Critics soften on Cosby message

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton said Bill Cosby's new book acknowledges the black community's debate over personal responsibility and social justice.

"One does not necessarily conflict with the other," Sharpton told The Washington Times in a story published Friday.

Sharpton was among civil rights activists and scholars who harshly criticized Cosby in 2004 when he urged blacks to stop blaming racism for their problems and engage in more personal responsibility.

That backlash from critics, Sharpton included, has softened with the publication of "Come On People," written by Cosby and Alan Poussaint, who teaches psychiatry at Harvard, the Times reported.

The book "has provoked even more dialogue about ... what we have to do for ourselves and what government has to do for us, and I think that balance is still in debate in a great sense," said Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, who once criticized Cosby as inflammatory.