The same mechanism that squeezes life, out of the inner cities and trailer parks of North America, is responsible for alcohol abuse and suicide on native reservations, townships and villages all across the globe. Yet, a few fortunate escapees choose to place the blame for these perpetuating conditions squarely on the shoulders of those trapped in its misery. The amount of intestinal fortitude required to survive these conditions is a lot to ask of adults much less the children of these adults.

The proponents of Cosby's little tirade have probably never lifted a finger to enable another unfortunate human being. To express empathy for such people is to risk being labeled a "bleeding heart liberal". Yet, the ability to empathize is used as a criterion for judging ones humanity. How schizoid we have become? On Sundays, we profess our identification with our beneficent cause and then proceed to act like its opposing force for the rest of the week.

I am reminded of a comment made by the Bangladeshi founder of Grameen Bank. Fed up with the tactics of the village moneylenders he approached a commercial bank in an effort to secure micro loans for the peasant farmers and merchants. The response of the bank was that they do not lend to the poor. In their view, the poor were hungry, the money loaned will be used for food, and once satiated there will be no desire to repay. Professor Yunus shocked by the rationale asked if all the rich customers repay their loans.
Then as the banker responded in the negative, promptly questioned why they (the Bank) continued to lend to the rich. The success of Grameen Bank is now history and its model is being used around the world. Professor Yunus began his enterprise using his salary of $300 US. Anyone care to guess at the net worth of William H. Cosby, Ph.D.

What is the difference between Cosby and Yunus? Is it western socialization? Well the professor after being educated by western missionaries moved to the west to continue his education. However, unlike Mootoo and Naipaul as the eloquent Linda Edwards notes in her essay, he did not turn his back on where he came from. So maybe it is not western socialization.
What causes Dr. Cosby and others like him to want to be seen as "others"? Does Bill Gates pontificate on the speech patterns, education and mating habits of America's predominantly white rural poor? The reason he does not is that no one judges him by that standard.

Like our comical fellow poster, Seshatasefekht astutely notes, this latest rant is for the benefit of Cosby's white benefactors. To prove after all that he is a happy slave. Less he loses another child or another attempt is made to discredit his reputation. What he fails to realize, is that unless America's Black bourgeois class makes a concerted effort to correct the injustices that perpetuate the conditions that exists within the inner city; and refuse the urge to pay lip service to its aberration in the media, we will be revisiting this discussion again and again.

I did say that Castro's proposal would probably never see the light of day.
The fact that you cannot make a connection between WASPs like Bill Gates or George W. Bush, and WASPs like Eminem or the Beasty Boys only substantiates my point that the effects of racist perception was the motivation behind Cosby's tirade. Despite the fact that most of them have become fundamentalists, they began as WASPs.
How easily we are made to forget the origins of the descendants of the slave masters. Yet the descendants of enslaved Africans are reminded of their inauspicious arrival to this continent, everyday. Peace!