"Come On People....."

So starts the title of the latest missive in the form of a book, by Bill Cosby and his enabler, Dr. Alvin Poussaint. Their blame-the-victim worldview, is on full display on it's pages. So much so, that 'Meet The Press' and 'Larry King' deemed it worthy of devoting a full hour of their program to highlight and publicize it's relentless black-bashing and overly-broad, generalizations.

The problems of misplaced values, predatory neighborhood violence, alcohol and drug addictions, single parent households, etc., are commonplace in the 'lower classes' of all racial groups, whether they be black, white, Latino, Asian, or native American. But this book makes it seem as those ills and problems, are exclusively those of 'lower class' blacks and no other groups. The dominant society wants to believe it is self-inflicted, and therefore blacks are not the victims of the well-documented history of white racial intolerance and injustices. This is crucial to what whites want to believe about themselves, because the black lower classes are a constant reminder of the legacy of slavery and it's fruits, that continue to prick their consciences.

Black bashing, is red-meat to the most right-wing foes of African Americans, and the corporate media is in full-scale slurp as it slobbers up the tidbits in this book, that absolves them and lets them off the hook by blaming the alleged 'victimhood' mentality of lower-class blacks, for their condition.

Within the African American community exists elements (like Cosby) which constantly points to the 'dysfunctionality' of the black underclass as a way to both distinguish themselves from such behavior, and to attack the shortcomings of the black poor as their own fault and no one else's. At the core of the black elite’s hatred for the behavior of the black underclass, is their ultimate fear of being equated with all things 'black'. The black elite cannot stand the possibility of being lumped together with those who they disdain, and who might threaten their status of being 'ascended' beyond the common plight of those who are not likely to rise above their surroundings.

One reviewer correctly observed, "Cosby makes a Grand Canyon size leap to paint a half-truth, skewed, picture of the plight of poor blacks and the reasons and then prescriptions for their plight. This is all based on the assumption that they are crime-prone, education despising, ebonics speaking, unwed baby making machines."

Not only does he take the worst behaviors of blacks (that are also true of a minority of all ethnic groups) and implies that it is exclusively a black dysfunction, but he makes it racially based rather than a function of the systemic racism that has been ongoing since slavery. He pays scant attention to the context for this dysfunction, and instead leaps headlong in making and perpetuating dangerous stereotypes, that would make the most ardent racist, proud. The facts of educational disparities, lack of living wage jobs because they have been outsourced, a biased criminal justice system etc., are hardly mentioned as context for the damning statistics that are offered as proof of their inferiority and victimhood mentality.

To say that we have overcome systemic racism before, and can do so now, is stating the obvious which no one disagrees with. But to say that they have to "clean themselves up first, before complaining about societal racism", displays an appalling lack of ignorance or willfully ignoring the principal of personal growth and affirmation through struggle in common with others. It's the old 'pulling up by the bootstrap' theory that Cosby fancies he has already done, using his wealth as proof of how well it works.

Biased corporate decisions and failed public policies, are the main villains that should be addressed as a first step in reversing the alarming statistics that are being used to demonize the black poor. But the political will and activism that is required to accomplish this, is urged by Cosby to be put on the back burner until the ghetto cleanses itself. In his mind it is just as simple as saying no (Nancy Reagan would be so proud that her simplistic bromide has been adopted by Cosby).

I found most of the book and particularly the first chapter, to be full of simplistic, inane homilies and condescending rhetoric. One of the worst examples is;
"We're not saying there is no discrimination or racial profiling today, but there is less than there was in 1950. These are not ‘political' criminals. These are people selling drugs, stealing, or shooting their buddies over trivia."
This is absolute nonsense when you consider the 'politics' of allowing an unlimited number of liquor stores in black communities, the 3-strike laws, the swat-team swoops in which innocents are regularly assaulted, the massive infusion of drugs and guns into the ghettos of our nation - all point to 'political' racial targeting on a scale that was unimaginable in the 1950s.

Cosby's broad generalizations about the unworthy, immoral, black poor, fills this book in chapter after chapter and verse after verse. And not once did I see any mention about his being charged with numerous sexual assaults on women, and his own extra-marital child who came forward recently - how moral is his own conduct????

The old saying about not throwing stones while living in a glass house, was never more true than in this case. I would change the title of this book to - "Come on Cosby, you've forgotten about your own misdeeds, and that some need more patience and help than others, and that the measure of a societies humanity, is how they care for and treat the poorest ones among them."

Not only does this book do nothing to inspire and motivate underachieving blacks to move forward and improve their lives, but it further demoralizes the majority of the poor who are trying so hard against the overwhelming odds stacked against them. It also says to the majority community as well as to government agencies and social service providers, that poor blacks are unworthy of their affirmative help, resources or opportunities, because their condition is self-inflicted and therefore their own fault.

It's becoming clearer that Cosby is either a card-carrying member of the Repugnant party which delights in this kind of 'truth-telling' at the expense of blacks, or he has drunk their poisonous kool-aid and has sold his soul for the wealth they have allowed him to have. Either way, Cosby has been 'weighed in the balances and found wanting'.