IS BILL COSBY RIGHT? OR HAS THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS LOST ITS MIND?

IS BILL COSBY RIGHT? OR HAS THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS LOST ITS MIND? by Michael Eric Dyson New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2005. 288pp. $23.00.

It is a bit ironic that "America's Dad" Bill Cosby has morphed from an equalizing figure for middle-class America into a divisive figure within Black America's intelligentsia. This shift is largely a result of reactions to Cosby's May 2004 speech at a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) event marking the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. During this speech and the speaking tour that followed it, Cosby asserted that the problems of Black America should no longer be blamed on racism, inequality, or America's past. Instead, he claims, "the lower economic and lower middle economic people are not holding up their end in this deal" (p. 141). Cosby's comments have altered the discourse within and around Black America, as critiques of poor Blacks by Black elites have moved from behind closed doors to the forefront of national discourse.

In Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? Michael Eric Dyson pushes back against the "bitter attacks Cosby has launched [that] dishonor the incredible strength of character of millions of poor blacks" (p. 167). His book weaves together social commentary, evidence-based analysis of Cosby's comments, and exaltation of the poor Blacks at whom Cosby's words were directed. Central to Dyson's argument in this book is the idea that Cosby has built up years of cultural capital and credibility while ignoring race to establish a platform for himself that he is using to lambaste and criticize poor Blacks rather than defend them. Dyson's primary concern is not that the poor are criticized in Cosby's comments, but that the criticism has a harshness and an edge to it that indicates a lack of patience and, perhaps more importantly, a lack of...