What Cosby Should Be Talking About

Time ^ | June 3, 2004 | Christopher John Farley

[mcg1969]

There are still certain things some black people won’t talk about in front of some white people. American culture may be seemingly more integrated than, say, 50 years ago, but cultural walls remain. Racial issues, in multiracial company, are often circled until they are impossible to ignore and have to be discussed; blacks, when there are only other blacks around, often cut to the chase. But private black discourse, in my experience, is not focused on pinning things on skin color. The main difference between multiracial conversations and ones solely among blacks is that in private, African Americans are often more critical of themselves than outsiders would ever dare to be.

Last month, Bill Cosby broke the unwritten rule of keeping black dirty laundry in black washing machines. While at a multiracial gala dinner in Washington, D.C. commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Cosby targeted under-educated lower-income blacks as the source of various social problems. Among his comments: “People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we’ve got these knuckleheads walking around...the lower economic people are not holding up their end of the deal. These people are not parenting.” He went on: “Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.” And he mocked the way some blacks name their children: “With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all that crap, and all of them are in jail....They are standing on the corner and they can’t speak English.” Let’s hope Fantasia Barrino, Shaquille O’Neal and Muhammad Ali never see a transcript of Cosby’s comments.

[hosepipe]

[ Is this Chris Farley of SNL fame? ]

Chris Farley(SNL) is daid brotha. Daid'er than patriotism at the democrat convention. Daid'er than concern for "the companys financial health" at a Union meeting.. Daid'er than some little black babies after a mother leaves a Planned Parenthood fund raising event.
I mean daid.

[Liberty Wins]

Why do so many black children fail in school? The dirty little secret of public education is that most schools use a method of teaching reading weighted against the success of black children.

It seems everybody but the educators know that phonics-intensive methods work best for teaching reading, yet most schools use the discredited whole-word method. Fifty years of research clearly show phonics works.

The whole-word method has a very low success rate in inner-city schools, where it is not uncommon to find 75% of the children failing in reading. African-American children start kindergarten and first grade with the odds stacked against them.

White suburban schools also suffer lowered reading scores, but they tend to have better quality remedial classes which drill the students in phonics. Also, middle class parents often seek out tutoring programs or simply buy commercial phonics programs for their kids.

What this adds up to is massive academic failure and low self esteem for black kids, who drop out, join gangs, turn to drugs, sex, and crime. A sickening and tragic scenario that all starts with the public schools' failure to teach reading. Cosby knows this and that's why he chastised black parents who weren't helping their children by buying "Hooked on Phonics."

[ThanhPhero]

The Appalaichian dialect is probably Elizabethan remnants but that's like Cockney as representative of modern English. It is, more or less. The appalaichian sounds come from the uneducated portion of Elizabethan English and was/is not the zenith of anything.

[mhking]

but several were more horrified that he had gone public, not at the opinions themselves

Far easier to control the sheep when they don't think for themselves and work to extricate themselves from the mire they are in...

[cyborg]

Some people donb't like their dirty business aired in public.

[mhking]

Some people donb't like their dirty business aired in public.

Some people need their dirty laundry aired in public; perhaps that might force them to clean said dirty laundry.

[cyborg]

agreed

[ThanhPhero]

There is black southern speech that does not leave out half the words and does not slur the rest and drop most tenses. It can have a beautiful sound. It lives in parts of Mississippi and Virginia.

There is white southern speech that seems to multiply syllables and is difficult to speak unpolitely. It too has a beautiful sound. It lives in Alabama and Southern Mississippi.

But there is also black southern speech that is near unintelligible as English and there is white southern speech that is the same. This speech, black or white sounds worse than uneducated. It is crude. It is vile.

And there is Boston. It's hard to tell if that speech sounds uneducated or not. I can't tell if Urdu is uneducated just by hearing it either.

[latina4dubya]

i suppose there is a time and place for slang... i find myself using certain slang with certain people... however, in our home we really try to speak properly... yesterday i gave my 3-year old son the game, "Hi Ho Cherry Oh!" his reaction was, "cool!" and i said, "choose a different word, Caleb." and he then said, "this is a wonderful game, Mommy."

last year, my 8-year old son (during a planet exhibition) said, "that freaked my heart." (something he picked up from my friend's daughter who was sitting next to him.) and i asked him, "what does that mean, Jonathan?" and he said, "it means it scared me." so i said, "then just say that." and he knew i didn't want him picking up her way of speaking... perhaps i carry things a little far, but--iaint gun stop... haha!

[Sabretooth]

Have you seen Chris Rock's new HBO special.

He's flipped 180 degrees and now blames all of black americas problems on white folks.

Just like everyone else

[Southack]

"Far easier to control the sheep when they don't think for themselves and work to extricate themselves from the mire they are in..."

No, not sheep...yes, easier to control when information is manipulated/controlled.

If Blacks were mere powerless sheep, however, the power-elite wouldn't even bother with information control...they'd just tell them what to do.

But the elite are terribly frightened that Blacks will learn the truth that they have been manipulated en masse...that they will become enraged, and that Blacks will take a powerful revenge against those elites for lying to them for all these long years.

I mean, Bush didn't drag that man to his death in Texas no matter how "outraged" Sharpton wanted to pretend to be...but Bush did sign the death warrants on two of the animals who *did* do that dragging. Nor was Bush or any other Republican burning any Black churches no matter what Clinton thinks he remembered back in Arkansas...but the men who bombed and killed those 4 little Black girls at the 16th street Baptist Church in Birmingham were each and every one Democrats.

Republicans want private school choice vouchers for inner city children. Democrats are against them.

Republicans want faith based charities in the inner-cities. Democrats are against them.

At some point, we're going to find out that Blacks aren't sheep at all. They simply don't have the necessary information. Once they do, they are going to be pissed off at those who've been lying to them for all these long years.

[ThanhPhero]

You certainly don't carry things too far. I did that with mine. As teenagers they still picked up all the verbal drek and would use it at home from time to time and I would still do as you do. Three of them now speak well and the youngest, when someone says "what?" repeats himself in proper English, even when it's a kid with steel in his face.

[dirtboy]

At some point, we're going to find out that Blacks aren't sheep at all. They simply don't have the necessary information. Once they do, they are going to be pissed off at those who've been lying to them for all these long years.

I have an anecdote along those lines - back about 1998 or so, the company I worked for hired several people for a few months for a data review project. Since welfare reform was kicking in, we hired a couple of former welfare moms, who both turned out to be good workers. Since we had a shortage of space, one of them was put into my office to work. She was pro-Clinton, and when I asked her why, she said that her neighborhood was better off than it had been in years, which is fair enough. But after three weeks of me feeding her unfiltered information about Clinton, she came to thoroughly loathe Slick.

That's why the Sharptons and Jacksons of the world are so quick to shout down dissenting voices - because their positions become untenable in the face of facts and reason.

[bk1000]

"The whole-word method has a very low success rate in inner-city schools, where it is not uncommon to find 75% of the children failing in reading. African-American children start kindergarten and first grade with the odds stacked against them."

Hmmm....I recall an example from back in the '60s. My little brother had missed a spelling word on a 4th grade test. As he was quite studious, he was dissapointed. It turns out he had (correctly)written the word 'flow'. The (black) teacher told my mom, "No, de woid was flow, like you puts yo feets on da flow." (The word was floor.) Phonics wouldn't help here . It's not just a black thing. Most regional dialects sound strange to outsiders, but 'ebonics' seem to be nationally similar and in many cases, intentional. I don't mean for this to sound racist if it does. This is a true story.

[wtc911]

"Personally, I'm a big fan of Gullah."

Yeah? How many of your trusted physicians, lawyers, CPAs, financial advisors, therapists (if you have one), professors, military leaders, political leaders speak Gullah? Let me guess...none. But it probably is cute in an anthropological way to cruise through the sea islands and get the locals to say something.

[wingnutx]

I haven't seen that, but it doesn't suprise me much. I think he attacks different people depending on his audience.

[Zionist Conspirator]

The Appalaichian dialect is probably Elizabethan remnants but that's like Cockney as representative of modern English. It is, more or less. The appalaichian sounds come from the uneducated portion of Elizabethan English and was/is not the zenith of anything.

Oops! Watch out for the neo-Confederates!

[Zionist Conspirator]

There is black southern speech that does not leave out half the words and does not slur the rest and drop most tenses. It can have a beautiful sound. It lives in parts of Mississippi and Virginia.

There is white southern speech that seems to multiply syllables and is difficult to speak unpolitely. It too has a beautiful sound. It lives in Alabama and Southern Mississippi.

But there is also black southern speech that is near unintelligible as English and there is white southern speech that is the same. This speech, black or white sounds worse than uneducated. It is crude. It is vile.

Woah there, Nellie. You seem to be prejudiced against poor whites from the upper South (as opposed to the Coastal Episcopalian dialect of the Deep South). Speech that includes vulgarity and obscenity is indeed crude and vile, but legitimate dialects that a people have inherited from generations cannot be characterized as such (unless they include vulgarity/proganity/obscenity). Would you have everyone in the country sound the same?

And there is Boston. It's hard to tell if that speech sounds uneducated or not. I can't tell if Urdu is uneducated just by hearing it either.

The Boston dialect makes everything sound like the "f"-word. It is very different from the beautiful (and now almost extinct) traditional rural New England accent as typified by Calvin Coolidge, "Titus Moody" (from the old Fred Allen radio show), and Percy Kilbride.

[Zionist Conspirator]

"Personally, I'm a big fan of Gullah."

Yeah? How many of your trusted physicians, lawyers, CPAs, financial advisors, therapists (if you have one), professors, military leaders, political leaders speak Gullah? Let me guess...none. But it probably is cute in an anthropological way to cruise through the sea islands and get the locals to say something.

Oh, pardon me. Let's wipe out all ancient and traditional forms of speech and impose a single universal standard on everyone. Then maybe we can force one language on the world and get rid of all the other ones!

And this differs from the imposition of leftist newspeak how???

[wtc911]

Let's keep the cute dialects intact to amuse you. Forget that once you've passed through all it does is isolate the speakers socially, educationally and financially....exactly the ebonics cost.