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May 21, 2004

Cosby in the Spotlight

Several folks are frothing at the mouth over Bill Cosby's admonishments. The best quote I can find is as follows: Note my bold emphasis


"Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for 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!

Lots of conservative commentators show how few blackfolks they know by being dead flat shocked by such talk. Over here in the Old School it was our bread and butter. Nobody knows class warfare like us uppity negroes. But Cosby is not engage in warfare, it's simply the kind of thing you hear from blackfolks with strong families and values. This should come as no surprise to our white conservative cousins, but apparently not enough of them are linked over to Cobb (and the upcoming black right league).

I should take a moment for those of you following this story to link you to Joseph C. Phillips, who was a young star of the Cosby Show and is very well tied into Republican politics. We've been in communications on and off, for some time.

I may or may not get into a detailed analysis of the statements and the reactions, but all I'm saying right now is this. This is not new.

Posted by mbowen at May 21, 2004 12:12 PM

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� http://www.idolsofthemarketplace.com/archives/000394.html from idols of the marketplace
Cobbs point us to some news that's not really news but a pretty common view among most black folks I know (at least the Strivers among them). The only difference is that Bill Cosby said it and not my mom.... [Read More]

Tracked on May 21, 2004 04:07 PM

� Saying The Darndest Things from dcthornton.com
Bill Cosby spoke Monday night at a gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision: To astonishment, laughter and applause, Cosby mocked everything from urban fashion to black spending and speaking habits. "La... [Read More]

Tracked on May 21, 2004 05:35 PM

� More Cosby from Petrified Truth
According to The New York Times, Bill Cosby's "inflammatory" comments last Monday in Constitution Hall continue to roil the waters of conventional thought. Bill Cosby, known mostly as a genial father figure who contributes to a wide range of black... [Read More]

Tracked on May 23, 2004 11:38 AM

� The Cosby Controversy and Its Precedents from Professor Kim's News Notes
As Cobb points out, Cosby's criticisms are nothing new. There is also nothing new about priveleged blacks trying to teach their poorer brethren and sistren how to act. Long before Cosby became Black Philadelphia's proudest export, W.E.B. Du Bois ... [Read More]

Tracked on May 23, 2004 07:06 PM

� Talk amongst yourselves from Hogg's Blog
Common wisdom says that as a white man, I can't point an objective [Read More]

Tracked on January 24, 2005 08:45 PM

Comments

The sentiment wasn't a surprise -- I hear the same things all the time from my black coworkers. I think the 'surprise', such as it was, was more the celebrity aspect of it. (for me at least)

Thanks for the link. I'm being deluged with traffic from this post, google searches & quite a few from a reggae message board that linked to it. I think this is the closest I'll get to the feeling of an Instalanche :)

Posted by: Ith at May 21, 2004 12:50 PM

Cobb,

You hit the nail on the head. WorldNetDaily, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity were all over it, like it was a rhetorical earthquake. They exposed just how few black folks they actually REALLY KNOW because this issue is discussed all the time: hair shops, barbecues, family dinners, informal chats, we've even discussed it at work. However, these discussions don't occur in "mixed company" (i.e., when white folks are around). John McWhorter talked about this phenomenon some in his "Losing the Race" book.

What WAS new was that Cosby had the gall to say it in mixed company at an NAACP dinner no less, where decorum rules the day.

Posted by: molotov at May 21, 2004 02:36 PM

Hey, I did say it was just plain old common sense and note that the reaction to Cosby's remarks was "astonishment, laughter and applause."

I just thought it was fantastic that he said it in front of Kweisi Mfume and his ideological ilk...

Posted by: John Hawkins at May 21, 2004 03:20 PM

LOL!

Posted by: William Benzon at May 21, 2004 03:24 PM

Hello, Cobb ;) La Shawn sent me. :)

I think Cosby hit the nail on the head with his comments. It's encouraging to see more and more black conservatives making their voices known.

Posted by: Jennifer at May 22, 2004 07:42 AM

Cosby and Mfume follow-up in the NYTimes.

Posted by: George at May 22, 2004 01:08 PM

I thought Hannity's insight was pretty good. He pointed out that Cosby's comments were directed at "lower economic people", and people just assumed he meant blacks.

Posted by: Ravenwood at May 24, 2004 01:30 PM

Then he's even more clueless. The context of Cosby's speech was a 50% black highschool dropout rate in ghetto schools. Then he went on to talk about blacks in jails not being political prisoners.

Posted by: Cobb at May 24, 2004 01:39 PM

While I think Cosby was dead on, most of the commentary I heard from the white conservatives (granted, most of them are local to Philly, where we have a 'special' relationship with Mfume and Cosby) wasn't shock at Cosby saying it. It was the shock that was clearly evidenced by Mfume and company after he said it. Come one people! Cosby has never in my memory, been shy about this stuff. Being shocked or having your feather ruffled by the Cos for saying this stuff is like being shocked that John Kerry pointed out he served in Vietnam each time he spoke during a debate.
Still, I dind't hear Limbaugh, so I don;t know what or how he said things; I work for a living, so I can't set up a radio in the middle of the day. :)

Posted by: SCSIwuzzy at May 25, 2004 09:03 AM

While I agree with many things Dr. Cosby said in the Hamil Harris piece, I have a different perspective. The status of black America is a problem of the spirit of the human being, which in this case, just happens to be encased in a dark complexion shell. “The man” is not present when you wake in the morning. In the nurturing years, I realize most have never had someone say “on this day I have the choice to begin create the type of life you really want”. Not the Tony Robbins (I'm a big fan of Tony's) feel good type stuff because I know it's hard to feel good when little Sonny is looking for you with 9mm persuasion because he feels like you disrespected him. This goes back to your mother's mother system of instilled belief. Of course this pre-dates the "$500 sneaker" generation.

Instead of embracing the human spirit we bog it down with dogma. Our children feel destine to repeat the same cycle of the parents because there is no hope in this teaching. There should be higher regard for what is accepted as conviction. Beliefs should be guarded as a mother bear is of her cubs. There should be outrage in the black home when ideas contrary to the desired outcome are introduced the toddler who is in the flowering of understanding hears great uncle Ralph, whom they love dearly, spouting off about how we people would be further along if the white man was fair. It’s set in motion for the next generation. As well as Grandma’s kindly but repetitive saying about a camel though the eye of a needle before a rich person could enter heaven. As though there is virtue in poverty. The collective sentiment of programming in music, radio and TV also add to the doomed as a people status. If you are going to sample the mind of the collective you will always as W.E. B. Du bios so poignantly said as to see yourself thru the revelation of another. Even the prominent and accomplished succumbing to exchange of “well you know I’m still black”, in public or private greeting. Always remember that children are listening. We must get away from the communal mindset and standup individually.

While Bill’s comments were necessary and tough there’s another way of going about this and it’s very worthwhile experiment.

1) Don’t tell anyone your doing it. Do not seek approval or concordance.
2) Free yourself of all belief’s that do not serve you. Many will say you are selfish or you’re burn in hell. That becomes the first set belief’s to go.
3) Start a new belief of just being you. Who are you? Ponder that question because that is the first door to the greater knowledge of how to live the life you desire and free yourself to live by your own design.

Want to feel the love of God, learn to love yourself. In simplicity is your power.
Finally, free yourself of the past. Be it the history of slavery, your mom and dad, priest, pastor or rabbi. The ultimate prize of living is wisdom and the only way to acquire it is experience. All the past is an accumulation of experience that makes you wiser.
It’s only an experiment, if it does turn out the way like you can always go back.

Would love to exchange: www.biggameu2@juno.com

Posted by: Bill at May 27, 2004 07:13 AM

Bill Cosby was absolutely, 100% correct. We have to stop blaming Whites for the deeply dysfunctional behavior of the Black underclass. We have huge problems facing that part of the Black community - drugs, crime, Black-on-Black violence, the huge numbers of Black men in the criminal justice system, AIDS and "down low" bisexuality, gangs, Black disdain for education as "acting White", fatherless families, rampant teen pregnancy and a 73% illegitimacy rate, lack of respect for the larger society, and a subculture that glorifies "thug life". But the biggest problem is that we still are unwilling to face these problems head-on and at least admit that virtually all of them are self-inflicted. "We" have to fix "us". Thanks, Bill Cosby, and Amen! I appreciate you speaking truth to ignorance. We need to stop blaming Whites for our own self-inflicted problems, we need to get over this "cult of victimhood" mentality (nod to Professor John McWhorter), and we have to admit that the Black underclass bears almost all the responsibility for its current sorry condition. It's just that simple. One final point - I think we should nominate Bill Cosby to be the next president of the NAACP. I'm serious. Cosby just did more to help Black America in one 30 minute speech than Kwesei Mfume has done in the last five years.

Posted by: Jamaal Michaels at June 6, 2004 12:43 PM

Yup. Cos is right, and right all along; Mfume & the NAACP are incensed that he'd actually SAY it (can THEY be that clueless about the Cos?); Limbaugh & Hannity are just catching up.

Meanwhile Dr. Williams has been saying it dozens of times a year, either in his column http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/04/education.html or as occasional sub on Rush's show.

All of which raises the question: How much longer is NAACP going to sustain with the "victim" anguish? Haven't heard much reparations talk lately. It's credible with less & less families, insulting to more & more.

Posted by: True_Liberal at June 7, 2004 05:11 AM

Re: Bill Cosby. I am very, very tired of African Americans complaining, always playing the victim, and yes of course the "White Man" is to blame for all our problems. Give me a break. Anyone who has an open mind understands that Mr. Cosby was not talking about all, but some African Americans who are not taking care of their responsibility, especially re: their children. Why are so many people upset with the truth?

Posted by: Stephanie Wilson at June 7, 2004 04:48 PM

Posted by: True_Liberal at June 9, 2004 02:17 PM

Posted by: True_Liberal at July 2, 2004 06:28 AM