THE COZ

“Bill Cosby Stands Behind Critical Comments




By:GEORGE E. CURRY, NNPA Editor-in-Chief May 27, 2004





Photo by Brenda J. Turner/KACOM Media Services

WASHINGTON - Comedian Bill Cosby has declined to retract remarks that were highly critical of "the lower economic" African-Americans that he claims are willing to pay $500 for sneakers but not half that amount for educational tools.
At ceremonies here last week commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision outlawing "separate but equal" schools, Cosby's remarks caught many in the audience by surprise.

With NAACP President Kwesi Mfume, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund President Ted Shaw and many other Black dignitaries looking on, Cosby complained that "the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal."

He said, "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for their kids - $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.'...They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. 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. 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."

In Atlanta on Sunday, author and cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson called Cosby wrong for using the fund raiser to criticize poor people. While acknowledging Cosby's generous philanthropy to historically black institutions, Dyson said a better use of the platform would have been to criticize national public policy for failing to give poor people enough support.

Cosby cited a 50 percent dropout rate for Blacks. However, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the dropout rate for African-Americans was 13.1 percent in 2000, the last year for which statistics are available.

Cosby's comments about education were made in the larger context of African-Americans having to struggle to desegregate schools 50 years ago and seeing many youth today who will not take advantage of those sacrifices. He pleaded with those present to take back the Black community.

The comedian declined to acknowledge the existence of political prisoners.

"These are not political criminals," he said. "These are people going around stealing Coca Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake, and then we run out and we are outraged, saying 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"

Cosby claims that some of his comments were taken out of context. Excerpts of the remarks can be heard on the Washington Post's Web site, www.washingtonpost.com, and it appears that Cosby was quoted accurately.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Eugene Kane wrote a column noting that like Cosby, he was born in North Philadelphia and attended Temple University.

"Given his record as a philanthropist who had donated millions to black colleges and black causes in general, Cosby has certainly earned the right to speak his mind." He continued, "Still, there's a sense of uneasiness whenever somebody like Cosby uses the same language some whites use to justify their racism....Particularly, the idea that poor blacks and their children weigh down the rest of society, or that every black person behind bars deserves to be incarcerated. Sure, some blacks may fit that description, not all. Some white people, too."

Kane wrote, "He's not a poor Black mother raising children in the inner city, so he has no idea how difficult that is in 2004 America. And if the TV star really wants to pass moral judgments on poor black women, ahem, Mr. Cosby, there is a little matter of you having an out-of-wedlock child yourself."

After reading the column, Cosby telephoned Kane. The columnist said that in an hour-long discussion, Cosby explained that he did not intend to smear all poor Blacks.

"I didn't say all black people from the lower classes were to blame," Kane said Cosby told him. "But I said that when you have a 50 percent graduation rate, and some people can't put two sentences together, and can't write or spell...you've got people who have put themselves on a track to failure."

As for Autumn Jackson, who claims to be Cosby's out-of-wedlock daughter, the comedian told Kane that she has repeatedly refused his offer to take a paternity test.

In the interview with Kane, Cosby deplored the glorification of a pimp mentality, placing more emphasis on athletics than academics and celebrating rap videos on BET.

"I am talking about parenting. It is time for us to turn the mirror around. We have to take back the neighborhood."

And he reiterated his comment about the misuse of the English language.

"We can't excuse these people," Cosby said. "There are generations who have been born here and their English is worse than Koreans who have just been here a few years."



The following are additional excerpts from Cosby's speech:



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"I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? . . .

"The church is only open on Sunday and you can't keep asking Jesus to do things for you. You can't keep saying that God will find a way. God is tired of you," Cosby declared to loud applause.

"I wasn't there when God was saying it, I am making this up, but it sounds like what God would say. In all of this work we can not blame white people. White people don't live over there; they close up the shop early. The Korean ones don't know us well enough, so they stay open 24 hours."

On fashion: "People putting their clothes on backwards: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong? . . . People with their hats on backwards, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up to the crack and got all type of needles [piercings] going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from? Those people are not Africans; they don't know a damn thing about Africa.

"With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail. Brown versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. We have to go in there -- forget about telling your child to go into the Peace Corps -- it is right around the corner. They are standing on the corner and they can't speak English."

On sports heroes: "Basketball players -- multimillionaires -- can't write a paragraph. Football players -- multimillionaires -- can't read. Yes, multimillionaires. Well, Brown versus Board of Education: Where are we today? They paved the way, but what did we do with it? That white man, he's laughing. He's got to be laughing: 50 percent drop out, the rest of them are in prison."

On teenage sex: "Five, six children -- same woman -- eight, 10 different husbands or whatever. Pretty soon you are going to have DNA cards to tell who you are making love to. You don't know who this is. It might be your grandmother. I am telling you, they're young enough! Hey, you have a baby when you are 12; your baby turns 13 and has a baby. How old are you? Huh? Grandmother! By the time you are 12 you can have sex with your grandmother, you keep those numbers coming. I'm just predicting. . . .

"What is it -- young girls getting after a girl who wants to remain a virgin? Who are these sick black people and where do they come from and why haven't they been parented to shut up? This is a sickness, ladies and gentlemen."”

“An ovation for Bill Cosby
Brent Bozell
May 28, 2004


On the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision on Brown vs. Board of Education, which began the end of racial segregation being defended as "separate but equal," an anniversary party was thrown at Washington's historic Constitution Hall. The biggest name on the program was TV star Bill Cosby, and he packed the biggest -- and most unexpected -- wallop.

Cosby did not come boasting of progress, basking in satisfaction or marking a half-century of racial uplift. Instead, he slapped the audience with the rhetorical equivalent of a cold fish. In Cosby's big picture, too many black Americans today aren't raising their children correctly.

He lamented the upbringing of lower-income black children in particular. "They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English," he exclaimed. "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. 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!"

It was no doubt additionally controversial when he proclaimed that many young black men in prison today are not "political criminals" but guilty of real crimes. "These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake, and then we run out and we are outraged, (saying) 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"

Parents who lament their children in prison jumpsuits were challenged: "Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18, and how come you didn't know he had a pistol? Where is the father?"

Cosby's remarks drew some laughter, and some unease. Ted Shaw of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund was angry, and he immediately followed up at the podium by suggesting that systematic racial discrimination was still to blame. Others protested. Black academic Michael Eric Dyson complained in the papers that Cosby's comments "betray classist, elitist viewpoints that are rooted in generational warfare."

Some younger people dismissed Cosby as sounding like somebody's cranky grandpa, an old codger lecturing to sit up straight, respect your elders, and use nouns and verbs in their proper order. But this wasn't just old Cosby. It was the creed of the young Cosby, too.

He was never just a television star. He was the first real television role model for black America. He didn't make his way into America's hearts with anger but with humor. He didn't win over whites by laughing about all our racial differences but about our common humanity. The "generational warfare" isn't coming from Cosby, but from the "thug life" theorists selling the black community nothing but hate, greed and lust to a thumping rap beat -- three serious obstacles to black progress.

Some intellectualizing types are actually suggesting Cosby failed to grasp that ungrammatical English -- or ignorance to the ear of the average American -- is actually precious folklore. On ABC's "Good Morning America," Time magazine cultural critic Christopher John Farley explained that he respected standard English, "but I think it's also important to respect nonstandard English. I think it has an important role to play in the development of language, and we should respect that. In terms of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston ... even the music of Bob Marley uses nonstandard English to create poetry and to bring joy to people."

Do you suppose Mr. Farley earned his job at Time magazine talking or writing that kind of "poetry"? Would his editors today respect his use of "non-standard English" if he employed it for next week's magazine? If it isn't acceptable for Mr. Farley in the workplace, how dare he encourage it for black children!

Bill Cosby has given millions of his own fortune back to the black community, but his words and actions might mean more than the money. His television career has done more than entertain. It has helped build a multiracial culture demanding excellence as well as racial harmony. Cosby's critics are offering the opposite: excuses instead of excellence, rage instead of humanity. He deserves a nationwide standing ovation for speaking out.”

“Good read. Thanks Stratdewd.”

“by Thomas Sowell


Bill Cosby has provided a lot of laughs for millions of Americans over the years but black "leaders" were not laughing after he lashed out at those black parents who buy their children expensive sneakers instead of something educational. He also denounced both those children and those adults in the black community who refuse to speak the king's English.


"Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads," Cosby said. "You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth." He also mocked those who referred to "the incarcerated" as "political prisoners."


At this gathering on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, some in the audience laughed and applauded but the pillars of the black "leadership" establishment — the head of the NAACP, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the president of Howard University — were "stone-faced," according to the Washington Post.


Theodore Shaw of the Legal Defense Fund then "told the crowd that most people on welfare are not African Americans, and many of the problems his organizations has addressed in the black community were not self-inflicted."


Other groups are not perfect — but is that an excuse for doing self-destructive things?


Bill Cosby and the black "leadership" represent two long-standing differences about how to deal with the problems of the black community. The "leaders" are concerned with protecting the image of blacks, while Cosby is trying to protect the future of blacks, especially those of the younger generation.


Far from just bashing blacks, Cosby has given generously to promote black education. But he is still old-fashioned enough to think that others need to take some responsibility for using the opportunities that were gained for them by "people who marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education."


Now, in too many black communities, dedicating yourself to getting an education is called "acting white."


These are painful realities and they do not become any less real or any less painful by hushing them up. Nobody enjoys being made to look bad in public. But too many in the black community are preoccupied with how things will look to white people, with what in private life would be concern about "what will the neighbors think?"

When your children are dying, you don't worry about what the neighbors think. When the whole future of a race is jeopardized by self-destructive fads, you put public relations on the back burner.


There are still whites out there who think that blacks are innately incapable of achievement — and some of them support affirmative action for that reason. But there is plenty of evidence that innate ability, or even developed mental skills, are not the big problem.


Not only blacks with low test scores, but even blacks with high test scores, do not do as well academically as whites with the same test scores. Among Asian Americans, it is just the opposite. They do better than whites with the same test scores, whether in educational institutions or in economic activities.


Years ago, Cosby urged a group of young blacks to put more effort into their studies, the way Asian students do. "Do you know why they are called Asians?" he asked. "Because they always get A's."


The differences among all these groups are in one four-letter word that you are still not supposed to say: work.


Anyone who has taught black, white, and Asian students will know that they do not work equally. Studies show it but you don't need studies. Just go into a university library on a Saturday night and see who is there and who is not there.


In some places, you might think it was an all-Asian university, judging by the students in the library on Saturday night.


How surprised should you be when you go into a classroom on Monday morning and find out who is on top of the work and who is struggling to keep up?


What Bill Cosby said was no laughing matter. It is closer to being something to cry about.”

“dayhiker, thomas sowell is one of my heros. thanks!”

“Cosby is soooooooo right.”

“Why you be postin' dis stuff. Da problam is da man be keepin' us po folk down fo years. Betta wach up azz or somebody be poppin' a cap in it.”

“Dang, Savage is a black dude?”

“I think the point Coz is trying to make is that there is a huge difference between helping those that either can't or don't quite know how to help themselves and those that won't help themselves. The folks that are mad at him don't seem able to make that distinction.”

“what's noteworthy to me is thatthe people who are upset with cosby, the people who are SUPPOSED to care about the things he is adressing, are liberals. his "straight talk" is what is needed, as opposed to blaming white republicans for all their problems.”

“yo Strat, true dat my brother.”

“Hey, no fair. Nobody elected stratdewd to speak for liberals. I am not upset with Cos. I am kind of shocked that he had the courage to speak so plainly and frankly about a somewhat sensitive subject to many in his audience. That's a rare occurance these days, when mainly you hear politicians who are preaching to the choir. I guess since Cosby isn't a politician, he felt the freedom to speak his mind. Of course most of what he said is right on. I guess part of the cultural difference between blacks and asians is that the asian's parents came here willingly, but the black culture still has a lot of anger over slavery and subsequent racism. Anger is usually self-destructive. They will have to get over their anger and move on before they will mesh into mainstream economic sucess at the same rate as white or asian groups.”

“Anger is usually self-destructive.

words to live by, el-sluggo”

“Three cheers for the Cos, Part II
Walter E. Williams
June 9, 2004

Bill Cosby's May 17 remarks at a Washington, D.C., gathering commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision continues to draw controversy and debate. That's good. Some of the debate highlights a point made by my colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell:

"Bill Cosby and the black 'leadership' represent two long-standing differences about how to deal with the problems of the black community. The 'leaders' are concerned with protecting the image of blacks, while Cosby is trying to protect the future of blacks, especially those of the younger generation."

Let's compare and contrast the tenor of Cosby's comments with an example of one made by a black "leader." You decide which class of comments is more helpful to the black community.

Cosby: "With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail. Brown vs. the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. We have to go in there -- forget about telling your child to go into the Peace Corps -- it is right around the corner. They are standing on the corner, and they can't speak English."

And on teen sex, Cosby said, "Hey, you have a baby when you are 12; your baby turns 13 and has a baby. How old are you? Huh? Grandmother! By the time you are 12, you can have sex with your grandmother, you keep those numbers coming. I'm just predicting."

Cosby went on to say, "What is it -- young girls getting after a girl who wants to remain a virgin? Who are these sick black people, and where do they come from, and why haven't they been parented to shut up? This is a sickness, ladies and gentlemen."

Contrast the gist of these remarks to those of Julian Bond, NAACP chairman, to the group's 94th annual convention: Republicans appeal "to the dark underside of American culture, to the minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality." Bond added, "They preach racial neutrality and practice racial division ... their idea of reparations is to give war criminal Jefferson Davis a pardon."

Cosby's comments, as well as others he made, show that he's willing to address the pressing problems of the black community, as opposed to Bond's grandstanding on the behalf of the Democratic Party. Black people will accomplish much more by focusing on the issues of crime, illegitimacy, poor parenting and slovenly behavior than worrying about whom the Republican Party is appealing to and racial discrimination.

It's really a matter of diagnosis. In medicine, the key to effective treatment is correct diagnosis. If one presents to a physician with chronic fatigue, and the physician incorrectly diagnoses it as caused by the patient's toenail fungus, he can treat the toenail fungus until kingdom come and do nothing for the chronic fatigue. Similarly, if black politicians and civil rights groups diagnose black illegitimacy, crime and anti-intellectualism as caused by racial discrimination or the Republican Party, they can spend all the resources they please fighting discrimination and the Republican Party and do nothing for illegitimacy, crime and anti-intellectualism-induced poor academic performance.

As a medical doctor would be obliged to prove the causal connection between chronic fatigue and toenail fungus or face malpractice charges, black politicians and civil rights organizations should be obliged to prove the causal connection between illegitimacy, crime and anti-intellectualism, on the one hand, and racial discrimination and the Republican Party on the other. I think the Cos has the more accurate diagnosis, and what we have to come up with is the effective treatment regimen.”

“strat - See that little 'fire' symbol in the categories? It's there for new threads like this one. OK?”

“okie dokie artychokie.....”

“lol :-)”