancey, drugs, living above your means, promiscuity, men not providing for familes, little desire to pursue education (even if very little provided to you) will hold you back, no matter what color you are.

[Jamille]

I agree with Bill Cosby's views. However, I completely disapprove of the manner in which he gave his opining. He was out of place for mocking his own people. Yes, black people need to understand that sitting around home and receiving disability checks (and you're perfectly fine) and welfare is not the way to go. We're too lazy as a people and it is good that Cosby brought it out in the light. The truth offends and that is exactly the situation right now. His comments were true but he could have said it better than how he did.

~1~

[kc]

i am sorry, but i am about tired of hearing people like bill cosby and jesse jackson point the finger at poor black folks for doing "nigger shit", when it has been evidenced that they are guilty of the same crap. he needs to take up a hobby.

[Johnny Bulluck]

I agree with Bill Crosby assessment and he should have included the our Black Religious television leaders, Black Mayors and parent's of teenage mothers and fathers. They have not held up the undeclared creed of "Family Generational Advancement in Education and Self Improvement, they display only a need for self-center enjoyment of material growth which is limited to hair, jewelry, clothes, cars and illegal drugs.