Bill Cosby, Obama, and race
Conservative ‘darling’ Cosby weighs in on Jimmy Carter and whether The Cosby Show helped elect Obama
Comedian Bill Cosby
(Reuters/Corbis/Fred Prouser)
“Thank goodness Bill Cosby is on my side on this one,” said Tony Norman in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The “right-wing’s most quotable black comedian” took to Facebook to agree with former President Jimmy Carter that “racism is playing a role in recent outbursts against President Obama.” Now that the “only black ‘pundit’” seen as “an honest broker by both the mainstream media and the Right” has sided with Carter, can we end the “snarkiness and ridicule”?
Not likely, said Bruce Maiman in Examiner.com. Bill Cosby became a “darling of the Right” for telling African-Americans to shape up and stop blaming others for their problems. So his suggestion that some “congressional fools” and other critics “oppose Obama’s plan because the president is African-American” is unlikely to get him back on Fox News. It would be equally “fair and balanced,” though, if “his old critics on the Left” now embrace him.
Cosby doesn’t think race—or The Cosby Show—had much to do with Obama’s election, though, said Mark Silva in the Chicago Tribune’s The Swamp. In an interview with The Root, Cosby says Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil-rights movement had much more to do with Americans electing a black man—that, and the “inept” governance of “George W.” and the GOP.
“There are plenty of reasons for people to feel uncomfortable about the direction of the country” now, too, said The Baltimore Sun in an editorial. Sure, Obama’s race probably makes “some people profoundly uncomfortable,” but so do his policies and the times we live in. Even if Carter and Cosby are right that “racism is at the root of the unrest, the course Mr. Obama has chosen to deal with it is the wise one: not to talk about it but to do his job.”
Show: Oldest | Newest
39 Comments
Posted by Johnny Reb, Friday, September 18, 2009, 9:30 am Bill Cosby may have a no nonsense approach to ghetto culture but he's still a racist and has long been one. Jimmy Carter is a dullard and has also long been one. The damage he did to the Democratic party scarred them bad enough keep Republicans in power for twelve years. Obama is following nicely in his footsteps. Bill, Jimmy and Barry should all go somewhere with no media outlets to give them a voice, somewhere they can bitch about Whitey all the day long and leave the rest of us in peace.
Posted by Unknown, Friday, September 18, 2009, 9:55 am Wait. Bill Cosby is a Republican?!?
Posted by JL're, Friday, September 18, 2009, 11:30 am Johnny Reb, you're a racist. The President's name is President Obama, not Barry and you're clearly unemployed living in a outhouse.
Posted by MarcusDolby, Friday, September 18, 2009, 11:31 am Wait. Bill Cosby is black?!?
Posted by JP, Friday, September 18, 2009, 12:13 pm JL're..regardless of how you think someone should address the President President Obama vs. Barry, does not make you able to determine racism. FYI, he used to call himself Barry.
Posted by jb, Friday, September 18, 2009, 12:39 pm Wait. Carter did more than 12 years damage.
Posted by Johnny Reb, Friday, September 18, 2009, 12:58 pm JL're, you amuse me, buddy. I'm doing quite well for myself, thank you. His name is Barack Obama, and as JP pointed out he used to go by Barry. Carter's real name is James, Cosby's name is William. How does addressing someone by their nickname make me racist? You're as simpleminded as Carter it would seem. Don't like the statement or the person it comes from? Holler RACISIM!!! And JB is accurate, too. Besides the Reagan/Bush, Bush/Quayle era, he had 4 years to screw up all on his own...
Posted by Johnny Reb, Friday, September 18, 2009, 1:00 pm ...and of course, W proclaimed himself the idealogical successor to Reagan so you could say he's at least partially responsible for the last 8 years. Yeah, Carters done worlds of damage to this country. All the Habitat for Humanity houses in the world won't fix it.
Post a Comment