Bill Cosby politically incorrect at bash celebrating Brown v. Board of Education

WashingtonPost ^ | 05/19/04 | Reliable Source

[Pikamax]

Cosby, Saying the Darndest Things

• Bill Cosby was anything but politically correct in his remarks Monday night at a Constitution Hall bash commemorating 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.

Bill Cosby, ready to let off steam. (Lawrence Jackson - AP)

"Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal," he declared. "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," 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!"

The Post's Hamil Harris reports that Cosby also turned his wrath to "the incarcerated," saying: "These are not political criminals. 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?"

When Cosby finally concluded, Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and NAACP legal defense fund head Theodore Shaw came to the podium looking stone-faced. Shaw told the crowd that most people on welfare are not African American, and many of the problems his organization has addressed in the black community were not self-inflicted.

[Protagoras]

I thought Cosby got his degree from Temple

Undergrad.

[latina4dubya]

i know Cosby is liberal in his politics... however, i do like and respect him for the most part... he never makes excuses for any class not being successful...

i read a book of his on Fatherhood--very funny and telling... and a lot of the situations in the book showed up on The Cosby Show... i got the message that if we want to reach a certain goal, there are things WE need to do get there... (i know, us Freepers think that way, so it's no big deal--but to get that from a liberal is extraordinary)...

i thought he handled his son's murder very tactfully... he didn't rant and rave and use his celebrity... to me he seemed to come across with the attitude that this kind of tragedy happens everyday--so how can he expect that he would be sheltered from it?

[ColoradoSlim]

Did they ever catch the person that killed his son?

[RonF]

I'm not complaining, I generally like Cosby, but did you know his Ph.D. thesis was basically using Fat Albert to teach kids?

I don't see anything inherently wrong with basing a doctoral thesis in Education on the use of animation as an instructional medium. Cosby usually put moral themes in with the slapstick in his stuff, especially "actions have consequences" and "listen to your parents". Was there anything in particular wrong with it?

[prion]

I have only been watching him since the sixties, so I might have missed something.

Yes. You missed him talking candidly without a script. You ain't the only old fart on this forum, you know.

[Lando Lincoln]

I lit the wrong end of my cigarette!

Hey, can my health be harmed by second hand internet smoke?! I gotta get Al Gore's book out and check.......

Lando

[Enterprise]

"Shaw told the crowd that most people on welfare are not African American, and many of the problems his organization has addressed in the black community were not self-inflicted"

Then the NAACP should start addressing the problems in the black community which ARE self-inflicted - like the things Cosby was talking about.

[LS]

I always thought Bill Cosby was pretty reasonable about race issues. It was his wife who went loony after their son died, and she blamed "racism" as opposed to blaming the people who killed their son.

My problem with "the Cos" is that he ceased to be funny once he got his TV show. But I'll never forget a live concert back in the 1970s and it was one of the funniest stand-ups I've EVER seen.

[carton253]

I've got little tiny hairs agrowin out of my face...

I forgot I was behind him...

When sliding, turn in the direction you are sliding. Which to me was like leaning into a left hook. So, I turned the wheel the opposite way. Next thing I know, I'm going down the road sideways...

When I was young...I had his albums memorized. Kindergarden, Noah, Fat Albert. Funny, funny stuff.

So was Flip Wilson's "Cowboys and Colored People." His sketch, "Christopher Columbus" was a riot.

"Weigh anchor!"

Ten minutes later the men came back and reported, 10,545 pounds.

"Put the anchor in the boat. You guys don't even know how to weigh anchor."

Again, funny stuff.

[hchutch]

Whoa... Ms. Boyle's sure taking a huge risk by saying that.

[Trueblackman]

No way!!!

[LS]

Did BILL do that or Camille? My recollection was his wife went off, not him.

[prion]

Did BILL do that or Camille? My recollection was his wife went off, not him.

Hm. I think you're right.

[LS]

He went to Temple as an undergrad.

[mhking]

I thought Cosby got his degree from Temple.

His undergrad degree was from Temple.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I think he holds an Ed.D or whatever a Ph.D. in Education is noted by. Just to roll a hand grenade into this conversation I must say that I've encountered a lot of Doctorates in Education who have not proven the same bona fides most would expect of a Ph.D. 

I only read the excerpt - and I know he will be dismissed for the blast by the unusual suspects with explanations that he is misplacing blame for his murdered son, etc., etc.. - but I do think it is valid criticism to say: "Bill, what took you so long?"

[LS]

"Cap'n Custer, Cap'n Sittin' Bull. Cap'n Sittin Bull, Cap'n Custer. Call the toss, Cus."

[dfwgator]

Thanks for clearing that up.

[aculeus]

What a welcome surprise.

[Enterprise]

Yes!

"Closure for the Cos.

A jury in Santa Monica, California, has found Mikail Markhasev guilty of killing Bill Cosby's only son, Ennis, during a botched roadside robbery in January 1997."

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