| Jun. 3rd, 2005 @ 11:22 am Bill Cosby, you so craaazy |
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It's been a while, so let's get right to it.
Let's jump into Is Bill Cosby Right? (Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?) by Michael Eric Dyson. Wow. This is book is utterly fantastic so far! It caught my eye yesterday at Borders, and wanting to jump into more non-fiction reading, (the whole broadening of horizons trip) I snatched it up. Definitely worth it so far.
What I've gleaned up to this point is that Bill Cosby said some really, really stupid things in May of 04. My personal thoughts are that he has betrayed his culture and his race. Is it because he's ashamed of his roots? Or is it because he simply doesn't understand them? Frustration due to an inability to grasp concepts seems to be a theme in the book. Cosby lambasts the poor black community for their inability to take advantage of the purported opportunities available to them.
One thing Cosby certainly deems unworthy of the "Afristocracy" (black middle-class – elite) is the "naming scheme" some blacks use. Cosby feels names such as Shaniqua, Taniqua, and Muhummad (heh... that's a Muslim name, Bill ol' buddy) to be marks of the poorer black community. They're not. They're part of a culture he simply doesn't understand, or maybe even refuses to. I wonder which it is?
The conflicts between old and young people is not just limited to the blacks. This can be found anywhere and everywhere. Cosby doesn't understand the clothes, piercings (including tattoos) and other such aspects of black life that young people seem to adhere to. Things such as baggy pants, hip hop, etc. are simply foreign to Cosby and appear to speak volumes regarding the contrast(s) between the Afristocracy and the Ghettocracy.
Cosby also seems to be quite self-contradictory at times. In his 70s cartoon, "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids," he was praised for using different types of dialect (Ebonics, for example) and a wide array of personality types for his characters. Now he's bashing them. Umm, hypocrisy, anyone?
Cosby takes aim at the parents of poor black children, citing them for much of the alleged damage and racial embarrassment they seem to cause. Dyson argues that while some of this may be the faults of the parents and individuals in question, (self-responsibility definitely comes into play here) but the social boundaries the poor (remember, this is not necessarily limited to blacks in general) may be unable to overcome. Many menial tasks and forms of manual labor are becoming obsolete, paying too little, or out serviced to other people for far less money. If the poor are unable to attain a level of education and thusly gain a job that is not being phased out, what are they to do? Sure, they could always work harder and struggle more, but there's only so much good that can do a person. If they lack the means to educate themselves and move up the career ladder, they're screwed, for all intents and purposes.
Back to the "parents are to blame" argument, an interesting double-edged sword is put on the table for examination: poor parents must work insane hours for pitiful wages in order to provide the basic needs (food, shelter, etc.) for their children, but because of this, theyr'e not able to be with them as much as they'd like. This causes them to be persecuted for not spending time with their children and therefore leading the children down a road of corruption. Why? Because the parents weren't there. Yeah, that's right: when all else fails, blame the parents. However, if the parents choose to forego work (whether completely or not working as many hours as they may need) in order to be at home with the kids, they're unable to provide many basic necessities for their children, garnering persecution for that. It's a lose/lose situation.
Thus far, my opinion is that Cosby simply doesn't understand his culture, and in typical "old person" fashion, (sorry to stereotype, but hey, it's not that far out of the realm of possibility, and plus... it's my journal) chooses to lash out at the younger generation and their use of ebonics, hip hop, dreadlocks, baggy pants and tattoos instead of providing an intelligent voice of wisdom where the younger generation may desperately need it. As Dyson says, the older generation has to hand over the reigns eventually, and instead of constantly warring with each other, the two generations should try to come to at least a basic understanding.
However, I don't think Cosby is completely wrong. He's right in the respect that hard work and perserverance are extremely important to the bettering of the individual and a culture as a whole. You can't expect people to do it for you, which is one of my own biggest problems. However, his blame falls too much on the poor black class, where I feel the society as a whole should be banding together to fix the problem.
"If what Cosby says is true, then critics who have said the same, but who courted charges of racism, are vindicated. There's nothing like a formerly poor black multimillionaire bashing poor blacks to lend credence ot the ancient assaults they've endured from the dominant culture" (Dyson, 5). Very, very interesting point. Do Cosby's comments negate the purported racist comments made by other non-black individuals? |
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