Bill Cosby, Not Ebony Magazine, Fanned Stereotypes of the Black Family.

by Staff October 20, 2015 4 Comments Ent. News Opinion Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Ebony Magazine stirred a mini-firestorm of rage when it dredged up an old photo shot of the TV Cosby show family, plopped it on its November cover, and then fractured the picture. The obvious point being that embattled comedian Bill Cosby not only disgraced his legacy but disgraced the hitherto near sacrosanct image and legacy of the celebrated Cosby TV show family, the Huxtables. The premise of the show was that there is fully intact, respectable, high achieving, prim and proper black middle class families. The Huxtables was an in your face, counter to the ancient damaging, hurtful and false stereotype of the black family and by extension blacks, as crime, drug ridden, , dysfunctional, eternal wallowing in ignorance and poverty single parent black families.

The show’s wild success and popularity was evidence that it gave many blacks a positive, upbeat look at themselves, and the strengths of many black families. It also gave many non-blacks a glimpse of an upwardly mobile black family that seemed to be no different than any other such family. The Ebony cover is under fire because it seemed to tear down the last remaining shred of what was good and decent about Bill Cosby and the black family.

The criticism badly misfires and ignores too much. Namely, that it was Cosby who in lectures, speeches, press appearances, and a best-selling book went on a one man crusade to tell the world how supposedly lousy the black family was.

Along the way, he cobbled together a mish mash of his trademark anecdotes, homilies, and personal tales of woe and success, juggled and massaged facts to bolster his self-designated black morals crusade. He made the stock claim that blacks can’t read, write or speak coherent English, and are social and educational cripples and failures because of their own ineptitude, sloth, and indolence. Bill Cosby was lionized by conservatives as the ultimate truth speaker for hammering blacks.

While Bill Cosby was entitled to publicly air black America’s alleged dirty laundry, there was more myth than dirt in that laundry. Some knuckleheads in black neighborhoods do kill, mug, peddle dope, are jobless untouchables, and educational wastrels. They, and only they, should be the target of wrath. But Cosby made a Grand Canyon size leap from them to paint a half-truth, skewed, picture of the plight of poor blacks and the reasons and prescriptions for their plight.

At the time, Cosby publicly bristled at criticism that he had taken the worst of the worst behavior of some blacks and publicly hurled that out as the warped standard of black America. Cosby insisted that he did not mean to slander all, or even most blacks, as derelict, laggards and slackers. Yet that’s precisely the impression he gave and the criticism of him for it was more than justified. Even the title of his book, Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors (a hint they’re all losers) conveyed that smear.

http://www.amazon.com/Come-People-Path-Victims-Victors/dp/B001B2HIV0

Cosby did not qualify or provide a complete factual context for his blanket indictment of poor blacks. He made the negative behavior of some blacks a racial rather than an endemic social problem. In doing so, he did more than break the alleged taboo against publicly airing racial dirty laundry; he fanned dangerous and destructive stereotypes.

That was hardly the call to action that could inspire and motivate underachieving blacks to improve their lives. Instead, it further demoralized those poor blacks who are doing the best to keep their children and themselves out of harm’s way, often against towering odds, while still being hammered for their alleged failures by the Cosby’s within and without their communities.

Worse, Cosby’s blame the victim slam did nothing to encourage government officials and business leaders to provide greater resources and opportunities to aid those blacks that need help. Come on People, intended or not, continued to tar the black communities and the black poor as dysfunctional, chronic whiners, and eternally searching for a government hand-out.

Bill Cosby’s one sided, stereotypical laced crusade against alleged black dysfunctionality was a zero sum catch 22 contradiction. If any of what Cosby said about the black family’s alleged chronic dysfunctionality was true, then that must mean that his be knighted Huxtable family was nothing more than a made for TV fraud. And that he and the show gamed millions to believe that such a black family really existed, when it didn’t. There were more than a few critics even then who knocked the Huxtables as just that, a myth, and lambasted the show and Cosby for creating the fairy tale image of an intact, achieving black family. Ebony’s fractured cover of the Huxtables merely messaged what Cosby had done long before his disgrace and fall; and that’s publicly malign the black family.

Written By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

One can find more info about Mr. Hutchinson over at the following site; TheHutchinson ReportNews.

Also feel free to connect with him through twitter; http://twitter.com/earlhutchins

He is also an associate editor of New America Media. His forthcoming book is From King to Obama: Witness to a Turbulent History (Middle Passage Press).

4 Comments

Marque Anthony says:

October 25, 2015 at 6:47 am

Here is info I found that might be of interest:
The Seven Black Presidents Before Barack Obama
December 1, 2008
Were There Black US Presidents before? The people thought that Barack Obama is the first black President of the United States. Wrong.
1. John Hanson (a Moor) was actually the 1st President of the United States, he served from 1781 – 1782 and he was black. The new country was actually formed on March 1, 1781 with the adoption of The Articles of Confederation. This document was actually proposed on June 11, 1776, but not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777. Maryland refused to sign this document until Virginia and New York ceded their western lands (Maryland was afraid that these states would gain too much power in the new government from such large amounts of land).
Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to run the country. John Hanson was chosen unanimously by Congress (which included George Washington). In fact, all the other potential candidates refused to run against him, as he was a major player in the revolution and an extremely influential member of Congress.
As President, Hanson ordered all foreign troops off American soil, as well as removal of all foreign flags. He established the Great Seal of the United States, which all Presidents since have been required to use on all Official Documents. He declared that the 4th Thursday of every November to be Thanksgiving Day, which is still true today. Even though elected, one variable that was never thought through was that America was not going to accept a Black President during the heart of the enslavement period. Enter George Washington.
2. Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd President of the United States, he served from 1801 – 1809 and he was black. His mother a half-breed Indian squaw and his father a mulatto (half white and half black) from Virginia. He fathered numerous children with Sally Hemmings, a mulatto slave with whom he lived with in Europe.
3. Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States. He served from 1829 – 1837 and he was black. His mother was a white woman from Ireland who had Andrew Jackson with a black man. His father’s other children (Andrew Jackson’s stepbrother) was sold into slavery.
4. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, he served from 1861 – 1865 and he was black. His mother was from an Ethiopian Tribe and his father was an African American. It was told that his father was Thomas Lincoln, a man to cover the truth, but he was sterile from childhood mumps and was later castrated, making it impossible for him to have been his father. Lincoln’s nickname “Abraham Africa-nus the First.”
5. Warren Harding was the 28th President of the United States, he served from 1921 – 1923 and he was black. Harding never denied his ancestry. When Republican leaders called on Harding to deny his “Negro” history, he said, “How should I know whether or not one of my ancestors might have jumped the fence?”
6. Calvin Coolidge was the 29th President of the United States, he served from 1923 – 1929 and he was black. He proudly admitted that his mother was dark but claimed it was because of a mixed Indian ancestry. His mother’s maiden name was “Moor.” In Europe the name “Moor” was given to all Black people just as in America the name “Negro” was used.
7. Dwight E. Eisenhower was the 33rd President of the United States, he served from 1953 – 1961 and he was black. His mother, Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower, an anti-war advocate, was half black.

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Realman2 says:

October 22, 2015 at 1:03 pm

It’s also amazing when white men, married or single, screw around with sluts/strippers etc. but get a pass. Not a word is said. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a perfect example, this scum bucket did porn, gay porn, has several kids by various women and fathered some while he was married. But people didn’t care, they even elected him governor.

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Marque Anthony says:

October 21, 2015 at 6:31 am

As a former detective and a current family and relationship counselor, I have quite a bit of specialized training including criminal profiling. Both my training and my instinct say Cosby was a dog but not a rapist. He was also likely a liar who made false promises to lure the women into compromising circumstances then take advantage of them.

As an African American man I can say a comedian should never have been a role model for the AA community in the first place. If giving millions away to colleges is the best standard we can come up with, then Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman and others would not have made the cut.

All that being said, it is likely these women felt taken advantage of because they slept with him, got duped and their careers (most of them) went nowhere. Ironically, I noticed those who had careers that went places were also those who said “he tried to…”. Yet these ladies did not become alleged victims. Why not? Hmmmm.

Continually letting a man rape you for a year? Really? Going back or meeting Cosby again after he raped you? Really? Not one police report out of 55 women? Really? No DNA evidence, no witnesses, conflicting stories? AND NOT ONE WWOMAN SAID HE FORCED HER TO DRINK THE DRINK OR TAKE THE PILLS. In some cases, they said he handed them pills and they just took them. How dumb is that?

The million dollar question nobody seems to be asking is who dug up all these “victims” and why after all this time? It is likely that the person with the shovel has a vendetta out against Cosby for reasons that probably have nothing to do with those women. They are probably just the pawns and the tools someone could find to get back at Cosby for something unrelated.

I am not a fan of Cosby and I actually don’t like him very much because I think he made his money and fame by helping white people laugh at African Americans and perpetuating the stereotypes of ignorance like in Fat Albert. But I am a writer and I comment on the facts and evidence, not my likes or dislikes. Detective hat off now.

&

Cosby should never have been considered a role model per say anyway. He is a freakin comedian. Yes he gave millions to Atlanta University, but it should take more than money to make an African American a role model. It didn’t take money to make King, Rosa Parks, Tubman, Evers, Douglass role models. That shows the sad state of affairs of the AA community when our role models are comedians and godless talk show hosts (Oprah). And yes I know Oprah built schools in Africa, but what about charity beginning at home? Further, Oprah supports any and all type lifestyles and she is a joke.

We need to remember Cosby made his money and built his fame on the backs of the stereotypes of our people. Fat Albert, need I say more? Where were his positive images then? He made white people laugh at us then turned around and criticized us as a whole for being the same stereotype he perpetuated.

It is a disgrace that 55 women would even be able to mention an AA married man anywhere with them cheating like a dog. He had no concern for his wife. As a family and relationship counselor and a husband, that makes me sick. Let alone the drugging and rape allegations.

Cosby’s reputation should be tarnished, EVEN IF HE DID NOT RAPE ANYONE. He has let the community down, walked in total hypocrisy and now it is catching up with him. Whatever is done in the dark Bill will come to the light.

The African American community is going to have to learn not to pick role models based on tangible riches and who is on TV. Wake up brothers and sisters.

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jdean says:

October 20, 2015 at 8:29 pm

Wow so you are saying the black family is destroyed because Bill helped it. No sir. Sounds like the white supremacists have gotten to you sir. First you want Danielle Watts to apologize then you are blaming Cosby now? Just because he said the right things to the wrong audience doesn’t mean I will now blame him for that coonish Ebony cover. Sounds like you are deflecting the responsibility from Ebony and its white supremacist owners. Cmon man As a former reader of your articles. Again disappointed.

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