Friday, March 13, 2009

Deep Thought


I'd much rather watch Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable on my tee-vee than Bill Cosby.
Posted by blackink at 13.3.09
Labels: ,

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear you. I watched that right before the Jon Stewart beatdown. Bill is given so much respect, and has so many opportunities to positively influence young minds, and yet he still sounds like an old man shouting "Get Off My LAWN, You DAMN Kids!"

March 13, 2009 at 12:32 PM
blackink said...

Lol. You know, it's really sad to see Bill on these shows. He's so clearly out of his depth.

To me, he just comes off as bitter, insensitive, ignorant and incoherent. And sad to say, looks like he's dragging down Dr. P, too.

I wonder if they've ever had a face-off with Michael Eric Dyson?

March 13, 2009 at 6:26 PM
avery said...

Denise shoooole was fine. And Clair too.

Where Sondra come from? On the first epissode, they had 4 kids. Said they had 4 kids, even. Then next think you know, Sondra at Princeton.

I give Cos his props. He's earned the right to be a mad old man. If you think about what he has tried to do - mostly by example - with his career, and what potential things seemed to have a couple decades ago, and the paradox of where we are now, I think I'd be in about the same place. Like, if you think about "the struggle" in the late 60's and early 70's and told somebody the rights we would have won, but what we're actually gonna do with them, I think Cos's is the likely reaction. cuz sometimes mugs just do need to get off the lawn.

March 13, 2009 at 6:27 PM
blackink said...

Wow. Don't even get me started on Denise Huxtable, who really didn't come into her own until she got to Hillman.

Claire was also something serious. Makes me wonder what Eunice Chantilly looked like.

And I also wondered how - and why - they snuck Sondra onto the show. How did they all of a sudden end up with a fifth, older kid? I think they brought her in just to have Alvin on the show.

But about Bill, I see where you're coming from A.T. I really do. But I think his anger is misdirected. I don't think he gives much credence to the pernicious cycles of entrenched poverty and limited opportunity. And I also think he parrots some really hurtful and untrue stereotypes about some of our peeps. Sure, there are some trifling Negroes who need to get off the lawn.

But everyone ain't the same, and I don't think he recognizes - or says - that enough.

March 13, 2009 at 6:39 PM
avery said...

i agree that he could prolly do a more nuanced critique, but i don't know who i find more annoying: people who made it against extraordinary odds and act like everybody can - specifically athletes, entertainers, and the like - or people who make it within fairly manageable odds, but act like everybody can't.

like with a lotta black academics, you're really likely to hear about everything that's likely to keep a brother down, but obviously that didn't stop them. so what i'm always more interested in hearing is what did you do that helped you make it instead of telling the rest of why we shouldn't expect to. i especially hate it for academics, because i've come to realize that a phd is more about work and study habits than smarts. like the dude, mike dyson, i like his steez (somewhat) but it seems like i never hear him bust out w/ the "look. you gon hafta do x, y, and z. period." the fact that he doesn't do that - or at least he hadn't in anything i've read up to and including the bill cosby book - is a liability in my book.

in a way, cosby and dyson are like the mean old grampaw and frosting-sweet granny, hollering and enabling the kids and fussing at each other.

March 13, 2009 at 7:22 PM
blackink said...

I actually feel that. I was having this debate about Cosby v. Dyson with a man that I have a lot of respect for ... he's from the old-school, from the Jim Crow era in Louisiana, a mostly self-made lawyer and raised up a good family.

And he's definitely down with Cosby. I lean more toward Dyson - though I find him insufferable a lot of the time.

Anyhow, I let my friend borrow Dyson's book and he wasn't all that impressed. For many of the reasons you mentioned. And I can see the science in that - at some point you can't keep complaining about the circumstances and expect The Man to give you a boost.

But, like you say, Cosby wants to totally ignore that part of the conversation. And he's mean about things, too. That's generally my problem with him.

March 13, 2009 at 9:29 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)