Bill Cosby has more harsh words for black community.
 

Bill Cosby has more harsh words for black community

Thursday, July 1, 2004 Posted: 8:25 PM EDT (0025 GMT)

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that black children are running around not knowing how to read or write and "going nowhere."

He also had harsh words for struggling black men, telling them: "Stop beating up your women because you can't find a job."

Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some poor blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the civil rights movement gave them.

He shot back Thursday, saying his detractors were trying in vain to hide the black community's "dirty laundry."

"Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other n------ as they're walking up and down the street," Cosby said during an appearance at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference.

"They think they're hip," the entertainer said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."

In his remarks in May at a commemoration of the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision, Cosby denounced some blacks' grammar and said those who commit crimes and wind up behind bars "are not political prisoners."

"I can't even talk the way these people talk, 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is' ... and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk," Cosby said then. "And then I heard the father talk ... Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."

Cosby elaborated Thursday on his previous comments in a talk interrupted several times by applause. He castigated some blacks, saying that they cannot simply blame whites for problems such as teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates.

"For me there is a time ... when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."

Cosby lamented that the racial slurs once used by those who lynched blacks are now a favorite expression of black children. And he blamed parents.

"When you put on a record and that record is yelling 'n----- this and n----- that' and you've got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that," he said.

He also condemned black men who missed out on opportunities and are now angry about their lives.

"You've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job, because you didn't want to get an education and now you're (earning) minimum wage," Cosby said. "You should have thought more of yourself when you were in high school, when you had an opportunity."

Cosby appeared Thursday with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the education fund, who defended the entertainer's statements.

"Bill is saying let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field," Jackson said. "Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that."

Cosby also said many young people are failing to honor the sacrifices made by those who struggled and died during the civil rights movement.

"Dogs, water hoses that tear the bark off trees, Emmett Till," he said, naming the black youth who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955, allegedly for whistling at a white woman. "And you're going to tell me you're going to drop out of school? You're going to tell me you're going to steal from a store?"

Cosby also said he wasn't concerned that some whites took his comments and turned them "against our people."

"Let them talk," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/07/01/cos....ap/index.html

I'm curious, why did you post this?

Not my fight. Not my people. Not my experiences.

-Rudey

The previous article generated a lot of interesting discussion. Is that okay?

yeah, ok. Just asking.

well- all my friends of racial minority are basically like Cosby, I think: they dont fit the stereotypes.
Bethany gets crap for not being "black enough"- whatever that is.
LaTia and Patricia get some, but Patricia more for playing rugby- apparently that's not a black woman's sport.
Maria and Roberto are similar on the latino/a front: they take pride in their heritage but they're not digging into stereotypes the media puts out on how they should run their lives.

So... Go Bill!

Bill is a good man that means well...

Bill Cosny is 100 percent correct with his views. After coming home from college in May my mom asked me to pick up my sister at school. I went to the same same school 11 years ago. It was and still is a great school I think, but the language of the kids like Bill Cosby says is horrible. Whats the solution for this problem? I dont know.

I don't think that his words are particularly harsh. I think that many children don't learn what it takes to become successful adults. An education is essential for anyone who wants to get ahead.

The language used when describing his remarks bothers me. I've seen "tirade" and "harsh" when I don't think either describes what he was saying. But Dr. William Cosby speaks the truth!

The media, particularly in the area of entertainment have gone a long way to shaping our language and behavior. Children are more impressionable than most and more likely to emulate people they see on television (entertainers particularly). Parents really need to take a stand here and let their kids know who is and who isn't a good role model. We could blame the media, but they are only selling what people are buying. It comes down to parents who don't take responsibility for the information that their kids are exposed to.

I'm not a parent myself, but I believe it's a huge responsiblity that people often do not take seriously.

Once again, I agree with you. I get upset when the media cover his remarks and present it as if blacks were so outraged and shocked. When he first made his remarks, the black people in the audience cheered and most of the commentary among blacks that I have heard since has been in agreement with what he has said. I hate it how people want to think that the problems Mr. Cosby has identitfied are are not ones that many others have been frustrated about and trying to come up with solutions for.

You've got hundreds of community organizations, including my own, working with kids every day trying to fight these external influences coming at them. You have protests going on at Black college campuses (i.e. Spelman). You've got hundereds of thousands of parents meeting with each other trying to organize against the music industry, etc. etc. etc. By the way, none of these things include sitting around waiting for the government to do anything. Why aren't these things being shown more so people can see it and jump on the bandwagon? Could it be that the media consistently opts out of covering things like this??? hmmmmm.

So, yeah, I hear what Bill is saying and all that, but I would have prefered reading/hearing about more things that are being done by those people who were glad to hear him say what he said! I would have even wanted to hear more about what HE has done, which is a LOT, for these causes.

That would be too much like right. What we are seeing in the media is a little bit more digestable for some folks.;) There is unrest in the Black community and I think some folks feed off of that.

Here's my conspiracy theory as to why this doesn't take place. Take it with a grain of salt, because I do. But anything is possible I guess;)

Media companies are often part of large conglomerates. For the media to publicize these efforts that could potentially create a large swelling of public sentiment against certain recording artists would go against their bottom line. Viacom who owns CBS ALSO owns MTV. I'm sure they own at least one or more record labels as well. Why would they want to create protests against themselves?

It's really not that huge of a stretch. Viacom and other TV networks give screen time to the movies, books and other such ventures within their organization and they present it as part of the news (or the entertainment segment).

So that's my conspiracy theory. :D

I think you're right.