A different view on Cosby
So the phone rings, and it's Cosby calling
Posted: May 22, 2004


Eugene Kane
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The message was pretty succinct: Bill Cosby wanted to talk to me.

According to his representative, Cosby read my column about his comments at a Washington, D.C., ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education case, and he wanted to respond.

Expect a call inside an hour, I was told.

Ordinarily, that kind of news would have me drunk with glee; Cosby has been a personal hero for years. But in my column Thursday, I criticized him for slamming low-income African-Americans and their children for everything from their speech to their buying habits.

Based on a report in The Washington Post that Cosby mocked the language of poor blacks and blamed them for dragging down the rest of society, I chided Cosby for his harsh views and even called him a "curmudgeon."

So when the phone rang and it was none other than Cosby on the other end of the line, frankly, I was pretty intimidated.

That didn't last long.

"Mr. Kane? First, what I want to say is this is not an argument, this is a discussion."

For the next hour, I had a wide-ranging discussion with one of the most famous and successful entertainers in America.

During our talk, he managed to clarify most of his remarks at the Brown vs. Board event.

By the time we were finished, it had been part gentle chastising, part history lesson and partly just a pair of North Philly homeboys talking about growing up in that city.

Cosby said many of his comments in Washington had been taken out of context.

He never meant to suggest all lower-income people were to blame for society's problem.

He said an important qualifying statement was left out of articles about his remarks, mainly his references to a 50% high school graduation rate for blacks across the nation.

"I didn't say all black people from the lower classes were to blame. But I said that when you have a 50 percent graduation rate, and some people can't put two sentences together, and can't write or spell . . . you've got people who have put themselves on a track to failure."

Cosby said he was trying to sound a clarion call with his remarks, most of which weren't reported in the mainstream media.

"What I was saying," Cosby said, was that "we're not paying attention to these messages our children are sending us."

He talked about the hidden meanings behind some kids' fashions, when some black males wear orange jumpsuits, and pants low on their waists, "like they're in jail."

He decried the lack of emphasis on education among some black youth who concentrate more on sports than academics.

He criticized the glorification of a "pimp" mentality among black youth, even to the point where it's celebrated in rap videos on BET and elsewhere.

Not one to mince words, he placed the blame squarely on black parents, no ifs, ands or buts about it.

"I'm talking about parenting. It is time for us to turn the mirror around. We have to take back the neighborhood."

He didn't back down from his criticism of bad English; Cosby was insistent that many blacks could speak better if it became more of a priority in their households.

"We can't excuse these people. There are generations who have been born here and their English is worse than Koreans who have just been here a few years."

At 66 years old, Cosby said he had become frustrated at the dysfunction of some blacks, and the downward path many black communities have traveled.

His criticisms were strident because he felt the problems required a sense of urgency.

"I'm a tired man," he said at one point.

At one point in our conversation, I explained my motivation for writing the column, based on my belief that his reported remarks lacked appropriate compassion for low-income blacks with sub-par education.

I was simply doing what I always try to do as a black journalist, speaking up for defenseless people.

"You're absolutely correct," he told me. "I understand what you were doing."

Cosby also took time to correct me on the circumstances surrounding Autumn Jackson, the woman who claimed to be his out-of-wedlock child. (I made reference to Jackson in my column.)

Cosby said she has steadfastly refused his offer to take a paternity test.

By the end of the conversation, I was literally light-headed with excitement.

What initially promised to be an uncomfortable moment ended up one of the highlights of my journalism career.

I don't make a habit of taking things back. What's the point in that if you believe in what you say?

But I do think my column Thursday did a disservice to Cosby by not presenting all of his comments in context.

A man who has donated millions of dollars to charity - much of that in the name of educating black children - shouldn't have to defend himself to someone like me.

But, seeing how things turned out, I'm glad I said what I did. After discovering we attended the same high school, Bill Cosby even sang a bit of our old school song to me!

Some days, you can't beat this job.