The Importance of Being Cosby


During this holiday season a lot of people start reflecting on family and the importance of family. While I agree that family is important I always found the term “family” to be very subjective. People can find family in many forms. Some people find family through a team, some find family through a group (this can be the military or even gangs), but around this time of year people like to stick to the more contrived and almost extinct nuclear family. This nation has a tendency to suspend its disbelief during the holiday season and play nice even though that may not be the normal pattern of behavior. For those of us who happen to be of color, this all stems to a singular focus for Americana; Bill Cosby and his image as the prototypical black family man.

The subject of Bill Cosby and his philosophy on the family unit is something that has created a lot of controversy recently. While I do not agree with everything that Mr. Cosby says he does carry a fair amount of validity when he says that African-Americans as a people need to be better and more responsible citizens. I do agree. I find that many African-Americans have shifted their priorities from education and citizenship to maintaining an image of being “hard” and “cool”. This is a stark contrast to the philosophies that Cosby emphasized during the hüber popular television show “The Cosby Show”. Although thinking back his first two children on that show OBVIOUSLY could not have been the offspring between himself and Phylicia Rashad.

I always thought that Bill Cosby was a victim of his own success. “The Cosby Show” seemed to mark an assimilationism in the country for African-Americans to enter the mainstream of American television and its culture. I am well aware of “The Jeffersons”, “Good Times”, and “Sanford and Son” but “The Cosby Show” did more than perpetuate stereotypes, something the former shows seemed to revel in and the rest of the country was numbed into not acknowledging. For the first time ever, African-Americans were well educated, well behaved, and well financed. The family was the epitome of upper-class African-American achievement. The problem that I have with Cosby is that I believe he lost track of the real world. For those that do not know, the 1980s were a time of major financial strain for most of the country, particularly African-Americans. Reagonomics decimated the nation and helped to create a national deficit that was astronomical. Most families were not/are not the Huxtables. Things like divorce, poverty, depression, disdain, and dissent were commonplace in many households.

Since “The Cosby Show” ended, thanks in large part to the coming of “The Simpsons”, America has wanted to replace the idea of Bill Cosby with surrogate African-American tv dads. I do not know what the obsession is with seeing black men parent but it something that I believe needs to be addressed. IF you do not believe that it is an ongoing epidemic I will examine just a few of the new tv dads. First lets look at Snoop Dogg. I am a big fan of “Fatherhood” and believe that his involvement in his children’s lives and with youth football is very cool. But this is also the guy who wrote “Murder Was the Case” and “Gin and Juice”. I am not even going to mention that horrible film Bones.

Let’s move on to George Foreman and his show “Family Foreman”. Mr. Foreman seems to have the most Cosbeyesque qualities…………….except for the fact that four of his children have four different mothers. Yikes! He does have crossover appeal thanks to his grill, which is a godsend to the modern bachelor by the way, and his commercial appeal. George Foreman has many positive traits. He seems to be a warm, caring father. I hope that his show is renewed, although I doubt it will be based on the ratings it was receiving the first season.

Let’s move on to good ole’ Uncle Luke. That’s right “Doo Doo Brown” Uncle Luke. I never thought a guy who wrote a song that said “Let a nigga see ya asshole butt-naked, bitch! (2x)Aw, aw, aw, nak-naked, bitch! Aw, aw, aw, butt-motherfuckin' naked, bitch!” would ever get his own reality television show. Do you remember the crap 2 Live Crew used to do? And he is teaching morals/values?! The show, “Luke’s Parental Advisory”, is definitely entertaining and he seems to have mellowed out over the years. But there are definite signs that he is still a freak at heart. I suppose that he is good for admitting it though and not pretending.

The last man I want to deal with is Ice Cube. How did he go from Boyz in the Hood to Are We There Yet? The former N.W.A. member is now trying to be a respectable father figure. I understand that half of the personas that these people generate are pure works of fiction. My problems is that America seems to be so thirsty for the next Bill Cosby. I think that all these men are probably great fathers but that the times have changed and that the utopian existence that Mr. Cosby projected on television for the better part of a decade is just an illusion.

In this new age of Obama where the idea of race seems to be eradicated because the leader of the free world is a man of color, people want to be reminded of the original crossover family man. The prototypical family is not nuclear or perpetually harmonious, but family means that sometimes imperfections are accepted because of the ties that bind. Mr. Cosby showed the world that family has many faces and that America is more than just the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants that inhabit the country. His gift of a multi-racial slice of Americana allowed for progress that can be seen in the election of Barrack Obama.