It's a good thing that the "lower economic people" comedian Bill Cosby complained about at a gala commemorating Brown v. Board of Education in Washington, D.C., last week aren't regular consumers of news. If they were, they might hold a grudge that would send sales of FUBU street wear featuring Fat Albert and other beloved Cosby characters into the toilet.

"These people are not parenting," Cosby said of those he insists aren't holding up their end of the civil rights social contract because they're buying $500 sneakers for their kids instead of spending $200 on 'Hooked on Phonics.' "

If there was ever any question that the greatest pitchman Jell-O pudding ever had was ticked off about the "under-class problem," his withering hyperbole before a gathering of African-American political and civic brahmins at Constitution Hall left little doubt about the general drift of his class sympathies.

For the record, Dr. Cosby (he has a PhD in education, so let's give the man his props, aight?) made an extremely valid point: An obsession with materialism in minority communities usually correlates to a paucity of interest in educational achievement. Beyond that, Dr. Cosby's critique reeked of the usual one-dimensional criticism that the poor are their own worst enemies.

Assuming that Dr. Cosby's riffs on black slang and the criminal justice system were digressions from what was an otherwise balanced speech, one has to wonder why he didn't direct some of his righteous indignation toward the children of the black middle class who have even less excuse for not performing as well as whites on standardized tests.

Besides throwing out the dubious statistic that half of poor blacks drop out of high school, (the actual rate is 13.1 percent), Dr. Cosby's reluctance to indict under-performing African Americans who have benefited the most from civil rights legislation and affirmative action looks self-serving.

Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of religious and African studies at the University of Pennsylvania, told The New York Times that Dr. Cosby's statements "betray classist, elitist viewpoints that are rooted in generational warfare."

Dyson is correct in calling Dr. Cosby's diatribe "classist," but accusations of generational warfare are bogus. Judging by the calls and e-mail I get on this issue, blacks of all ages are more than a little disgusted by the low value placed on education across the economic divide. Making poor blacks the official poster children of black educational failure is disingenuous and plays into the hands of racists.

Any commentator on Fox News can criticize black folks for not speaking the King's English with the finesse of, say, Sean Hannity, but it's almost incumbent on someone with Dr. Cosby's credentials to be a little more original. Instead of dogging black folks for being inarticulate "knuckleheads," why not take the opportunity to say something about our unfortunate tendency to worship and emulate professional athletes?

It would be a way of indicting blacks from every class who consider sports the great panacea, though I'm not naive enough to believe for a second that the biggest booster Temple University basketball ever had will pull back the curtain on that particular ideology any time soon.

Despite what many might consider this column's disrespectful tone, I have nothing but respect for a man who is, without question, the funniest performer of his generation. Few celebrities have been as philanthropic or entrepreneurial about educational issues as Bill and Camille Cosby. They've donated millions to scholarship funds and historically black colleges. If Dr. Cosby weren't such an icon of my youth, I wouldn't bother taking him to task for such uncharacteristic insensitivity.

Like the comedian, I grew up in Philadelphia at a time when it was still possible to eke out a decent education in the public schools. As bad as things were, it was a golden age compared to what's happening in Philly now.

Because I was once among the lower economic class Dr. Cosby caricatured, there's a part of me that always bristles at insults from on high. Bill Cosby grew up even poorer than I did in the desolation of North Philly, so I'm doubly annoyed by his remarks.

Today, Philly's streets bustle with poor kids wearing overpriced clothing with Fat Albert's image plastered on them. Any day of the week, you can see Weird Harold, Rudy or some other Cosby character smiling up at you from some teenagers' drooping pants. Only he who is truly without sin can invoke class warfare with a straight face.