New Blog Alert!!......Well Okay, New To Me

I just so happened to be visiting the UnderCoverBlackMan blog (a blog incidently, I would suggest all of you visit simply for Mr. Mills' misidentified black person alert) and came across a link to yet another blog, entitled Acting White. The blogger, James Collier, is actually in the midst of writing a book analyzing how the perception of attaining greatness in the Black culture can be equated with whiteness. Obtaining educational or financial success should not (and does not) mean one is attempting to act white, which Collier is so eloquently positing. I would definitely suggest that after you read this blog, take a hop and skip over to Mr. Collier's excellent effort. One of my favorite entries is a mock conversation between Collier, Michael Eric Dyson (the good reverend, doctor wannabe rapper) and Dr. Cosby. I provided an excerpt of this conversation below as well as a link to Collier's blog. Enjoy!

Talking Points
Bill Cosby vs. Michael Eric Dyson vs. James C. Collier

Michael Eric Dyson takes Bill Cosby on head-to-head with each issue that he brings up in his now infamous NAACP speech from May 17, 2004. Here are some highlights:

Cosby: "Just forget telling your child to join the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. (laughter) It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to learn English. I can't even talk the way these people talk."
Dyson: "Cosby's poisonous view of young folks who speak a language he can barely parse [Ebonics] simmers with hostility and resentment." And "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Cosby's lauded '70s television cartoon series, won greater acceptance for a new cast of black identities and vernacular language styles. Cosby has made money and gained further influence from using forms of black English he now violently detests."
Collier: “I think Mr. Cosby’s point is that today’s Black kids are not bi-lingual, in the sense that Black English is unique and ubiquitous, nor are they, to a greater extent, bi-cultural, to the requirements of society. The ability to move ‘seamlessly’ between the ‘standard English’ requirements of school and work and the informal language of the street is a prerequisite both for advancement and maintaining uniqueness.”

Cosby: "People with their hat on backwards, pants down around the crack. Isn't that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up (laughter and clapping)."
Dyson: "Baggy clothes express identity among black youth, and not just beginning with hip-hop culture. Moreover, young black entrepreneurs like Sean 'P. Diddy' Colms and Russell Simmons have made millions from their clothing lines."
Collier: “Emulating styles is one thing; emulating prison-inspired dress is another. When style of dress implies a mindset and behavior that includes the rejection of education, and other advancing assimilations, including lawful behavior, those styles should be recognized as not mere expressions of identity, but rather as counter-productive behavior. The fact the Mister’s Combs and Simmons have made millions commercializing prison-inspired styles does not make it acceptable.

Acting White

And for the rest of the Collier, Cosby & Dyson conversation:

The Injustice Bill Cosby Won't See