Is Bill Cosby Right? Yes he is Mr. Dyson.

I recently got a chance to see Michael Eric Dyson speak in Harlem at the HueMan Bookstore. For those of you who are not familar with him he's the scholar that white people drag out from time to time to explain black culture to the white masses. Frankly I don't like being explained to folks. Either you get it or ya don't. Mr. Dyson is a professor (University of PENN) and a ordained Baptist minister. Michael Eric Dyson. Dyson just finished a book titled: Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind? I think it's great that he's keeping this going. It's good to have a national debate about this kind of thing, and if his book continues the dialogue then so be it.

Dyson was very eloquent and used all kinds of big words and flowery speech to make his point. Basically in a nutshell Dyson doesn't agree with Bill Cosby. He feels that Mr. Cosby was picking on poor people because; they're an easy target. Dyson brings up some interesting questions toward Cosby. Why now? You've never wanted to be identified as an expert on black people why do you want to be identified as one now?

Hearing Dyson speak is very exasperating if you don't have a broad vocabulary. He speaks so fast and moves from one topic to the next it can be hard to keep up. He reminds me of one of those brothas that spent all his time in jail reading the dictionary and can't wait to use all the big words he learnt on the inside. Dyson feels Cosby is misguided and bitter; there was no love in what Cosby said.

My opinion of Dyson is he's one of those black men that walk the tightrope between the street and college, personally I feel they should cut that rope, it's a real simple choice the gun or the book. The choice is yours black man; Dyson has all the tools to be called a black leader he's an accomplished author, a college professor, a ordained Baptist minister and activist so naturally people are gonna want to hear him speak. He means well in his message but I just think he's a tad bit too slick for his own good. Shouldn't he be reaching out to Cosby instead of slamming him in a book?

It was very frustrating listening to him go off on Cosby. At one point he had the nerve to say that Cosby has never addressed white supremacy. This all depends on what you what you mean by the phrase "address". I've seen numerous interviews in where Cosby has addressed white supremacy by saying; yes it exists but should we let that stop us from succeeding? It didn't stop black people in the 40's 50's and 60's so why should we use that as an excuse? It's not necessary for Cosby to bring up white supremacy, because it is something that has always existed and something we have always had to work around. White supremacy is the reason how black people ended up in America in the first place, we know this Dyson! but what are we prepared to do to fight it? Now if that's not addressing white supremacy I don't know what is.

After the lecture he took some questions from the audience. He didn't call on me. He got a bunch of softball questions from the audience. By then I was just too flustered that I had to go to Popeye's to calm down.

Here are some questions I would have liked to ask Dr. Dyson:

• Have you ever lost (donated) millions of dollars to a cause and not see any progress?
• What would you say to a person who spends more money on sneakers than on their own children?
• When are we as a people going to stop caring what white people thinking of us?
• How many ten-dollar fancy words are in your book?
• What do you think MLK would say of all of this?

Basically my impression of Dyson is that he's saying everything that black people want to hear but nothing they need to hear. Cosby intially said a lot of harsh things, but he's paid his dues and he has every right to speak his mind whether it be harsh or not. Cosby wasn't talking to the hard working people who are just trying to get by. He was talking to the people who are out here making the hard working people look bad. People often forget that Cosby grew up poor and no matter how much money you earn in life it still cannot wipe out those early memories of youth.