‘Pound Cake’ Speech Today: Was Bill Cosby Right?

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Cosby spent his life making America laugh, but the comedian has had his share of serious moments -- especially when it comes to family values and education. At a gala marking the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling, comedian Bill Cosby astonished the audience with an impromptu diatribe against the lack of parenting, poor academic performance, sexual promiscuity, and criminal behavior among those he called the "knuckleheads" of the black community. Some members of the predominantly African-American audience gasped, but many applauded or laughed at Cosby's apparently spontaneous remarks. "Hip hop intellectual" Michael Eric Dyson uses this controversial incident to illuminate the widening divide between the successful black "Afristocracy" and the "Ghettocracy" underclass. Dyson asserts that the black middle class has now joined mainstream America in blaming the poor for their troubles rather than tackling the systemic injustices that damage their lives. A controversial critique from an influential social commentator.