ABSTRACT
Yet my concern is not whether Cosby was properly black; I am interested in using Cosby as a metaphor for a past era … the bottom line for me has to do with media access, cultural representation, and the death of a popular form. Cosby assumed a great deal of importance throughout the 1980s, almost to the point of denying any other form of popular African American imagery. As far as mainstream culture is concerned, it is as though the representation of African American culture operates monolithically, and that only one form of popular representation may be available at any given time.
