  Last week urlLink Bill Cosby gave a speech that was incensing to say the least upon accepting an NAACP award in Washington, D.C. I thought about this speech quite a bit, but was too removed from my computer to blog it. With apologies, I'm p-blogging it now, and as always, I invite commentary. Call it white guilt if you must, but when I was driving to Galveston last Tuesday morning and heard for the first time excerpts from Mr. Cosby's speech, my first reaction was one of horror. His words sounded jaded and hurtful. On an occasion dedicated to honoring the accomplishments of African Americans as exhibited through his own life, Bill Cosby tore down his fellow race. What's more, he attacked the aspects of the black culture that are most unique to black culture. It felt like cheap shots pulled in an intimate fight with a loved one. Similarly, many voices in the black community were unable to accept the message on the grounds that it felt urlLink like airing dirty laundry . Perhaps most hurtful was the way the urlLink conservative right voice , primarily through radio programs, caught onto and championed Bill Cosby's words.
In some of his speech, Cosby attacked attributes of poverty that simply aren't the causative factors he assumes them to be. For example, he said poor parents shouldn't be buying their children fancy sneakers. This is a famous misconception. According to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, as charted in urlLink The Two Income Trap , discretionary income for the average family income is actually lower (at $17,045/year) than it was in the early 1970s (then $17,834), even after inflation was adjusted. The authors explain that instead of causing budget problems, discretionary spending (for example, eating out and buying nice shoes) is for many the primary windfall in tough financial times, because it's an easy budget line to squeeze. Instead of the sneakers, modern budget problems can be blamed on skyrocketing mortgage costs, the second family car, childcare, and healthcare.
The remainder of the speech focuses on black dialect. As an anthropologist, and as a parent in a city with a culturally silenced African American majority, I don't want every one to melt into one dialect or one acceptable appearance. I celebrate pluralism to the degree that I actively chose a blended neighborhood in which I raise my children. I think hip-hop is currently the most creative music genre. I listen to the Gray Album with my children alongside U2 and Mozart. And yet, I am certain I would not allow my children to speak in a dialect of slang were I black because as a white parent, I actively avoid slang, I teach my children not to use it. I don't let them say um-huh or uh-uh , and because they mimic me, I try not to say how come or y'all .
I want to foster an attitude within my children of respect and appreciation toward education, even at the level of communication. I want their words to be edifying and purposeful. I want their vocabularies to be rich and diverse. This isn't an easy parenting task in a culture that views an educated presidential candidate as dull compared to the bumbly, slang-speaking candidate.
Similarly, I'm sure parenting black children to speak with plain, clear words isn't easy when all the black cultural heroes of our time are celebrating their diversity primarily through these linguistic affectations Bill Cosby says will prevent black children from becoming doctors or lawyers. In the rearview mirror of history, angry speeches don't seem to hold the cultural attention span for long. We don't remember, though there were many, the angry speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King. With the possible exception of the fiery sermons of Cotton Mather, as a culture we cleave to the positive, uplifting, and soothing speeches--the Gettysburg Address, the Kennedy call to serve our country.
For this reason, if no other, I feel Bill Cosby took the wrong approach in his attempt to guide the course of his race. This reflects a desire I have for my own cultural elders: gentle, open arms to catch salty tears of younger ones. Life is hard enough, especially for the families struggling to break the class barriers Cosby mentioned. I don't need another angry, older, crotchety voice telling me what I'm doing wrong, and that is basically what Bill Cosby did at the NAACP. UPDATE: this topic has been continued in a later entry, which can be found urlLink by clicking here . 
