AUGUST 2004 |
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Now my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man's business on this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast....." Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man." Thousands of years ago the question was asked; ''Am I my brother's keeper?'' . Eugene Debs 1908
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 werent 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 hes been cheated. The mostly Black, tuxedoed attendees at Washingtons Constitution Hall, forced to bear witness to Cosbys 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 Cosbys shameful, impulsive, totally uninhibited behavior that, in a non-icon, would invite suspicions of substance abuse. USA Todays Black columnistDe Wayne Wickham normally a smart fellow sugarcoats Cosbys 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 Cosbys 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 Cosbys insults to African Americans, slide. And since when was it an act of courage to badmouth poor Black people in America? By simple standards of civility Cosby is guilty of an extreme lapse in personal responsibility by dint of his behavior to his audience and to the millions of people he slandered. More to the point, Cosby doesnt know the meaning of the term and neither do most of the Black chatterers who have been bandying it about. Role Model mogul What do the various political actors mean
by personal responsibility? Certainly, we
know that in the mouths of Republicans and their Black
camp followers personal responsibility is a
code for what people are told to exercise when the state
refuses to see to the general welfare of its non-rich
citizens. We know that song. But what does Cosby mean,
and why are otherwise progressive Black writers and
politicians bending over backwards to find ways to agree
with him? An enormous vacuity surrounds the Black discussion over Cosbys remarks. People rush to say yes to a term, the definition of which is not necessarily shared or understood. Where does personal responsibility end and social responsibility begin? If a comedian turned demagogue can hector a substantial portion of a race of people to behave as he (vaguely) commands, then surely he is talking politics, not just giving advice to individuals. Cosbys politics are in fact rooted on the conservative side of the Black spectrum that is, when he is being coherent at all.
Actually, Page appreciates Cosby with the new eyes of a highly paid corporate journalist who finds enough common ground with white conservatives to appear regularly on shows like The McLaughlin Group Thirty-two years later, Cosby was still urging young people on campus to be politically passive. At Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in May, 2000, he warned students:
By that, Cosby meant, make your personal career move. Dont dabble in campus politics, or challenge the orthodoxy of those in power at the institution. Shut up. Because of men and women who shared Cosbys worldview, many Black college campuses were relatively quiet during the Civil Rights Movement, a silence enforced by Black administrators who did not hesitate to expel students and fire faculty who sought any change whatsoever in the status quo, on or off campus. Later in the Sixties, Blacks on white college campuses tended to be significantly more activist than students at traditionally Black schools, largely because they were not smothered by a tradition hostile to mass Black political activity. Cosby advocates a neutered Black politics of individual striving within the parameters that are allowed by those in power. He projects his own, self-invented persona as a role model for African Americans to follow as individuals, while rejecting collective action to alter power relationships. His message: Each of you people should do as I did. Cosbys method is derived from a long line of accommodationist Negro leaders whose message was the equivalent of, Eat your Jell-O.
Ironically, the young Cosby did not follow traditionalist counsel. He dropped out of college to pursue the wildly perilous career of Black standup comedian in a largely segregated America. Had he failed as a comic as the odds overwhelmingly dictated without a good education he might not have been able to buy his mother a fine house far from the projects where he grew up. Luckily, Cosby the dropout didnt listen to people like Cosby. Spurned, vengeful benefactor Cosby bucked the odds, but never the system. His job was to become a Role Model for a Black presence within the existing order. Once that was accomplished, he added a make-believe family to the Model: the Huxtables. Writer Khalil Tian Shahyd wasnt surprised at all at the tone of Cosbys Constitution Hall remarks:
In addition to making Cosby a lot richer,
the TV show proved that a Black-cast show could hold
white peoples attention in prime time for multiple
seasons. This was considered a great victory.
The ideal Black Role Model Cosby himself, or the
self he created was now the entire nations
Role Model for Black people. Heady stuff. Role Model Politics is nearly as emotion-laden as cult-of-personality politics and just as divorced from reality. The Role Model is, by definition, the template of righteousness and progress. Those who fail to follow the Role Models path are rejecting the Models persona. No wonder Cosby goes ballistic at poor Black peoples behavior or what he imagines that behavior to be. He takes it personally. Its as if those people are all playing the dozens at his expense. How else to explain the explosive vitriol of Cosbys Constitution Hall performance? However, Cosbys inability to perceive that he is obligated as a matter of personal responsibility to atone for his blanket verbal assaults, is his personal problem. It is far more worrisome that so many Black opinion molders harbor similar attitudes towards politics and the poor. Cosby showed his ass, but the same ill winds are blowing through the spaces in lots of Black skulls in high places. Deep down, they value other Black people little, and trust them less. They would rather celebrate virtual social mobility (the Huxtables) than fight for the material resources that bring the possibility of dignity to millions. They see more virtue in a millionaire parting with a fraction of his money although never enough to risk falling out of wealth than in the selfless work of thousands of community organizers and activists who are motivated by a sense of both personal and social responsibility.
Dr. King and Malcolm X and Fred Hampton died in a social struggle to empower Black people. Cosby demonizes these same people, employing the enemys language, like some vengeful, spurned benefactor. Yet much of Black media pretend not to see the throbbing ugliness in their icon, thus calling into question their own fitness. In the face of a brazen assault on the human dignity of African Americans, they equivocate or join in the mass lynching. Mimicking racists, they impose yet another burden on the already super-disadvantaged Black poor. As Paul Street wrote in the April 8 issue of :
If huge numbers of Black people could be drawn together to figure out precisely how we have failed each other, that would be one helluva social responsibility conversation. But the Bill Cosbys of the community cannot be allowed to hog the microphone, just because they may have paid for it. As journalist-educator-lawyer-activist Lizz Brown says, That doesnt give him license. In truth, we cant afford Bill Cosby anymore. He costs more than he gives. Bill Cosbyisms Cosby on the Black poor:
Cosby on Black youth culture:
Cosby on civil rights:
Cosby on literacy:
Cosby on poor Black women:
Cosby on the sons and daughters of poor, Black, unmarried mothers:
Cosby on Blacks shot by police:
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