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Mr. Cosby was calling out of frustration, he said, over the failures of other media to report what he has been trying to say. The Washington Post, which first reported the uproar over his 2004 speech, and other media have focused too much, in his view, on his sarcastic language. Too little attention has been given to the problems about which he was speaking: The crime, violence, school dropouts, out-of-wedlock births and other self-inflicted plagues among black youths left behind by civil rights reforms.

“Our children are trying to tell us something (with their self-destructive behavior) and we’re not listening,” he said.

I listened. He talked. I took notes. Among those who missed his point, the last straw for Mr. Cosby appears to have been an op-ed essay by Michael Eric Dyson, a University of Pennsylvania humanities professor and well-known Cosby critic, in the July 21 edition of The Washington Post. Mr. Dyson lashed Mr. Cosby’s “blame-the-poor tour” for ignoring major political and economic forces that continue to reinforce black poverty, like low wages, outsourcing, capital flight, downsizing and substandard schools.

“None of these can be overcome by the good behavior of poor blacks,” Mr. Dyson declared.

But, of course, that statement is wrong, dangerously wrong in the disrespect it pays to the value of good behavior. As generations of successful black families can attest, good behavior won’t solve all of your problems, but it beats drugs, crimes, abuse, child neglect or other self-destructive behavior.
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