Michael Eric Dyson by Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?

Praise for Is Bill Cosby Right?
    “Dyson, who can coin a phrase with the best of them . . . roundly defends the black youngsters whose circumstances sparked the Cosby campaign.”
    —William Raspberry, Washington Post
     
    “Dyson deconstructs the logic of Cosby’s comments and defends poor Blacks.”
    —Ebony
     
    “Dyson is seen by many as the heir apparent to such black intellectual luminaries as Princeton’s Cornel West and Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. . . . In his Cosby book, Dyson uses history and social science to raise nuanced images of poor black people. . . . And these virtues are abundant in Dyson’s own fluent and gorgeous multilingualism. There is syncopation, repetition, call and response, variations of idiom; there is hilarity, grief, the sly rattle and snap of the rhetorical snare; he samples like a rapper, with scholarly footnotes.”
    —Princeton Alumni Weekly
     
    “Well-researched . . . Dyson then dissects these remarks, offering ironic observations that contrast what Cosby is saying about poor people with Cosby’s own unseemly behavior over the years. Dyson’s . . . keen observations, wit and intellectual skills have allowed him to report the material . . . in fresh ways and make this a highly readable book.”
    — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
     
    “Dyson is evenhanded . . . [and] passionate about this subject, and his advocacy for the poor is admirable. . . . Substantive and well-expressed.”
    —Cleveland Plain Dealer

    “Dyson makes a number of genuinely provocative points, particularly while outlining the seemingly insurmountable structural challenges facing those mired in poverty. . . . Is Bill Cosby Right? should get a thorough and rigorous airing, because Dyson is onto something: the maturation (some would say collapse) of the black body politic. . . . As I read, I found myself wishing that this book could be debated in a public manner by a panel of thoughtful African-Americans from all walks of life.”
    —Anthony Walton, The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
     
    “Withering attack on Cosby for his criticisms of the black poor and why Cosby is letting other factors off the hook that keep the underclass where they are . . . A good reminder to look at the whole picture, including self-help and personal responsibility.”
    —Greg Moore, Denver Post
     
    “Informative history and social analysis . . . [of] the long history of black middle-class disdain toward the poor, much of which is rooted in a desire not to give white people a reason to look askance at them. . . . I don’t think the black middle class has lost its mind, but sometimes we all need to take a deep breath and consider what is in our hearts before we engage our mouths.”
    — Seattle Times
     
    “Dyson does more than just take off the gloves . . . he’s got brass knuckles underneath ‘em, two sets worth, and he’s ready to rumble. . . . Dyson angrily rises up in defense of what he sees as an attack on the black poor by the ‘Afristocracy’ of intellectuals, civil rights leaders and other members of the African-American establishment.”
    —The San Diego Union-Tribune
     
    “Dyson deconstructs Cosby’s career of 40 years as one of the most famous black men in America, and finds him sorely lacking in terms of his relevance or commitment to civil rights issues. . . . [Dyson] is a compelling writer with a keen analytical mind.”
    —Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

    “[Dyson] examines Cosby’s complaints in a new book and concludes that the rage of elders such as Cosby does little to bring about prison reform, better jobs or adequate funding for public schools. Dyson challenges all of us to work together to find answers to enduring social problems.”
    —Tucson Citizen
     
    “A provocative book that will provide fodder for debate and discussion.”
    — Rocky Mountain News
     
    ”Dyson’s insightful book challenges Blacks and Whites to confront the social problems in the Black