Cosby’s Black Critics

Bill Cosby, quietly and with little fanfare, has been traveling through African American communities around the nation talking about parenting.  It’s an extension of his comments made since May about the need for more responsibility among Black parents and proves without doubt that Cosby walks like he talks.  His critics should take note and move to focusing on the substance of his concerns, not just how he expresses them.

Like many who felt strongly one way or the other about Cosby’s comments, I believe the dysfunction he has reacted to is real.  Disproportionately high incarceration, poverty, school dropout (21% of Blacks don’t finish high school), and divorce rates, and single family households, coupled with gratuitous Black-on-Black crime and violence, disproportionately low levels of employment, social organization, and electoral participation have undermined significant portions of the African American community.  Cosby’s concern is legitimate and, while there are certainly external, societal forces that have helped create some of these problems, many of the solutions to these problems begin in Black households and communities.  Cosby appears to be saying to African Americans: “let’s clean up what belongs to us before we blame others for our problems.”

Many of Cosby’s African American critics, such as professor Michael Eric Dyson and music mogul Russell Simmons, have charged Cosby with being unjustifiably harsh and judgmental of poor Blacks.  They, and other critics, also charged Cosby with airing dirty laundry and not properly focusing on outside forces that have helped shape the environment in which poor Blacks exist. 

These critics are off-base for at least two reasons: first, the parenting problem Cosby speaks to is not income-specific.  There are plenty of middle- and upper-income parents who are falling short too, just as there are large numbers of economically poor parents who are doing right by their children.

Second, despite the external forces that help negatively shape Black life–and there are many–African Americans are far better situated than generations ago.  Many African Americans have persevered and thrived despite being given the short end of the societal stick–segregated and underfunded schools, housing, roadblocks to meaningful employment, and substandard healthcare–  but persevered through that and proceeded into the socio-economic middle-class and beyond.  The fact that the general condition of many African Americans has regressed despite substantial achievements undermines the argument made by many of Cosby’s critics that he’s letting the larger society off the hook with his comments.  In too many cases, African Americans are our own worst enemy.

Cosby’s critics also have the problem of appearing to favor the status quo.  While I’m sure they don’t, I’m also sure that continuing the same pattern will only yield the same result.  They appear to be unwilling to assign any responsibility for the problems in the African American community to all those responsible, not just the larger society.    Indeed, they’re so defensive of African Americans–which is understandable and acceptable–that they indirectly defend dysfunctional behavior, which is unacceptable.  They, and the larger African American community, would be better served if they joined with Cosby to seek solutions, not just heap criticism on the messenger. Cosby isn’t the problem; he’s just pointing out what’s wrong.  As a progressive, I applaud his unapologetic concern for African Americans and his desire to act, not just talk.

Cosby is calling for, and working toward, badly needed change that can only begin from within African American communities around the nation.  The remedy Dr. Cosby is prescribing–which includes, but is not limited to, parents spending more time with their children and young African Americans using correct grammar when speaking–is well-reasoned, unassailable, and will improve Black life, despite the external forces that try to thwart Black progress.

© Michael K. Fauntroy
November 27, 2004