Why Obama and Cosby comparisons are annoying

On Father’s Day, Obama spoke at a church to a largely black congregation on the south side of Chicago. He discussed the issue of absent fathers in the black community. This is what CNN had to say about it.

The issue adds to his family values credentials and lets voters see him delivering a stern message to black voters.

“We can’t simply write these problems off to past injustices,” Obama said Sunday. “Those injustices are real. There’s a reason our families are in disrepair … but we can’t keep using that as an excuse.”

Obama urged black parents to demand the best from themselves and their children.

There are several things about the smug tone of the coverage that irritates me. Lets voters see him be stern to black people? Stern. It’s that word that riles me. A looming parent shaking his finger at the black community. If you watch the clip, or read the transcript, one quickly realizes it was hardly the scolding CNN would like us to believe.

And by the way – it’s a responsibility that also extends to Washington. Because if fathers are doing their part; if they’re taking our responsibilities seriously [...] then our government should meet them halfway.

But perhaps the most annoying (yet predictable) bit has to be the comparison between Obama and Bill Cosby. From the New York Times this time.

His [Obama's] themes have also been sounded by the comedian Bill Cosby, who has stirred debate among black Americans by bluntly speaking about an epidemic of fatherlessness in African-American families while suggesting that some blacks use racism as a crutch to explain the lack of economic progresses

The underlying message being that black people talk about racism too much—see Obama thinks so, and so did Cosby.

Cosby’s asshole comments a few years ago could not be more different than Obama’s call for increased responsibility (a theme that he revisits in almost all his speeches). Cosby rants against poor black Americans and especially black mothers, blaming them for everything from increased murder rates to bad English.

The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids—$500 for sneakers for what? And won’t spend $200 for ‘Hooked on Phonics.

In sharp contrast, this is what Obama had to say about economics in black families.

We need to help all the mothers out there who are raising these kids by themselves; the mothers who drop them off at school, go to work, pick up them up in the afternoon, work another shift, get dinner, make lunches, pay the bills, fix the house, and all the other things it takes both parents to do. So many of these women are doing a heroic job, but they need support.

There is no doubt that Obama’s speech was tailored for his black audience, however his lessons are not limited to them. The importance that he gives to higher expectations, increased responsibility and teaching children empathy and self-respect are lessons that all can take away—black, white or brown. Unlike Cosby whose arguments are clearly framed as a problem restricted to the black community.

It is minimizing to draw comparisons that ultimately diminish the value of strong, black leaders. The central message of Obama’s campaign has always been taking more responsibility and striving to achieve more than we thought we were capable of. Unlike Cosby, whose comments ultimately stultified discussions on race. Instead Obama has introduced nuance and substance to the same in ways never before seen in a national political platform. Not all black leaders are alike, and the messages they deliver are not all equal.