Black Conservatives Defend Cosby; Hit Bush

By Robert "Rob" Redding Jr.

Publisher

WASHINGTON, July 26, 2006, 8:30 p.m. - Leading blacks today defended Bill Cosby's repeated criticism of the black community at a forum addressing the "Moral Reconstruction: A Model for Urban Transformation Conference."

Bill Cosby "speaks the truth," Ward Connerly told a largely conservative crowd of about 100 people. "More of us needed to be lining up saying he is right and asking what can we do to help."

Connerly, a moderate Republican and founder and chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, made the comments during the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson's forum, aimed at addressing the plight of blacks.

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Connerly was part of a conservative five-person panel held at the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank.

In contrast, some members of the panel assailed President Bush, a Republican, for being a little too apologetic about racism and his political party's history during his first address in five years to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People last week.

"He provided blacks folks with everything they wanted," Peterson told the crowd. "I thought he was going to say, 'Laura and I have some things over at the [White] House you can pick up.'"

The panel instead touted minimizing government programs, rebuilding black families and black churches to end the downward spiral of many in the black community.

Cosby has used his blunt and sometimes sarcastic humor to try and shame parents into taking personal responsibility, stop blaming police for incarcerations and as motivation to teach their children proper English. Some blacks, however, have questioned how Cosby can be a moral spokesman for anybody when the actor and comedian cheated on his wife.

"None of us are perfect and the message that he is giving is not negated by his own imperfection," Connerly said, following the conclusion of the forum. "A broken clock can be right twice a day."

His fellow panelist John H. McWhorter, author of "Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America" and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said Cosby's "message that we have to look within ourselves is correct." 

The Rev. Grant Storm, a minister and New Orleans activist, who was also part of the panel, agreed.

"He is doing a great thing," said the Rev. Storm, who is white. "And what he needs is encouragement from the white community and the black community. And if the black community listened to what he said they would be better off."

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