Bill Cosby is RIGHT....

Bill Cosby is right. This beloved TV dad, Ph.D. and respected member of the African-American community attacked members of Black America when he called them bad parents, wife-beaters and irresponsible human beings at a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference. And his comments couldn’t be more correct.

Dr. William H. Cosby, known to most of us as the loveable Heathcliff Huxtable of the Cosby Show, let it fly in July when he met with Rev. Jesse Jackson. His comments evoked hatred from members of the Black community and the liberal media alike when he called on Black Americans to stop blaming slavery and the White majority for their own lack of education, employment and various societal ills.

“You've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job, because you didn't want to get an education and now you're (earning) minimum wage," Cosby said. "You should have thought more of yourself when you were in high school, when you had an opportunity.”

Cosby, a man who grew up in the poorest conditions, was attacked for being out-of-touch with poor Black families because of his comments. But Cosby, if there ever was one, is the perfect example to all of us of someone who worked hard, overcame adversity and made a successful life for himself.

Cosby, born in the projects of Philadelphia in 1937, was raised mostly by his mother while his father served in the Navy and was often called away from home. He was active during the civil rights movement and used the racist idea of white supremacy as an incentive to prove all of his doubters wrong and become a success. And so he did. Earning his Ph.D. in education in 1977, Cosby went on to become one of, if not the, most recognizable TV characters of the 20^th Century, Black or White.

Cosby, well aware of what life was like before social equality, condemned the Black community for not taking advantage of the opportunities the civil rights movement bestowed upon them and their children.

“Dogs, water hoses that tear the bark off trees, Emmett Till,” he said. “And you're going to tell me you’re going to drop out of school? You’re going to tell me you’re going to steal from a store?”

In May of this year, Cosby also let loose with an aggressive tongue-lashing for Black America.

“I can't even talk the way these people talk, ‘Why you ain’t,’ ‘Where you is’ ... and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk,” Cosby said. “And then I heard the father talk ... Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.”

Rap music, lauded by rap artists as the “poetry of the oppressed Black” was another topic of Cosby’s aggression.

“When you put on a record and that record is yelling “n----- this and n----- that” and you've got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that,” he said. Cosby then shed light on the fact that the “n word” which is used so prevalently in rap and R&B music and between young Blacks was a derogatory term used by those who abused and lynched blacks in the past.

While Bill Cosby’s words may be hard-hitting and un-politically-correct, his ideas do hold water and should be taken to heart by those he addressed.

According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2002, 43 percent of all Black families were comprised of a single-mother parental unit. One-point-eight million Blacks were below the poverty level, with 35 percent of these single-mother families.

With a population of 36 million in 2002, unemployment was at 11 percent for the Black community, more than twice the number of unemployed whites with just under 400,000 Blacks out of work. Even though Blacks make up only 13 percent of the United States population, African-Americans counted for one-quarter of the population living in poverty. In 1998, 5.7 percent of all Black teens between 15 and 17 years-of-age gave birth out of wedlock and by 2003 the percentage was 15.1 according to the Child Trends Databank. And slavery ended 140 years ago.

“For me there is a time ... when we have to turn the mirror around,” he said. “Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat; it keeps you frozen in your hole you’re sitting in.”

Cosby’s words should be a breath of fresh air in comparison with the harm that many of the Black leaders of America are doing to their own people. Jesse Jackson, while he gave lip-service agreement to Cosby’s remarks, is a perfect example of someone who makes his living on the suffering of the Black community. Should Black America actually accept Cosby’s advice, who would come complaining to Jackson and his ilk for support and representation and contribute to his multi-million-dollar fortune? Jackson and “leaders” like Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan, claim to be servant of the Black community, fighting for equality in education and employment when instead, they, unlike Cosby, offer nothing but temporary, skin-deep solutions to the problems Blacks face and make a fortune keeping the races separated and suspicious of the other.

In his book Scam: How Black Leadership Exploits Black America, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the “other Jesse,” documents the failed programs espoused by these leaders such as the dismal failure of the welfare program and the absurd slavery-reparations movement.

Bottom line, Bill Cosby offered advice that, while a hard pill to swallow, has been echoed over and over again in American life. Work hard, study hard, respect your family and life will be a success. His message, while directed at the Black community, applies to all of us. He celebrated hard work and refusing to blame “the institution” or buy into what Cosby calls the “slavery syndrome.”

Slavery ended 140 years ago. The civil right movement gained success in the 1960’s. There is not one living American that owned a slave. Yes, bigotry is still alive and well, all across the racial lines, from White to Black, and vice-versa. Cosby’s message is one of true empowerment, taking control and responsibility for your own life and that of your children, and one we could all learn from.

While Cosby’s critics would like to paint the entertainer as out-of-touch with his followers, rich and arrogant, his message rings true as a solution to many of the problems facing the Black community today through hard work, education and responsibility.