Bill Cosby's Righteous Anger

David Zannucci – Not long ago, Bill Cosby, the African-American comedian, actor, writer and producer, received criticism for remarks he made regarding race in America. In several speeches, Cosby criticized the black community for being too accepting of fatherless households and high crime rates, of focusing more on sports, fashion and acting like a tough guy than on education and self-improvement, and for blaming the white community for problems African-Americans can solve for themselves.
For many in the mainstream media and some in the African-American community, these remarks were viewed as insensitive, and were simply the most recent example of how Bill Cosby is an Uncle Tom. Mr. Cosby has been criticized throughout his professional career for not incorporating race into his comedy routines and television shows. Now, the conventional wisdom goes, he has simply become an old fuddy-duddy.
Oh forsooth, gentle reader! I contend that Bill Cosby has done more for race relations in the United States than any man since Martin Luther King Jr. Let’s examine his career and you will see what I mean.
In 1965, Bill Cosby became the first black person to have a recurring role on a prime-time network television series, I Spy. In the 1970’s he created Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, an extremely successful Saturday morning cartoon. Fat Albert truly helped make Generation X less racist than previous American generations. Have you noticed that polls show the age divide of white people voting for Barack Obama is the early forties? Do the math; these are people who have grown up in the 1970’s and later.
After that, Cosby created and starred in The Cosby Show, an extremely successful sitcom of the 1980’s. In The Cosby Show, the Huxtable family is shown as an upper middle class family of doctors and lawyers who had the same problems as everyone else. Gone were the stereotypical black families of the past who lived in the ghettos and worked menial jobs. This had the simultaneous effect of showing African-Americans that they could aspire to greater things and showed white Americans that blacks really aren’t that different.
Almost simultaneously with The Cosby Show leaving the air, the dreaded ‘N-word’ became common in both comedy routines and rap albums, people started buckling their pants below their butt, and demeaning women became accepted by the culture of rap music. Effectively, the life work of Bill Cosby was undone by a bunch of thoughtless ‘artists’ (I’m using the term loosely here) who care more about making money and having several 'ho’s' than they do about race relations.
And now, when Bill Cosby displays his righteous anger (while once again offering good advice) people think he has gotten old and out of touch. Nonsense. Ask any black person who lived through the Civil Right Movement, Jesse Jackson comes to mind, and they will tell you differently.
Through his family friendly comedy, Mr. Cosby has used the universal language of laughter to show us we all have the same feelings and emotions, black, white or whatever. And this is the true answer to solving the complex puzzle of race in America. Anything that simply points out differences isn’t helpful to the cause. God bless you Bill Cosby, keep fighting the good fight!