The best-selling book that sparked a national debate about the class divide in black America Michael Eric Dyson took America by storm with this provocative exposŽ of the class and generational divide that is tearing black America apart. “A fascinating journey through black thought, American history and the psyche of an uptight, easily embarrassed, tittering black aristocracy…. Dyson does a brilliant job dissecting and demolishing Cosby’s rhetoric.”(Newsweek) … More >>
Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?
This book breaks down what Bill Cosby was trying to say. It show his hypocrisy in critcism of the same group of people who make him rich. We cannot forget Let’s Do it Again and other movies Bill made. If Bill wanted to be social activist he should have started along time ago. Who is he critize poor black parents. All the money in the world could not keep his daughter Erin of drugs when she was a drug addict.
Rating: 5 / 5
According to Dyson quoting Cosby the latter said that a free attorney often doesn’t do an African-american youth (arrested for, say, robbing a store) much good. Ok. A free attorney, just because he or she isn’t the personal attorney to the governor of the state the crime occurred in, is usually no solution to the arrested African-American kid’s problem. So therefore according to Cosby (and the agreeing Dyson) the only solution is—what? Neither gives a solution. But it seems to me that according to either man the solution is either of the following :
1)Legalize armed robbery for african-american youths
2)Get multi-million dollar lawyers for african-american youths charged with armed robbery and who don’t have money. Ensure all poor african-american youths contemplating armed store robbery of complete immunity should they get caught.
Both men are shortsighted losers for feeling the way they do on this subject. I also debate that Dyson appears to say that Martin Luther King Jr. could provenly cheat on his marriage and no one should pick on his memory for it. And for those who elevate Cosby to almost saint-status for getting many African-Americans into college I say this:African-American track star Jesse Owens was in college before Bill Cosby was even born. West Point accepted african-americans as cadets more than 2 entire decades also before Bill Cosby was even born. Cosby is nowhere near the Messiah-like character so many of his fans make him out to be. And lastly I Spy and The Cosby Show are mere works of tv show fiction. Whatever they show african-americans like they are just make-believe. Remember that good and hard!
Rating: 1 / 5
hey matt newcomb, and I’ll be sending you to Uzbekistan or some other ’stan’ ‘vakia’ or any other country that has a name that ends with ‘ya’, so bundle up and take some recipes for potatoes and goat. please if you’re here to review the book, focus on only that, and try not to spread your hate. this book is great.
Rating: 5 / 5
I love Bill Cosby in many different ways as a comedian, and always will appreciate most of his thoughts and effort to help people. However I am glad he is not my father as I am convinced from this book that he has a “dysfunctional family”. I am sure Anyone who is a workaholic like him will not have that much time to mold his children into the healthiest family. People too often fail to realize that quality families do take a lot of personal care and effort to produce. Fathers and mothers really do have to take care of their children..or at least have some other relatives do it (sometimes it takes a village, anything to avoid “daycare centers”). It doesn’t mean we can’t work hard, but it helps if we can work hard with our families right around us, such as on a farm, store or restaurant. If one of his daughters was addicted to cocaine or any hard drug, which she was, that is all I need to know to be convinced that his family is disordered. Along with drugs, He also committed adultery on his wife. That’s a big flaw. But if his family can forgive him I can too, even though it will always be devasting for them I am sure (as it was when my own grandfather cheated on his wife).
As many people here have said, Bill Cosby has done many good things, but he has also done some bad things in his private life and in his methods of helping people he has sometimes been either naive or unable to understand the profound difficulties many poor people face. He’s a mixed bag without a doubt, ultimately a hero but..a flawed hero, as most of us are. So just take what he says with a grain of salt when it doesnt make sense in all contexts.
To put it bluntly I am sure that bill cosby himself and many people in his extended family have certain relatively common mental disorders, which many of the most intelligent people do have. God gives us something and than he takes something else away. So all we can say is nobodies perfect, as long as we stay humble and try to improve ourselves, people will forgive many of our mistakes and treat us with respect.
Rating: 5 / 5
Dyson’s book is correct.
Morality has nothing to do with class, culture, race or gender!
The defenseless poor, without all the advantages of the upper classes, just mimic and fall victim to all the problems that permeate society as a whole.
The only difference is the upper and middle classes think they can do whatever they want (bed-hopping, drug abuse, cultural ignorance & white collar crimes that are actually more harmful to society to petty cash street stuff) and escape social responsibility.
Things only become “serious problems” when upper classes are bored & indifferent enough to focus attention on the poor masses ONLY WHEN IT’S CONVENIENT to blame them.
Great read, even better topic written by a champion brave enough to stand up for the poor and bold enough to call out America’s favorite dad when he’s wrong.
Rating: 4 / 5