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Posted on 12/02/2004 10:13:43 PM PST by hipaatwo
They had come to praise Cosby, not to bury him.
But the Cos had a few words to the wise for state legislators gathered in Philadelphia yesterday - and they weren't all words of praise.
Bill Cosby - TV star, comedian, educator and native Philadelphian was back on home turf bringing his "tough-love" talk to the the National Caucus of Black Legislators.
He told them to get their act together and start fixing some of the problems afflicting black communities around the country.
"There are too many young men killing each other over irresponsibility," Cosby said at the opening session of the group's convention at the Wyndham Philadelphia at Franklin Plaza yesterday.
"You men, you African-American males, you've got to reach down and grab these boys - and some of these boys are 50 years old - standing on the corner. You need to go out on the streets and face these boys....
"Our children are confused, they're not listening. They're mad and they're angry and they don't care. They're fighting and even the sight of that person's blood doesn't stop them. Please, make our children understand the beauty" of their lives.
Cosby also said he was tired of people complaining about a justice system that gives "more time to the black man selling crack than to the white man selling cocaine."
"Tell the boy not to sell drugs! That ought to take care of it right then and there."
He told the politicians they were elected to make waves, not complain, and used a sports analogy to illustrate.
He told of a boxer fighting for a title who had won eight rounds, but then stopped following his trainer's advice and simply slugged it out with his opponent.
The other guy caught the boxer off-guard and "knocked him dizzy. He spent the rest of the round running backwards, trying not to get knocked out."
Finally, Cosby said, the manager told the fighter:
"It's not what he's doing to you. It's what you're NOT doing!"
Cosby also lashed out at state officials about cuts in spending for education and other programs.
"How is it that we voted you into office, and you let the man cut the money?...
"If our schools don't have all the pages in the books, we've got to put the money out there. That's your job, isn't it?"
He also handed out a harsh dish of reality for women in the audience.
"Don't let these men push you in the background for nothing," he said, noting how African-American women represent 70 percent of blacks graduating from college and 90 percent of black people graduating from high school and going on to college.
But he added how black women are also "in the number one position for single-parent households and you women happen to be number one in persons being killed by HIV. And who's giving it to you?"
He cautioned women to be careful about the men in their lives and chastised men who put women's lives in danger.
He also touched on the forthcoming movie based on the 1970s cartoon he created.
Cosby said he and his wife, Camille, told the makers of "Fat Albert" not to turn the film into a sleazy story.
"It's about love," he said. "It's not about a boy trying to get into some girl's pants. He may be trying to get into her mind."
And he said his wife led the charge in making sure that lyrics in the film's soundtracks weren't full of profanity.
In introducing Cosby, State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams commended the actor, who has been criticized this year for being too harsh on poor, urban communities, "for saying what a lot of others have been thinking."
He has his moments. My sister met him and I have on good faith that he's very nice and accomodating.
I respect very much what Cosby is trying to do. I certainly haven't always seen eye to eye with him, but he has had the ba--s to do something that has needed to be done for decades. Kudos to him.
I can't imagine how much further along blacks would be if Jessie JackAss, Big Al, the NAACP and the Black Caucus had been singing this tune for the last 30 years.
Now, if only some will listen.
Who was it - (King? Jackson?) who told young blacks, several years ago, that their problem wasn't getting out of the ghetto, but it was getting the ghetto out of their minds?
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Too often, it is the incompetent administrators. Money will not cure that. Witness the astounding increase in dollars spent on the Department of Education during Bush's tenure.
Bill, the answer is not always more money. It is standards. It is firing the incompetent school officals and teachers. It is kicking the troublemakers out of school.
Otherwise, Mr. Cosby is doing great work. It is nice to see somebody from the entertainment industry speak in common sense terms. Nobody else in Hollyweird does that.
No need he will get one from a Marine who likes what Mr. Cosby is saying...
Excellent!!!
Absolutely wrong!
Another abdication of responsibility. Black society did this to themselves. No doubt about it, the Dems have been enablers, but most black society has done it to themselves.
Kids who study are chastized for "acting white". Kids who learn to sell dope and treat girls like "ho's" are idolized.
Okay, I shall amend it to say that Dem's have "encouraged" it.
"That is the real reason I dislike Sharkton and Jackasson; they had the ear of the black community and they squandered that influence on the alter of personal gain. The were the diciples of MLK Jr., and they peed on his grave."
Once real progress was being made, the likes of Sharpton and Jackson probably viewed it as a threat - they would become "irrelevant". So they took the role of poverty pimps, and worked to ensure that their "following" wallowed in the "I'm a victim" subculture.
"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well."
Booker T. Washington, 1911
Similar to the Rats not solving the issues they run on because if they did, they would have nothing left to run on....
Interesting! I never thought of the race pimps in that regard.
The NAACLP ought to name him their next President. Black America could use a dose of straight talk instead of blaming Whitey for all their problems. When you listen to Bill Cosby you get the impression he thinks it all comes down to a matter of personal responsibility. That's rare candor from a liberal and a Democrat these days.
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