Bill Cosby may not realize this but he has become one of the most visible neoconservatives in the United States. To the uninitiated Dr. Cosby may simply be the most vocal apologist of "moral values" amongst the African-American community.
I have been watching Dr. Cosby's critique all summer so I watched his interview with Paula Zahn on CNN last night with keen interest; he did not disappoint:
...ZAHN: But in confronting the victim the way you have in such a public way, it has led to charges that you are blaming the victim and that you maybe aren't fully acknowledging the economic conditions that led to the way they live or the racism perhaps that's put them in that situation?
COSBY: I am of the theory -- and I do not stand alone -- that the victim has to be told to get up and fight, that the victim has to be told, must be told, to respect oneself, and that the word somebody. Very, very interesting, in "On the Waterfront," the line from "On the Waterfront" that sticks out, and anybody on this earth knows the line, that everybody says, I could have been a....
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ON THE WATERFRONT") MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: I could have been a contender. It's very, very important. I could have been somebody. And it doesn't take much, if an individual gives him or herself a chance to become somebody. So you got -- the choices are...
ZAHN (voice-over): And that is what Bill Cosby wants his people to understand.
COSBY: There are colleges, technical schools, things that are open for you.
ZAHN: That it's their power to become somebody.
COSBY: Make somebody of yourself. Marlon Brando, I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody. They haven't tried it yet. And I'm not talking about all black people. And everybody understands that. What people are tired of, the people who agree with me, what they're tired of is listening to that sound, the sound of the people who've given up.
Put simply, this is the American Dream. Rich people from Europe colonized North America to become more rich. Poor people flooded in to raise themselves up. Their dream was that if they could not become rich at least their children could. Generation after generation whose primary goal was to make things better for their family. As Bill Cosby put it, to be somebody and to raise their children to be somebody. I am parent of two beautiful children. I want nothing more than that!
