Former professor addresses Bill Cosby's controversial remarks

Bill Cosby's recent scandals, which began with a controversial address at an NAACP event last year and cumulated last week with accusations that he sexually assaulted two women, were the center of conversation Monday night, though the discussion was of a more academic nature than tabloid fodder.

Kevin Cokely, a former SIUC psychology professor who now instructs at the University of Missouri in Columbia, lectured on how Cosby's comments blaming blacks for their own problems, though they had a dividing effect on the black community, were a form of black protest.

"Normally when you think of black protest, you think of the Black Panthers, but I'm taking a different twist on things," Cokely said. "It's not a matter of supporting or condoning what he said; it's looking at the nuances and acknowledging that it was, at times, incomplete and one-sided and failed to acknowledge other social forces that contribute to many of the issues black folks face."

For example, Cokely addressed a comment Cosby said regarding black athletes who make millions of dollars but don't know how to read or write. Cokely said part of the blame should be placed on the coaches and teachers that pass athletes regardless of their academic performance.

"Do you think those athletes woke up one day and said, 'I don't want to know how to speak, I don't want to know how to write, I want to be ignorant'? No, not ignorant - ignant,'" Cokely said. "No, they didn't and Cosby didn't address that or the system that values the ability to play sports or entertain. He didn't address how schools and the NCAA pimps student-athletes until their eligibility is up."

While Cokely criticized most of what Cosby said, he also said it should not be overlooked that Cosby was trying to do something positive, even if he was shortsighted in his comments.

Additionally, Cokely said it is worth noting Cosby's former position as "America's father" and the way he has tried to put forth positive representations of blacks in his television shows.

And while the topic of discussion was heavy, Cokely spent the minutes before and after his lecture greeting old friends and colleagues. Jamie Hogue, president of the Mu Kappa Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, said while he came to the discussion to better understand the challenges of everyday life for black men, he also wanted to pay homage to his former professor.

"Dr. Cokely is one of the most inspiration and influential black men of the century," Hogue said. "Through his leadership and direction, students have been empowered to fight issues of sexism and racism in a predominately white institution, and we suffered a great loss when he left last year. This is sort of a homecoming for him, and what he says is enlightening."