Bill Cosby's Fatherhood

Finally got around to perusing Cosby's Fatherhood. In many ways one can see how The Cosby Show follows many of Cosby's ideas of how the 'modern father' should raise his children. Indeed, Cosby's model of fatherhood is similar to 'traditional' narratives in some ways, but is far more engaged in criticism of misogynistic and outdated gender norms. Indeed, Poussaint, the Haitian-American psychiatrist and friend of Cosby who contributed to the hit sitcom (Haitians really do have a tendency of showing up where you don't expect them) also shares Cosby's take on how 'traditional' roles of fatherhood often led to emotional distance from children. Poussaint, who grew up in East Harlem in an apparently working-class family, regretted never being close to his father until the latter was on his deathbed, something Poussaint attributes to traditional models of father-child relationships. Cosby and Poussaint believe fathers should show emotional bonds and reveal more of themselves to their children, something I agree with, as would most people today, I think. Cosby wants such an open relationship with his children that he would want all fathers to be able to discuss puberty and sex with their teenage progeny, as well as have an engaged father during the pregnancy and infancy periods. 

While I can agree with much of Cosby's take on how fathers should interact with their children from the cradle to college (especially the critique of sexist gender roles where mothers are supposed to do all the child rearing on their own, cook, clean, something that came up in The Cosby Show via Alvin, Sondra's misogynistic boyfriend/husband of Caribbean descent), and I enjoyed the accessible and humorous writing style, it was a little too 'wholesome' and cared too much about assuaging whites and the status quo. Cosby actually praises Thomas Jefferson, uses almost only white American and European references (besides some talk of jazz and how all fathers hate the music their children like). Oh well, that is to be expected. For a black comedian of Cosby's era to become popular and retain that crossover acceptableness to whites, he has to cater to mainstream notions of "America" and popular culture to a certain degree (though he did celebrate black culture through art and music in the sitcom). Furthermore, Poussaint's introduction to the text spouts some stereotypical nonsense about how absentee fathers are to blame for child poverty. I am sure Poussaint recognizes the nuances of child poverty in America, but it sounded uncomfortably similar to his and Cosby's more recent work on blaming the black poor for their own condition. Regardless, Poussaint's introduction struck me as classist and perhaps a chastisement of poor blacks in particular, though single-mother households are increasingly common across race lines.