In this discussion at Vision Circle, it was suggested that Cosby go and say "Hey, you're a single mom with X kids? Go to this place- clean yourself up"(that's just the gist of one post- read it all) Interestingly enough, I don't think he'd be getting any publicity for his tour if he did that. Like it really sounds good to blame and say we are all lazy and inferior. But it's not a very good idea- what we need is a black Conquergood- in the book The Spirit Catches You and Then You Fall Down- he didn't go up to the Hmong and say "You guys are all dirty idiots. I'm better than you, and I know what's right for you".

No, he went in, wasn't judgmental, and had interventions that went with their cultural milieu. It's like this- we can sit around high and mighty in judgment, and let parts of our country rot, or we can get off our high horses. I mean seriously, we got black folk acting like they are better than other black folk because they got a little money. I see white folk working harder with inner city youth than I see some black people(not to say the white folk are never racist or classist or don't make annoying blunders- but I'll give you credit for doing something)

Yes, some of the people will be asshats. However, Ken Lay stole money from a lot of people, and President Bush sent people off to war without planning enough, and we still give money to stuff that helps white people, and still volunteer to help them, and think they are all just the bees knees. I don't think compassion is limited, and we can only give it to people who meet a certain standard.

People may say "But you're rewarding bad behavior". I'm not saying that we gotta let all the murderers out of jail or anything, just don't always have the meter running with any thing that you don't like (she wasn't wearing rags- no compassion for her!) being immediate grounds for "fuck you". I mean seriously, I don't like how the meter is always running on me, and I'm not even broke. The whole one mistake and you're awful thing gets old.

This isn't to say that many blacks aren't doing things in their community, but they just have to notice if they do something positive and help people out, it's not going to get any press, but the second they say anything negative, even if it's in a sea of positive comments, all ears will train in on it and spread it around. America loves to hate black people, it seems.