Gotta go for a minute and I'm not actually sure I'll be back in time to continue The Cosby Effect tonight. So I want to leave you a few more things to chew on.

First of all, in checking over what I've been doing here, I noted I lifted part of a post from Rhetoric and Race without a link or acknowledgement. Very unintentional. The blog looks kind of new, and I've been waiting to see if the ramp up before referring folks. Bemused, who wrote the post I accidentally stole, reads like an interesting sort from his first post.

George reminded me I ought to throw some stats at you. He's got links at Negrophile, to the Census Bureau and stats from Black Americans: A Statistical Sourcebook by way of the St Louis Post Dispatch:

In fact, his conclusion appeared to be accepted by many as truth.

"Cosby probably feels liberated today by a new intellectual honesty that bright young talents like Chris Rock have brought to black entertainment," wrote Clarence Page, a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune. "Here's hoping our new candor can lead us to new action."

Colbert I. King, a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, wrote. "Whether Cosby should have used the upscale D.C. event to share his observations about the state of black America may be open to question. That what he said needed saying, however, is not at issue."

And Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote: "Much of black America, especially its middle class, is ready to have that conversation. In that sense, Cosby's speech was a watershed event - a sign that black America is now comfortable enough with its accomplishments to discuss its shortcomings."

But the truth is that education and economic indicators show that African-Americans are doing better than they've ever done, largely because of the gains made by those low-income blacks, according to data from "Black Americans: A Statistical Sourcebook."

And in some cases, the poorest African Americans do a better job than upscale African-Americans in outperforming their white counterparts, the book says.

Lester at Vision Circle commented yesterday about how the knuckleheads helped hone his skillz, an experience I shared. Now he has to listen to the audio of Bill's speechifying, which the Washington Post had hidden in the bowels of its site since the end of May.

That's the second link to it I've posted today…if you're going to talk about him, you might as well know what he said. You can check the video of his second assessment too.

There's some more conversation I'd like to tie into all this, but I gotta go.