Is Bill Cosby Blaming the Victim?



Is Bill Cosby Blaming the Victim?

Introduction

For more than two years now, Cosby has abandoned the safety of his "Cliff Huxtable" and Jello-salesman persona to risk taking on the crisis of drop-outs, early pregnancies and celebrations of criminal behavior among America's poor, especially poor blacks. The effort has led to some not-so-funny charges against him. The critics say he is a multi-millionaire who is ashamed of poor black people; he is blaming the victim; he is an entertainer who has no idea of the power of systemic racism and institutional racism to weigh down poor people of any color.

Blaming the Victim

This new face for Cosby emerged on the 50th anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision - May 17th, 2004. Cosby was selected to speak at a black-tie gala in Washington, D.C. celebrating the day when the Supreme Court ordered an end to legal school segregation. Cosby went way off script. Instead of making a couple of inoffensive jokes, he started asking some pointed questions that made people laugh but also squirm about the state of black America(Wu 2004):

"People putting their clothes on backwards...hats on backwards, pants down around the crack... Are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something being wrong when she has got her all the way up to the crack?"

"Those people are not Africans; they don't know a damned thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Shaligua...all that crap and all of them in jail."

"Five or six different children - same woman, eight, ten different husbands... you could have sex with your grandmother... you keep those numbers coming...I'm just predicting."

Those in the audience laughed, stomped their feet and gave him a standing ovation. The seriousness of the speech was apparent, but his examples were drawn so large that they invited pained laughter. The bottom line from Cosby that day was that poor people are not taking advantage of the Brown decision and the doors it opened for people of color to compete in American society.

The rule among the leading voices in racial discussions is to sing from the same hymnal even if a change in seasons brings new ideas, issues and personalities. Black America has seen tremendous development in the last 50 years, but the official message from civil rights leaders remains the same. That message is basically that black people are victims of the system and the government needs to increase social spending. Even the most dysfunctional and criminal behavior among black people is not to be criticized by black leaders. To the contrary, it is to be denied and hidden in the name of protecting the image of blacks as disadvantaged, oppressed and perpetually victimized. Any break with that official message leads to charges of being an Uncle Tom and a sell-out(DeBose 2004).

Cosby was clearly trying to connect with a message that black poverty would only end when and if black people themselves ...