Quote Of The Day

"[Bill] Cosby sees that culture can matter more than economics and racism, even for black people (i.e. descendants of African slaves). [Michael Eric] Dyson, typically of black academics, sees it as an urgent wisdom that black problems are all due to racism and the economy -- i.e. that they are 'structural' as academics put it. Academics see Cosby's message as precisely what they have devoted their careers to teaching the public out of. However, the truth is that black America's problems are partly structural and partly cultural -- and furthermore, the cultural part is not something marginal that does not bear extended discussion. Academics will continue to be appalled at the public airing of that message -- but that's the way it has to be because, in my opinion, the academics on this question are wrong (my latest book explains why, for the record)." — John McWhorter, moderate-liberal commentator and former linguistics professor at University of California at Berkeley