This Cosby show will tolerate no funny business

Let's get this out of the way: Bill Cosby is not interested in sitting down and talking to a reporter about his recent critiques of the black community. But he's certainly not keeping his controversial views quiet.

The actor and comedian made news at a commemoration in May in Washington of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ended school segregation. He used the occasion to criticize the grammar some African-Americans use in casual speech. He also said African-Americans jailed for committing crimes are not "political prisoners" but bad seeds who shouldn't have done what they did.

Cosby stoked the fires further in an appearance Thursday at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference in Chicago. With the Rev. Jesse Jackson at his side, he called the problems he had talked about in May black people's "dirty laundry." He said of the younger generation: "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling and they're going nowhere."

In a pause-laden nine-minute conversation yesterday, Cosby eluded attempts to schedule a face-to-face interview to speak more in depth about these matters. One reason why? "I have other things to do," he said brusquely.

He was willing to entertain a few questions, such as: Why are you talking about these issues at this moment?

Cosby: "I'm not being combative; I'm trying to understand something. When you say `at this moment,' what do you mean?"

The reporter said that "at this moment" means now, as opposed to last year or two years ago. "What I'm talking about specifically is the dropout rate in these areas," he said. "And, um, why now? Because I feel that it has reached epidemic proportions."

Cosby said newspapers should go into neighborhoods and do stories about the problems he's talking about. "There are many, many wonderful, educated people in the [black] community," he says, "who will be willing to talk to you and tell you their first-hand experience -- teachers -- their first-hand experience, and if they want to withhold their names, etc., etc, whatever. But it's not just a matter of Bill Cosby."

And, no, a last-ditch appeal to Cosby to use his celebrity status to explore these issues doesn't change his mind.

"I don't accept that I have to be the fulcrum of this," he said. If "the things that are tied into helping this thing grow and get worse are not addressed, then so be it.

"Maybe it's more interesting [for newspapers] to talk about [these problems] or write about them when [people] are incarcerated or when a parent is beating a child to death."

Another request elicits the comment: "I gotta go." He's gone. But you can't help feeling he'll talk about these matters again the next time he gives a speech.

VANESSA JONES