_______________MRS. COSBY'S RACIAL PARANOIA BY DAVID HOROWITZ (07/13/98)

A charitable person would simply say that Horowitz is naive. I am not a charitable person. In my opinion, Horowitz is suffering from his own whiteness. Forget about the fact that he is Jewish, because Jews are generally accepted as being along the continuum of whiteness and, therefore, can no longer claim oppressed status in this country. No, he's just being white. That is to say, he sees the world from one very myopic viewpoint and doesn't understand that not all of us would agree with his view based on our own experiences -- those of nonwhite people living in the United States. I sincerely doubt that even all white people would agree with him because many do understand that theirs is a position of privilege that they would not give up without a battle to the death. Exactly whose death is up for debate. In essence, what Horowitz has done is attempt to invalidate the experiences and viewpoints of people of color -- specifically black people. How can he say that Mrs. Cosby is paranoid when he hasn't lived her life or the lives of other black people? He does not have the experiential foundation for such a claim. I also doubt that he has any grasp of the social history of this country, where each wave of immigrant group has learned from its predecessors that one way to become more "American"-- to fit in -- is to scapegoat black people. That's right. The more racist the new group can become, the more they will fit into this "great melting pot" we call home. It happened with the Irish, the Italians, various Asian groups and others. I dare say that it will probably happen with new Latin immigrants as time goes on. It doesn't matter that people of African descent have been on these shores for over 300 years and that this would be a much different country were it not for our back-breaking labor, along with our innovation and culture that was almost wiped out. No, Camille Cosby isn't paranoid. She's an astute observer of history. It is a history we, as black people, have lived in this country. It is a history where whites have done everything possible to debase, dehumanize and disenfranchise us. Horowitz asks who, at this point in time, would ever deny blacks the right to vote. The point that Ms. Cosby was attempting to make is that there is no other group of people who were ever denied the right to vote to the point where the Voting Rights Act was necessary at all. The fact that it is there speaks volumes. It says that white people, given half a chance, will continue denying black people their civil rights as citizens. Horowitz claims that blacks are entitled to vote under the U.S. Constitution because of our status as citizens. However, he forgets that the Constitution was no protection in the past. Did he really forget, or was this another attack of his whiteness? Ms. Cosby isn't paranoid. I am. In a USA where hate crimes, especially those due to race, are going up, I fail to understand how Horowitz can sit at his desk and proclaim that everything is hunky-dory. Well, yes, it is hunky-dory -- for him and for all the other people who suffer from blinding whiteness. You see, that is a frame of mind as opposed to any commentary on skin color. Foolishly, it allows people like Horowitz to proclaim that people like Camille Cosby can't possibly suffer being black in this country, and all that entails, because she has money, not mentioning that people will see her skin color long before finding out the size of her bank account. Whiteness allows people like Horowitz to wonder why Camille Cosby isn't grateful that the white masses watched her husband's sitcom week after week, propelling it to one of the most watched television shows in history, but neglecting to mention that no one would have watched were it not for the fact that the show, for which Bill was largely responsible, was just plain good and presented blacks in a situation where most of the viewing audience was comfortable. I suppose he believes that the success of "The Cosby Show" means that Camille should somehow forget that she's black out of gratitude and obeisance. Horowitz was, when I get right down to it, insulting. Whiteness is always insulting to those of us who are not white because, all too frequently, it means that someone else is telling us what we should think and feel regardless of what is true to our own experiences. The world in which Horowitz lives is not the world in which I and most other black people live. The United States is not one country, although we share the same general real estate. The United States is really two countries: white and nonwhite. The latter could probably be separated further still. Horowitz says that our collective goal should be a "colorblind" society. I do not agree. I believe that ours should be a color appreciative society where differences in culture and perspective are valued and not ignored. Being colorblind means that we all stick our heads in the sand and make believe that differences don't exist. I am of the opinion that the differences should be aired and examined for their merit as a way of understanding each other. As long as we do not attempt this, then we will continue to have insulting headlines such as "Mrs. Cosby's racial paranoia." -- Tamara Adrine-Davis Cleveland While I can understand Mr. Horowitz's need to give a counterpoint to Mrs. Cosby's racist vitriol, I feel he has done himself a disservice by glossing over two quotes from "honored" and "distinguished" members of the black community. As Mr. Baldwin has been dead for 11 years, and he was most prolific during the early 1960s, his quote about all American institutions being racist needs to consider the fact that the quote, in all likelihood, was made prior to the civil rights movement. Regarding Mr. Franklin's statement that the president should abandon the idea of creating a "colorblind" society, since it was taken wholly out of context we have no idea what he meant by it. As an immigrant society, many ethnic groups celebrate their cultural differences while living within the larger, more ill-defined, American culture. To create a "colorblind" society is, for one thing, impossible, and for another, would sacrifice one of our greatest strengths, our cultural diversity, for the nebulous concept of an American culture. What exactly would that be? Mr. Horowitz's points were valid. Although I did not read Mrs. Cosby's article in USA Today, I have noticed various instances in which racist statements (usually white against Latino) have been published without question. Since I was raised in the 1970s, I was taught to question every questionable comment. If it's wrong to say about one group, it's wrong to say about all. I have no doubt that Mrs. Cosby's grief and anger clouded her judgment, and that, in turn, added to the intransigent tone. Likewise, Mr. Horowitz has every right to question the racist motives of her diatribe. My objection is that he didn't substantiate his claims any better than she did. A little research goes a long way. -- Dina del Valle Thank you for having the courage to speak out against Camille Cosby's rant. As an African-American I am appalled at her attitudes as represented in the USA Today article. There are many, many of us who do not agree with her views on America. However, I must hasten to add that journalists often give ink to celebrities and the privileged as if they have some special access to wisdom. Shame on USA Today for printing such trash. -- Donald Murphy Camille Cosby is not a paranoid racist conspiracy theorist. She is a woman who is dealing with a tragic, horrifying loss the magnitude of which Horowitz has obviously never experienced -- and he should get down on his knees and thank God that he can't relate to it. This is a woman who has lost a child -- had him brutally, hideously murdered. This white girl is prepared to cut the woman some goddamned slack for her comments, and to give her the air time to think about what she said, instead of shredding her to bits because she isn't dealing with one of the most gut-wrenching things a parent can experience in a manner that is sufficiently thoughtful to me and my ethnic kind. -- Janis Cortese I appreciate Mr. Horowitz's response to Camille Cosby's remarks regarding the underlying cause of her son's death. While one must take into account the depth of grief Mrs. Cosby has experienced, I agree with Mr. Horowitz's remarks but would like to add another view. Anyone who has spent any time in the former East Bloc (I am one of them; evidently Mrs. Cosby is not) is fully aware that in the decades following World War II, while countries of the West, especially the U.S., began to deal with the obvious problems of racial, ethnic, religious, ageist and even sexual-orientation discrimination, countries in the East Bloc remained locked in place. Thus, not only does discrimination of any and ALL kinds exist in countries like Ukraine, it is common for perfect strangers to make crudely prejudiced remarks about individuals and groups not heard in the U.S. except, perhaps, in the back rooms of the most rabid organizations. In Ukraine one is listed on his passport as either Ukrainian or Jewish, for instance ... separate and I know not how equal. In Paris in 1995 I was warned by several white Parisians not to stay in Montmarte because of all the blacks now inhabiting that area. And the examples go on and on and on. Camille Cosby joins the ranks of ignorant Americans who continue to flagellate this country while implying that elsewhere conditions are better, that such prejudice and racial hatred do not exist. I must disabuse you of this fantasy, Mrs. Cosby. My travels to 40 countries have taught me, in fact, that few if any other countries have made the attempts the U.S. has to make amends for the past and to eradicate prejudice in the future. This surprised but also gladdened me. I'm sure it's difficult to get these kinds of readings from a suite at the Ritz, however. -- Barbara Lace N E X T+P A G E+| More flames aimed at Christopher Hitchens