What Bill Cosby Means to White Populists

In a blog entry at Atlantic magazine, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores why conservative hoaxers consistently insert hard right-wing views into Bill Cosby's mouth. The discussion comes about after an email supposedly written by Cosby attacks welfare recipients.

… Cosby seems about the age of someone who'd have these views. Moreover, Cosby is fondly remembered as "America's Dad" by much of the country. That a black man could be considered America's Dad — and not in an Uncle Ben sort of way — is a rather amazing sign of progress. 

It must said that there are darker forces at work, here. Certainly part of the [hope] is that putting racially-charged rhetoric in the mouth of a respected black person will make it more credible. There's also the fact that Cosby, himself, loudly took a moral message to African-Americans a few years back, much to the delight of a certain segment of white conservatives.

Read Ta-Nehisi Coates' entire blog entry at the Atlantic.