Bill Cosby using hate speech?

Bill Cosby: Blacks can't speak English.

Cosby's comments this week run contrary to everything I've ever read about his attitudes towards race. You should read the whole thing, but here's a quote that is particularly telling:

He (Cosby) added: "They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is' ... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. ... Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. ... You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth!"

Ordinarily, this would be more stating of the obvious, but coming from Bill Cosby - and at an event also attended by NAACP bigwigs including Kweisi Mfume - this becomes a remarkably refreshing story! Kudos to Cosby for having the stones to say it to a crowd he knew would be anything but receptive to such comments.