Bill Cosby called out for his past socially uneducated comments
Michael Eric Dyson appeared on The Ed Show to discuss Bill Cosby. He did not mince words. Bill Cosby has allowed himself to be used by the Right Wing in their attacks on a certain ‘sect’ of our population. Bill Cosby viewed dysfunction within a portion of the community superficially. If he wanted to really effect change, he would not have simply articulated the bad deeds we can all see but assist in solving the systemic problems that are the genesis, the causation of the dysfunction.
Michael Eric Dyson is correct when he says that Bill Cosby’s comments are harmful to many Blacks and indirectly to all Americans. He is also correct that while Bill Cosby is a comedic genius and rhetorician, it does not translate into socio-economic knowledge or the analysis realm.
“He [Bill Cosby] has used his enormous wealth and his philanthropy to I think undermine and subvert the very practices of decency and respect to ordinary average Black people,” Michael Eric Dyson said. “I think he has used his bully pulpit to reign down thunder upon them. And I think he has been incredibly unfair.”
Dyson then recounted a march in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina where he and Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Marc Morial participated. All but Bill Cosby were defending the New Orleans citizens that were left to fend for themselves. He said Bill Cosby instead at an inopportune time.went on a diatribe about out of wedlock pregnancy, crime rates, and all the real issues that disproportionately affect the Black community.
These ills Bill Cosby speak about are real and true. However, these ills are not cultural, genetic, or specific to the Black community. It is specific to a socio-economic class or the derivatives thereof. The same ills found in the inner cities are the ills found in Appalachia and rural communities. Media has much better reach in inner city communities than in rural communities or in Appalachian regions. As such TV reality does not reflect national reality.
There is also a society controlling component. If one makes the vast majority Americans believe that a particular behavior, a particular poverty is relegated to ‘the others’ that look different, then classes that should be fighting together against an oppressor is more difficult. The ever increasing systemic indentured servitude of the masses cloaked in fallacies can continue unabated.
Bill Cosby is now being accused of many indiscretions and crimes that make some of his attacks seem very hypocritical. Sadly if these accusations turn out to be true it would make him in fact a real predator, person with a character flaw much worse than those scarred by outside influences not of their own making.
Bill Cosby has been a tool. He does want to help the Black community and all communities. His ignorance to the systemic nature of the problem makes him an incompetent spokesperson for what really ails the Black underclass in particular and the poor in general. His money gives him a platform to discuss problems for which he is unqualified to address. Sadly those qualified to address it have neither the means nor platform to do so.