Posted on 07/01/2004 10:11:08 PM PDT by missyme
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Bill is just talking reality. Not illusion.
My God, what a racist comment! Cosby was speaking against ignorance, slackery noninitiative, lack of discipline, the lack of goals, hip-hoppish thuggery, etc., etc. CNN, I guess, considers all of these negatives as characteristic of the "black community." African-Americans should be more upset with CNN's characterization than anything Bill Cosby said.
I'd say he's telling it like it is, especially in the inner cities. So much wasted potential.
I think because many believe this hip-hop and gangsta rap is really the downfall for the Black Community...
People like Ludacris honored in Atlanta when they are a bunch of criminals the Greatest Entertainers and Musicians in the Black Community need to clean up the junk called "Rap"
Yes, I know what you're saying, but to paint the entire black community with that brush is contemptible.
Cosby is a very brave man. The "black community" has some fine role models -- including Cos -- but the lionizing of thugs which has gone on over the past 20 years is a tragedy. More power to Bill in his efforts to inject some sanity.
Yea, but what's Jesse Jackson doin up there? Has H**l frozen over or something? I never would've thought that those two would share a stage, much less defend each other, after Mr. Cosby's last outburst.
You just know Je$$e is wondering what's in it for him. Although he doesn't look really happy about being there....
What you make of JJ face? he looks like he wants to punch Cosby?
....and knowing that if he does, he will get his clock cleaned by this man.
And what is his mouth full of? Bile?
Is Cosby channeling Ray Charles now? What's with the shades?
Has he converted to Islam?
Man, dat Cosby dude be gittin' on my nerves for real. If I see him in da hood I be gonna steal off on dat boy. Know what I'm sayin'? I don't be slappin' my baby mama 'cause I can't find work. I be slappin' da b*tch cause she be a ho.
You know, I don't much care for Jesse either but in a way what he states here is right. I mean, when black people do certain things such as learn to read, get an education, stay off chemical enducements, get married before they make children, work hard and the like, they will be just as likely as whites do well financially and otherwise. In other words, the playing field becomes level... It's actually the most sober thing I've read by Jesse in years!
I'm not speaking as an African American, but living in a black neighborhood, the problem lies in that having a criminal record, a prison record is a badge of respect in certain, if not many, circles. You fought the 'Man.'
Thugs are seen as heroes.
The problem is breaking through that.
Good luck.
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