i get the impression you don't like cosby because he's talking about you. you'd much rather argue against whites you believe you can con than blacks who call your bluff because they know your blow is a dead end.
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You are wrong. So terribly, laughably wrong.
I could share my full biography with you but that would only result in more drifting away from the central point. Suffice to say that I was rather poor as a child, obtained (with the help of my loving and dilligent family) a sterling education and now do some very cool and sometimes even quite wiggy stuff with very exotic technology for fortune 500s who pay me rather well (if you read any of my posts on tech matters you'll be able to discern this). All the result of work, mentoring, talent and of course, a certain degree of luck.
So I spend no time, as you say, "arguing against whites you believe you con". And I assure you, no one is calling my bluff. There's no bluff to call.
So you see, I'm actually in the 'green zone' of Cosby's worldview by which I mean I've done all the necessary things to live a useful life according to coventional thought. I should be, by class division, one of his cheerleaders. Indeed, the very fact I post to lbo-talk reveals something about education level and class affiliation (something you should have been able to logically deduce in seconds). And yes, like Cosby, I'm also disturbed by the self-destructive behavior of the so-called underclass and would like to see less directionless motion and more progress.
I could, for example, while touching down in Seoul for a meeting with Samsung engineers and text messaging my wife back in N. America via my handheld, ponder how since I "made it" others surely could too (which is essentially what Cosby's saying yes?) but something prevents me from falling into this line of reasoning.
What is it?
It's this.
I understand that capitalism, in concert with racism, erects structural impediments to most people being able to do as well as I've done. What are structural impediments? A few come to mind: the poor state of public eductation, the mounting cost of private primary and secondary education, the US economy's lackluster performance at producing high quality employment for the maximum number of workers, the lack of a robust safety net that supports child development and childcare as well as healthcare. The absurd cost of transportation in this mass transit adverse country (it costs me a thousand dollars a month in various fees to keep the vehicle I must have to commute the long distances I travel everyday - how many people can afford this? - if I couldn't afford it, I wouldn't have some of the cool, high paying gigs I now do - an illustration of a structural impediment).
In short, even if the millions of people whose behavior disturbs us so were to change and prepare themselves for assuming their place within the middle class, the structure of the society itself - it's inability to absorb these millions into employment situations (the essential material pre-condition) would lead to an eventual collapse of the effort.
This is the ennui I wrote about before and it was a contributing factor to the burn out of the original civil rights effort. People who believed that their situation would improve discovered the obstacles in the way. You cannot maintain the social structures Cosby wants to see without the supporting material conditions. The supporting material condition would be secure, well paying, hopefully even meaningful employment. Without this substructure, you cannot develop the superstructure.
So of course some of us, even a good percentage, can 'overcome' these problems and enjoy comfortable (if harried) lives. That has always been true. The real question is whether this is possible for the majority.
And this is my argument against Cosby, his billions and grammys and degrees (hey, I'v got those too - something we have in common) notwithstanding. Being a wealthy man - even one who became wealthy 'against the odds' - does not give him perfect insight. He's describing a symptom and missing the disease.
That you cannot (or will not) see this is puzzling.
.d.