Prof: Intellectuals failing poor blacks

[AlphaCentauri]

Houston Baker was at the first one-day Celebration of Black Writing party 25 years ago, when he was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Today, Baker, 66, is a distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University, whose latest book, "Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era" advances his reputation as a no-holds-barred cultural critic.

In his book, Baker contends that many of the black public intellectuals who appear on network and cable television talk shows have essentially turned their backs on poor African-Americans.

"They are saying if people are in a bad place - if they are impoverished and disproportionately imprisoned and racially-profiled and killed in drive-by shootings - it's a result of bad behavior," Baker said in a telephone interview last week.

"It has nothing to do with municipal or state or federal laws and policies such as those that put some drug users in rehab and others in prison."

Among the black intellectuals that Baker is most sharply critical of are well-known conservative writers and thinkers such as Hoover Institute senior fellow Shelby Steele, Manhattan Institute fellow John McWhorter and comedian Bill Cosby, who has criticized poor black parents, Baker said, "for the way they talk and dress when they probably don't have two quarters to put together."

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/45379802.html?cmpid=15585797

[Oregone]

1. He lost me at "comedian Bill Cosby"

I think he is being far too liberal with the term "intellectual" in that case. :)

[YOY]

2. Apparently you've never heard the man wax on end about Pudding Pops

n/t

[MicaelS]

3. "to see yourself rise, you have to take your people with you,"

The real question is why? Why is there always this stated notion that seems to apply only to blacks?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Bill Cosby ain't an intellectual.

He's completely full of shit in blaming black people, sure, I'll agree with that.

But intellectual?

[AspenRose]

5. Probably because he has a doctorate

Having a doctorate doesn't automatically qualify one as an intellectual though, that's true.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. He didn't matriculate and get a doctorate.

It was an honorary degree given to him at a Temple University graduation.

[AspenRose]

7. No, he has earned one

I think the "Fat Albert" show was part of the disertation

Bill Cosby earned a Bachelor in Arts Degree from Temple University and a Master Degree in Education (M. Ed.) in 1972 and his Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.) in 1977 from the University of Massachusetts. His doctoral thesis was titled "The Integration of Visual Media Via Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids Into the Elementary Schools Culminating as a Teacher Aid to Achieve Increased Learning."

http://aalbc.com/authors/bill.htm

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Ah, his one contribution to intellectualism.

A cartoon about black children who live in a garbage dump.

[AspenRose]

9. Well, that and some books with Dr. Pouissant...

:shrug: I guess it's open for debate, but when I think intellectual, I don't exactly think of Cosby. Michael Eric Dyson seems more fitting.

[AlphaCentauri]

11. good info

[Johonny]

10. given that he's a comedian that's whole act is on

observation everyday life humor, I think he must be pretty intelligent because his act was down right incredibly funny and brilliant. He seemed to celibate the African American culture of his youth but oddly as an older man seems to be repelled by modern culture.