which is that this criticism *does not* apply to Cosby, in my mind, because he has demonstrated his interest in promoting education among black people for many years now. I don't question the intentions behind his comments, based on his *record* in the community.

The black neocons, on the other hand, seem to spend much of their time spreading their message among conservative whites (many of whom never gave a shit about our advancement in the first place).

I don't know of any of these people doing lecture tours in *black* communites trying to spread their message. However, I know that they talk all of their yang about blacks to white audiences in lecture format, as well as on conservative radio shows. My point was that if these neocons had a long history of *service* to the black community, I would tend to take them more seriously. As it stands, they just appear to be the creation of white conservative think tanks and foundations.

As I said before, it is a historical fact that these black neocons were essentially created by the right-wing, in order to serve their agenda on race issues by using a black face to push conservative rhetoric.

For example, the gutting of affirmative action policies in the University of California system in the 90s would have been much more difficult without a black individual such as Ward Connerly to head up the movement. The people who sponsored Connerly and made him the figurehead of that movement were most definitely white, but they understood that they wouldn't be able to claim the moral high ground if a white person were to head up the movement. Their strategy worked to perfection. This is a prime example of the way that white conservatives have used these black neocons to further their own long-term interests.

The conservatives had wanted to kill affirmative action in the UC system for 30 years, but they finallly realized they needed a black figurehead (Connerly) in order to obtain their objective. If a white individual had headed up the movement, it would have been completely transparent--the general public would have been able to see much more clearly what was actually going on, and who was behind it.

The black neocons are used as a Trojan Horse--they allow the white conservative establishment to obtain their goals through subterfuge. They tried frontal resistance to the advancement of blacks during the 60s, and they got their asses kicked. To their credit, however, they learned from their mistakes--thus the advent of the ne(gr)ocons.