Bill Cosby has once again come out publicly against conventional – or at least politically correct – wisdom. Cosby was the keynote speaker at the “Education is a Civil Right” forum, organized by Los Angeles black educators.

The core of his speech was that black America cannot continue to lay the blame for high crime and failure at school on white America. For the last couple of years, Cosby has been talking about personal responsibility and parental involvement, decrying a culture that seems to embrace ignorance and “anti-education” as some sort of badge of honor, allows far too many children to grow up without fathers and then lashes out at white America as the cause of it’s problems.

While it is certain that some whites (as well as some blacks) are prejudice it would seem equally certain that poverty and culture play a much larger role in what has to called a crisis.

I can only hope that more leaders – black and white – take a stand against the easy excuse of prejudice and we can begin to focus on the real problem – and real solutions.

Mr. Cosby – pick an office and you have my vote!