On May 17 2004, the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision, Bill Cosby addressed a mostly black audience at Washington's Constitution Hall. Cosby has been very successful in his comic career. Famed for his practiced timing and flawless delivery, Cosby is credited as a champion for education, a discipline in which he received his doctorate. Although very knowledgeable in the field of education, Cosby decided that he would use this ceremony to publicly criticize his race on issues like parental negligence and imprudence. His speech has spurred much controversy in the black community and has been heavily publicized in popular news magazines and talk shows.
             Why is everyone so surprised? Cosby made his millions telling white Americans what they wanted to hear. Every Thursday he presented the world with his fictional family. The "ideal" African-American family should listen to jazz and have famous musicians over for dinner. In Cosby's world, blacks should take weekend trips to expensive cities and live in a big house with all white neighbors. Writer Khalil Tian Shayd says the Huxtables are "sheltered" from the real world and display a neglect of "poverty based social ills" including politics, gentrification, under-funded and abandoned school districts, swelling prison populations, racial profiling, economic marginalization, and domestic abuse. The Huxtables introduced blacks into the homes of whites in America. The television show proved that a Black-cast show could hold white people's attention in prime time for multiple seasons. This was considered a great victory. The ideal Black Role Model – Cosby himself, or the self he created – was now the entire nation's Role Model for Black people.
             White people in America must have been crushed when the hip hop scene became such a prominent role in the black community. Cosby&apo...