[dreamdeferred]

Originally Posted by MossadConspiracy

salam

from the way you describe it, it seems like the kid had a typical elitist attitude towards less fortunate people, but I wasnt there so who knows.

Anyway, I dont think its debatable that there are serious problems in inner city black communities. These include high rates of prison incarceration, unemployment rates that are usually several multiples of the national rate, a larger percentage of fatherless families than any other segment of the population (which may or may not be a problem), higher incidence and prevalence of HIV, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and practically every other disease under the sun along with their risk factors, etc...

Racism may be the root cause of these problems, but pointing them out isnt racist or incorrect or insensitive in itself. Alot of black people look at these trends negatively, actually its one of the broad themes of contemporary black culture. The notion that black culture has experienced a downfall, from a previous era when communities were more tightly knit and values were more conservative. Again, whether this ideal ever really existed is up for debate, but Bill Cosby isnt unique in mentioning it. Actually, he represents a common view among blacks which has been stated by a variety of black leaders and major figures like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, TD Jakes, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, etc. Bill Cosby is a very dedicated black nationalist, and always was

There is insightful criticism and then there is elitist and unproductive criticism. Bill Cosby's critique was firmly in the latter category. Michael Eric Dyson (who's article has been posted above) explodes Bill's argument sufficiently so I won't get into that at all. Regardless I still have a lot of respect for the man.

The real problem is when people fail to account for the very real systemic issues that underlie all the problems you've highlighted above. Are these problems related to some racial/cultural deficiency......or does it go substantially deeper? As far as I'm concerned it's clear that when race and poverty intersect the outcome is is bound to be tragic.