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Perndog
Jul 2nd, 2004, 07:56 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/07/01/cosby.comments.ap/index.html

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Bill Cosby has more harsh words for black community
Friday, July 2, 2004 Posted: 10:12 AM EDT (1412 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.

AChimp
Jul 2nd, 2004, 08:34 PM
Cosby gots a 'tude, yo.

FartinMowler
Jul 2nd, 2004, 08:36 PM
He bin hypnotized by the white man :eek

spud
Jul 2nd, 2004, 08:55 PM
Quite a change from the sweater wearing funny man he used to be.

Matt Harty
Jul 2nd, 2004, 08:55 PM
Yeah because everyone on tv has the same personality in real life.

El Blanco
Jul 2nd, 2004, 10:23 PM
I've heard part of why he is so pissed off is because he was accused of being a sellout for playing a successful black man who wasn't an athlete or singer.

I think its good that such a prominent black man is taking that section of the population to task, but is he actually going to do something about it, or just keep yelling at people?

ScruU2wice
Jul 2nd, 2004, 11:20 PM
My theory is that Strom Thurman switch bodies with cosby to preserve his soul >:

Emu
Jul 3rd, 2004, 12:00 AM
:hypno BRAIN TRASNFERENCE :hypno

Perndog
Jul 3rd, 2004, 12:19 AM
I've heard part of why he is so pissed off is because he was accused of being a sellout for playing a successful black man who wasn't an athlete or singer.

I think its good that such a prominent black man is taking that section of the population to task, but is he actually going to do something about it, or just keep yelling at people?

Well the point of his yelling is that it's their responsibility to get their shit together, which means they're the ones that actually have to do something about it and all he's responsible for is lighting a fire under their collective ass.

At least that's how I read his rant.

I'm sure he's already got his money pointed in useful directions as far as all this goes anyway.

Geggy
Jul 3rd, 2004, 02:38 AM
i went to an armpit of a city, hartford, recently to attend a show. a friend who was driving got lost and we ended up in the most ghetto area imaginable. without being racist, these assholes sit around all day drinking, shouting and beating their dogs. the venue was the webster theatre, placed firmly in the ghetto. across the street, your typical ghetto inhabitants. loose women, thugged out busters, twenty children running around, all yelling. i do not cure cancer, but these people ARE the cancer. they offer no value to society and they live with no respect for life. everything to them is what they see on mtv and hear in rap songs. everything is 'money, drugs, alcohol, bitches, getting crazy fucked up.' this is all they know. they bleed the system dry. fucking scum.

kellychaos
Jul 3rd, 2004, 09:39 AM
Quite a change from the sweater wearing funny man he used to be.

Actually, he was saying the same thing in a passive, indirect way on his show by giving the american public an example of a well-educated, successful african-american.

Zebra 3
Jul 3rd, 2004, 10:15 AM
Quite a change from the sweater wearing funny man he used to be.

Actually, he was saying the same thing in a passive, indirect way on his show by giving the american public an example of a well-educated, successful african-american.
:( - His sitcom sucked even though it was top rated for three consecutive years.

GADZOOKS
Jul 3rd, 2004, 12:02 PM
Starsky and Hutch sucked worst.

And I agree with cosby, some black folk are just lazy.

Triad-Brother Choi
Jul 3rd, 2004, 12:08 PM
So, all white folk are perfect? >:

GADZOOKS
Jul 3rd, 2004, 12:31 PM
Every race is lazy, but the Coz was specifically addressing the blacks.

Triad-Brother Choi
Jul 3rd, 2004, 12:44 PM
Bill Cosby should be banned for his racism. :rolleyes

conus
Jul 3rd, 2004, 01:57 PM
they offer no value to society and they live with no respect for life. everything to them is what they see on mtv and hear in rap songs

I'm confused. I thought the thread was about black Americans.

mburbank
Jul 5th, 2004, 10:59 AM
While I think Cosby has every right to say what he wants and I think there are nuggets of truth in his anger, (ie you can complain about the white man as long as you like but in the end it doesn't absolve you of having to try to take care of yourself) I also think there's a whole heaping helping of a rich guy who's been rich a long time now getting old and mean and arrogant.

I saw an award show recently where Wanda Sykes was hosting and she went to where Cosby was sitting. He wouldn't take off his sunglasses and he was ultra rude to her. As far as I can tell his entire bef with her is that she speaks in the vernacular and that's not good roll modelling for the black community.

Fuck that. She has an emmy for writting for Chris Rock and she's smart as hell. She's black and a woman and a huge success. Just cause she doesn't follow the Cosby game plan he's going to publicly disdain her? It's like he figures he somehow owns the black struggle and unless you struggle on his terms youre a bad influence.

That's my opinion as a rich middle class white jew unitarian.

Triad-Brother Choi
Jul 5th, 2004, 12:13 PM
Jews are white now? :eek

mburbank
Jul 5th, 2004, 12:33 PM
Hee-hee.

No, caucasians is actually white. We jews is flesh toned.

Royal Tenenbaum
Jul 5th, 2004, 03:02 PM
"I saw an award show recently where Wanda Sykes was hosting and she went to where Cosby was sitting. He wouldn't take off his sunglasses and he was ultra rude to her. As far as I can tell his entire bef with her is that she speaks in the vernacular and that's not good roll modelling for the black community.

Fuck that. She has an emmy for writting for Chris Rock and she's smart as hell. She's black and a woman and a huge success. Just cause she doesn't follow the Cosby game plan he's going to publicly disdain her? It's like he figures he somehow owns the black struggle and unless you struggle on his terms youre a bad influence. "

Maybe she got her emmy for calling people "******" and pretending to be stupid. Perhaps she is really smart, but when you protray yourself as an idiot, doing "ministrel show stuff," then except to have the Cosby hammer come down on you. >:

FS
Jul 5th, 2004, 03:53 PM
UNCLE TOM UNCLE TOM UNCLE TOM

mburbank
Jul 6th, 2004, 09:09 AM
Bill Cosby doesn't own Black comedy any more than Woody Allen owns Jewish comedy. If the Cos (who's early stand up work ranks among my absolute favorite stuff) wants to package roll model and comedian as a bundel, fine. I think the two jobs are ill suited, but I wouldn't presume to judge that.

His political commentary is fine with me. But when he lords it over other comics, that's kingly and I think it's way out of line. It's mostly over now, but a few decades back there was a lot of talk in the entertainment community about which Jewish writers and comedians were 'good for the Jews'. Lenny Bruce, Phillip Roth and even Woody Allen and Mel Brooks got a fair helping of shit about it.

You want to fight the fight? If you're a comedian, do it with jokes. Chris Rock has a joke (I'm paraphrasing) "If a kid calls his Grandma 'mom' and his mom 'Pam', that kid is going to jail." I think that's painful, sharp, funny and to the point.

AND think Sykes' own work IS smart. But that's subjective.

sadie
Jul 8th, 2004, 12:38 AM
"When you put on a record and that record. . ."
can you say dated? i don't think blaming verbiage is any more appropriate than blaming THE MAN.

Perndog
Jul 8th, 2004, 01:11 AM
Ahem. Record doesn't just mean vinyl. I'm only 20 and I say "put a record in" when referring to CDs.

sadie
Jul 8th, 2004, 01:57 PM
how very odd you must be.

kellychaos
Jul 8th, 2004, 05:23 PM
"Record" is short for recording whether it be vinyl, reel to reel, eight-track, cassete, cd, dvd, ect. The only reason it seems dated is because vinyl records were referred to as "records" ... i.e. because they were among the first recordings. It's more of a connotation thing than a pure definition thing, really.