From Theatrics to Reality

made a speech before the NAACP at their annual convention about — brace yourself — black people being responsible for themselves. Such a fresh notion: black people can't expect the government to solve all of their problems. I am supposed to write this column about how this is what the black community needs to listen to and how brave Mr. Obama is. But I won't. Not because I don't salute him, but because he was doing something perfectly normal in modern black communities. Just a couple weeks ago, after all, Mr. Obama was making the exact same kind of speech on Father's Day to an enthusiastic audience, among whom we can be sure there were precious few conservatives. Bill Cosby has been taking this message to black communities nationwide for years now, and they are eating it up. In a modern successful black person's description... [read full story]