Cosby's remarks to NAACP causes controversy
 

I am sure he is not the only African American of his generation to feel this way. And I'm also very sure, in fact postive, that he is not the only one to have said this. I'm sure he's going to get heat for it, but I admire him for his integrity and willingness to be honest.

This is already being discussed in the Delta Sigma Theta forum.

Bill Cosby hasn't been relevant since 1987.

Two Things that describe Bill Cosby:

Leonard Part 6

Ghost Dad

You should add in Jello Pudding. And don't forget Fat Albert.

I agree with you swissmiss, I think that what Cosby said was EXTREMELY relevant. It has nothing to do with race, since there are members of each and every race that fall into this category. I think he is speaking to the generation as a whole. I think more people need to stand up against the touting of underachievement. Take race out of this issue, this needs to be said to youth as a whole...

I hadn't realized that what Dr. Cosby said is so groundbreaking. I can think of half a dozen Black friends who have said pretty much the same thing on different occasions.

It's the Jerry Springer type culture that has been festering in America for the last few years. I think our culture, morals, educational system have just been rotting away due to apathy, selfishness and ignorance. I mean, we've always had moonshine swilling bumpkins, but it seems more and more that this type of lifestyle is growing like a cancer.

I don't know if you can identify any one cause. I think a big part of it is our educational system. Another HUGE part of it is lack of parental support for so many kids. Kids can't be expected to make wise choices without the right guidance -- sometimes they do, but rarely. When a girl has a kid at 14, and has to raise the kid, what kind of mom is she prepared to be? Probably not a great one.

I may see this more than many of y'all -- unless you live in Arkansas or one of the few states that are worse off in these areas than Oklahoma. I think what Cosby said was hella-relevant, not only to the black community (but it's definitely relevent there), but also to just about every member of the lower-class government dependant types.

I don't think it's up to the government, churches, etc. to fix these things, but there are definitely some things that those entities can do to help. Something we need for sure is a higher minimum wage. I don't think businesses pay employees what their work is worth -- nor do businesses care if an employee makes enough to make ends meet. You can do just about as well living on welfare as you can with a fast food job. That's just wrong.

I don't believe it's as simple as saying "Give more money to the schools than to the prisons" (a common argument I hear from folks that think more $ = better education). What I do think would help would be meaningful reform in education. The European and Asian schools have kids that are excelling on a far more regular basis, they have far lower dropout levels, etc.. Why? I look at my local schools and I see that there are many contributing factors to their underperformance.. we have crumbling facilities, teachers that just don't give a crap (but are tenured), principals more concerned with lawsuits than with education, and a city that actually took money out of a sales tax that was supposed to go for school improvement and spent it on building a new Bass Pro Shops (well, not at least a few of these kids can aspire to minimum wage retail jobs).

It's not like the fast food jobs, call center jobs or Wal Mart jobs are going to go oversees if the minimum wage gets raised. Business profits might suffer a little bit, but only to the extent that they were previously exploiting workers -- and in my opinion paying them unfair slave-wages.

Churches in lower class communities need to recruit, they need to preach self-sufficiency, success and hard work. They need to preach that Jesus will NOT always be there for you when you won't even do enough to provide for yourself. I work (and will soon live) downtown in Oklahoma City. We have some pretty serious poverty issues -- as I'm sure a lot of other cities do. I just see these bums asking me for money... hell, these guys are coherant, capable, etc.. However, they're content to be parasites on society. I don't know what to do with those folks. I'd just about be content to tell them if they haven't tried to cntribute to society, society will stop contributing to them -- homeless shelters should turn them out and food banks shouldn't feed them. Starve and kill the cancer.

When I see and hear about folks that have just chosen lifestyles like this, it makes me sick -- sick that as a taxpayer, I have to fund that choice and even more sick that we continue to support and encourage that kind of BS.

I think too many people know about "Ask and ye shall recieve" and don't know about "Seek and ye shall find"

Exactly.

And with this, I have my first signature quote. That's excellent.