Once it became clear that the author was going to spend most of the book trashing on Cosby, I lost interest. Yes, Cosby is not perfect. He has his flaws; we get it already, move on with the argument. And the thing is, Dyson does make some important points about how social issues do have to be taken into account in regards to the poor. However, and I think he may not be totally clear or misses this, those social issues are not an excuse to not be personally responsible. The example he uses of the kid shot by the police for stealing. Sure, you can say poverty drove him to it, but he still had the choice to actually commit the crime. There is always another choice, and one can choose to do the right thing. So, may not sound PC, but if said kid got shot in said robbery, it is fair to ask what was he doing stealing in the first place when we all know it is illegal to do so? To excuse it is simply a way to abdicate responsibility. Are there other issues, yes? But as usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Cosby seems to represent one extreme, but Dyson then represents the other extreme.

A pity in my case since I liked Dyson's later book on Katrina. I guess once a while a writer comes up with a book that is not so good. ( )

As indicated by the title, this is Michael Eric Dyson's take on Bill Cosby's notorious rants of a few years ago lambasting the poor. For those who are unaware, Cosby took it upon himself to criticize poor blacks, especially youth, for a variety of issues including dressingly sloppily, promiscuity, not being able to "speak English correctly", irresponsible consumerism, and not parenting.

Dyson, in his typical fashion, seeks to explain the larger causes for each of these issues. While Cosby seeks to place the blame squarely on the victim's shoulders, Dyson seeks to examine more systemic reasons. As usual, Dyson is entertaining and easy to follow, as well as intelligent in his arguments. (He also suffers from repetitive points and redundancy..but maybe some of us need this stuff etched into our brains)

This book was a little odd because in addition to theorizing about specific social issues, Dyson also confronts Cosby's validity as a spokesperson directly. He brings up instances/scandals in Cosby's own life (ie. an extramarital affair, possibly fathering a child out of wedlock, having a drug abusing daughter) that are very much in the same category of offenses that Cosby chastises other blacks about. Dyson also provides a contrast between Cosby of the 1960s and 1970s to that of the Cosby today. Cosby, at one point, seemed to have a much more complete and compassionate view of the plight of the poor blacks in this country. Cosby has always (until recently) preferred to keep quiet about issues surrounding race, seemingly in part to keep from offending white audience members. However, Cosby once wrote a dissertation the clearly focused on more institutional and systemic factors for continuing poverty, and granted an interview with Playboy where he candidly talked about race relations in a framework much more similar to Dyson.

I personally could have done with less criticism of Cosby specifically. It's clear that he's only human, and that he's getting old and frustrated and out of touch with the younger generation. He also occupies a different economic class and level of privilege, so one can't be all that surprised at his comments...I still want to hear why Cosby is wrong, but I don't think it's necessary to drudge up his personal failures repeatedly. ( )