Come On People: On The Path From Victims To Victors by Dr. Bill Cosby and Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint has two distinct aspects: parental pedagogy and political polemic.

The child rearing book is typical of self-help books. There's a statement of principle, a quote from someone who applies the principle and the rules by which the principle is applied. It's a useful pattern; I even see it at work in computer books. And I see little bad advice in the book as a set of theoretical advice on dealing with your child. Black folks have to prioritize our children higher than society as a whole does.

We're still working with the disappointing clip in the previously post. I actually hesistate to go into this part. I may accrue levels of hateration from Black folks far exceeding any I've reached before. But Dr. Cosby called for the free discussion of dirty laundry, so let's pick up with Meet the Press asking...

MR. RUSSERT: Those are numbing numbers. They truly are. What can we do?

This is the most troubling clip. Here's the Meet the Press question, and the problems with the assumptions it embodies.

MR. RUSSERT: One of the things that you did in “Come On, People” were—was to compile statistics, very hard-headed numbers.

DR. POUSSAINT: Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT: And they are numbing when you read through them. You mentioned one. One out of three of homeless people are black. Blacks make up 12 percent of our population. And here’s a some—a few more that you cite which I think really does help us dramatize how critical this discussion is. And let’s read them through here.

“Homicide is the number one cause of death for black men between 15 and 29 years of age and has been for decades.

The problem here is hidden in aggregated data. The U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics presents that data in three bands...14-17, 18-24 and 25 and over. It turns out to be a useful division.

We're still working with the segment in the previously post. We pick up with this Meet the Press question. The answer: womens liberation, and the lack of good Black men.

MR. RUSSERT: What happened within the black community that we got to a point, since 1950, where 70 percent of the children are born with single parents? What happened?

Meet the Press is the television equivalent to the New York Times. It's a media outlet of record. This is why I want to deal with this weekend's appearance of Drs. Poussaint and Cosby. A Special Edition of Meet the Press is big deal. They have an intent. In this case, I believe the intent is to restore the default diagnosis of race problems in the USofA.

The fact is, the United States of America would not work well if current events affect that understanding. But the ground beneath those assumptions is shifting. And I feel I have to deal with the Doctors' issues separately from Meet the Press' issues.