Ehrenreich: The New Cosby Kids

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/opinion/08EHRE.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

It was such a dog-bites-man story that I almost skipped right by: Billionaire Bashes Poor Blacks. The only thing that gave this particular story a little piquancy is that the billionaire doing the bashing is black himself. Bill Cosby has been attacking the poor of his race, and especially the youthful poor, for a range of sins, including using bad words, "stealing poundcake," "giggling" and failing to give their children normal names like "Bill." "The lower-economic people," Cosby announced, "are not holding up their end in this deal."

They let me down, too, sometimes — like that girl at Wendy's who gave me sweet iced tea when I had clearly specified unsweetened. She looked a little tired, but, as Cos might point out: How hard can it be to hold a job, go to high school and care for younger siblings in all your spare moments while your parents are at work?

But it's just so 1985 to beat up on the black poor. During the buildup to welfare "reform" in 1996, the comfortable denizens of think spas like the Heritage Foundation routinely excoriated poor black women for being lazy, promiscuous, government-dependent baby machines, not to mention overweight (that poundcake again). As for poor black youth, they were targeted in the 90's as a generation of "superpredators," gang-bangers and thugs.

It's time to start picking on a more up-to-date pariah group for the 21st century, and I'd like to nominate the elderly whites. Filial restraint has so far kept the would-be Social Security privatizers on the right from going after them, but the grounds for doing so are clear. For one thing, there's a startling new wave of "grandpa bandits" terrorizing rural banks. And occasionally some old duffer works himself into a frenzy listening to Cole Porter tunes and drives straight into a crowd of younger folks.

[LittleApple81]

1. Great article. n/t

[RamboLiberal]

2. Yeah - can we get Friedman to take permanent hiatus?

This one is a winner!

[dae]

4. That is just what I was thinking. :-)

[pansypoo53219]

3. while i do agree with her too, basically the Cos is saying that,

black people NEED t5o smarten up, cause they are doing EXACTLY what rich white folks want them to be. stay stoopid and stay poor and stay where YOU belong.
unfortunately. they are caught between a rock and a hard place. but ya can't get anywhere stewing in your own ignorance. look at where the dittoheads is.
yes, the bad grammer is on purpose.

[PATRICK]

5. I thought this was about today's story

about Cosby helping TWO, count 'em, TWO deserving self made hard working youngsters get to college. A man who could open up a whole scholarship fund anyday supposedly has instead picked out a couple tokens to make his arguments- and seal those of his critics- in a consistently strange, out of proportion fashion that is unintentionally amusing and typically American in being really out of whack.