When comedian Bill Cosby spoke earlier this year at Howard University, the crowd noticed something odd: He wasn’t funny.

He lambasted black parents for buying sneakers for their children instead of investing in education. He chastised them for putting up with improper English and derogatory images portrayed in hip-hop music. He said poor people “are not holding up their end in this deal” and that they “are not parenting.”

It was heavy stuff for a man known for his role as a sitcom dad, his monologue about chocolate cake and his commercials for Jell-O.

As Cosby continues his comedy career — he will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse — he’s more frequently finding himself at the center of some of the most critical issues facing black America.

That juxtaposition, he insists, isn’t strange; it’s what makes people pay attention.

“When you think of a playhouse or something, one mask is laughing and the other is sad,” Cosby said in a recent interview. “And then there’s the awful cliche they give to any clown: laughing on the outside, crying on the inside. So to come up and begin to make those statements, there’s a double or triple whammy in that: ‘Wait a minute. You’re supposed to make us laugh.’

“Not now. We have an epidemic. The mirror is reflecting back at some of us, and we’ve got to fix it.”

Cosby, 67, has echoed his comments in appearances and interviews since the May speech. He lists high school drop-out rates, AIDS, single-parent families and teenage pregnancy as his top concerns among blacks.

Cosby said he was surprised his statements were still the topic of newspaper commentaries, forums and water-cooler talk across the country. He’s been criticized for being a wealthy black man who is out of touch with inner-city America, for using inaccurate data and for giving verbal ammunition to white racists.

Audio: Bill Cosby on his 1968 appearance at KU on the night of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination Audio: Cosby on why his comments in May at Howard University generated so much attention Audio: Cosby on the problems facing young black America. Audio: Cosby on the way the media treats inner-city black neighborhoods. Cosby gets serious Cosby was in Lawrence when King was slain Cosby renews advice to improve families (9-9-04) Pitts: Nobody’s perfect, but blacks can do better (7-11-04) Shaw: Cosby speech only part of story (5-31-04) Thomas: Cosby shows leadership (5-24-04) Pitts: Cosby remarks confront racism (5-24-04)

But he said he was disappointed that much of the hubbub had focused on reactions from talking heads about his comments — and not fixing the problems he says exist.

“While water is spewing and pipes are leaking, there’s a buildup in the basement of water,” Cosby said. “The white media — which never really delved into printing the problems and continuing to stay on it in seriousness — is interested in ‘is he right or is he wrong,’ as opposed to getting some op-ed pieces that have to do with fixing the problem and fixing the numbers.”

And he said those fixes started in the communities:

• Parents, he said, must stop allowing their children to listen to music with degrading messages.

“When you look at certain lyrics of certain songs, there’s a total disrespect of the African-American female,” he said, “and then a total self-hatred in the lyrics of some of these songs that the children and some of the grown people are listening to.”

• Psychologists and psychiatrists must offer their opinions on how to keep black youths in school and out of trouble.
• Universities must offer more courses tailored to helping future teachers educate minority students, “preparing them for what may be behind the anger that the children display.”

“The people have to make the investment to transform this neighborhood themselves,” he said. “Once they begin to do that, there’s an automatic behavioral strengthening. They will then begin to go down towards City Hall and get those things straightened up, and go to the governor, and people will begin to line up to vote. And people will give their children these choices.”

So as Cosby prepares to make people laugh Tuesday night in Lawrence, he’s adding activism to his repertoire.

“But that’s not what my show is going to be about,” he said. “They’ll know. You tell those people Bill Cosby is coming to town. He’s going to plant his feet. We’re going to have a laugh and everything. We flat-out have a good time.”