Posted on 04/12/2008 2:42:58 PM PDT by freerepublic_or_die
Last summer, in Detroit’s St. Paul Church of God in Christ, I watched Bill Cosby summon his inner Malcolm X. It was a hot July evening. Cosby was speaking to an audience of black men dressed in everything from Enyce T-shirts or polos to blazers and ties...
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
If attitude is a critical determinant of results, what does an attitude of blame and anger bring about?
But, is it permissible to ask African-Americans what they think would have become of them if they had NOT been brought here? Do they ever think of the African Kingdoms' responsibilities in the whole slavery matter? Knowing what we now know of Africa, would they return? Would they retire there? Just wondering.
As a retirement spot... HIV Plantation? Malaria Falls? Ebola Acres?
Shari’a Suburbs.
So, it’s time for a black President?
Fine. Nominate Bill Cosby. I’d prolly vote for him!
In fact, I’d vote for Bill Cosby before I’d vote for Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice.
(as an aside... I wonder how he REALLY, DEEP DOWN, feels about obama)
On this past Thursday, I attended the honors banquet for the high school graduating class. There are over 500 in the class and around 130 earned a 3.5 or better GPA. I counted four black students in that number.
There were other racial groups represented - Hispanics, Asians, twin brothers from Columbia.
We are a town of 60,000 with one high school and each elementary / middle school receives the same funding. I would estimate that 15% of the student body is black. I am not sure how that breaks down as to grade level.
But four honors students, who happen to be black. What is wrong with this picture?
I left feeling pretty discouraged.
Interesting Cosby article.
I have been to Africa to the poorest of nations (Malawi) and watched as the men sat in grass thatched shelters at the edge of the fields, drank tea and gossiped, while the women worked the fields with babies strapped on their backs.
Then the women harvest the crops, then they carry them to market in baskets on their heads, then they sell them in the marketplace, then they walk home and probably hand over the money to the men to buy more tea, smokes and gossip time.
Go figure. Is there a cultural factor that translates intergenerationally?
(PS: This is not unique to Africa, I also saw it in eastern Europe- offices and streets full of proefessional and semi professional worker women going to work, men either working by filling potholes or being MIA)
“My problem,” Cosby told the audience, “is I’m tired of losing to white people.”
Maybe it’s not ‘why’ they lost, but certain proof that they lost is when they start naming their kids “Ta-Nehisi”.
Multiculturalism isn't going to work. Americans live in America. Their ancestors came from around the world. American is a culture of its own. Diversity only divides us.
But,is it permissible to ask African-Americans what they think would have become of them if they had NOT been brought here? Do they ever think of the African Kingdoms' responsibilities in the whole slavery matter? Knowing what we now know of Africa, would they return? Would they retire there? Just wondering.
Absolutely irrefutable. As is often the case in life, out of tragedy, misery comes opportunity, good fortune and in the aftermath of what is one of history's most heinous crimes, that of slavery, the descendants of those whose lives were so cruelly affected, have in fact reaped the privilege, bountiful blessings they otherwise would have never known.
This is encouraging. He used to be vilified for saying the same thing only a few years ago. I hope it has some effect.
I second.
“I have been to Africa to the poorest of nations (Malawi) and watched as the men sat in grass thatched shelters at the edge of the fields, drank tea and gossiped, while the women worked the fields with babies strapped on their backs. .....Go figure. Is there a cultural factor that translates intergenerationally?”
I think it’s human nature, not race. Mankind, no matter what color will get away with whatever he’s allowed to get away with. It’s all about what a culture, society or home will put up with. I once had a white husband like you described above, but I can guarantee you there was no second baby and I was gone the next year.
The author isn't terribly impressed by Cosby's efforts and manages to slam Republicans more than a couple times; but he bring across that Cosby's message of self-reliance -- black "conservatism" as he calls it -- is finding a receptive audience.
Well worth the long read.
No, it is not permissible to ask.
susie
Are you kidding? To the best of my knowledge he’s an unrepentant leftist.
I will never forget a black student I had who was smart, but rarely did any work. I took him aside one day and told him he could do something with his life if he tried (at the time he was enamored with the gansta culture). I told him he was smart. Know what he said back to me? “I don’t WANT to be smart.” That sums it up for a lot of these kids. It’s not cool to be smart. It’s cool to have street cred and be tough and uneducated. And it’s cool to make babies you have no intention of supporting. And I guess it’s then cool to blame everyone else for your failure.
susie
ping
It is OK to remind those here today that they had nothing to do with where they were born.......but as it turned out, God has been good to them by having them born in this Country.....now go and show God you are thankful!!!!!.....
(And as you go, please don’t complain to me again about being in this Country)....
Cosby nails Larry King and the MSM
Introspection is painful but necessary.
Blacks in this country need to try to understand why they are failing to achieve more. They would do well to listen to Dr. Cosby and quit dismissing him as an “Uncle Tom” sellout.
There are many that have found their way out of poor and violent circumstances. As an engineer, I have worked with a few excellent black engineers during my career.Being the curious (many would say nosy) person that I am, I have simply asked them how they managed to achieve what they had.
Without exception they told me:
1) They had never been told “It’s a white man’s world and you’ll never make it”.
2) They were always told that they could succeed through education and hard work. That their destiny was theirs to create.
3) Their parents expected them to do their homework and get good grades. In other words, they were expected to achieve.
Somehow, the values that these parents instilled in these guys are eschewed by the majority in the black community.
Until they get back to these basics, I think there is little hope.
Do a little research on historic black literacy rates.
It’s pretty damn depressing. Things are NOT getting better from generation to generation.
The great eight hundred pound question mark that Black people like the author cannot address asks why Blacks who do not embrace the "Black culture" including hip-hop and the entitlement mentality of the victim posture, such as recent arrivals from Black Africa and the Caribbean, do as well as most anyone else in this "racist" nation of ours.
Our friend from Uganda describes the same thing. I personally think it has to do with the Protestant Work Ethic. Christianity teaches people to take personal responsibility, to pick up their mats and walk. It teaches one to work, to create and build. Sloth is a sin.
I have not developed my thesis deeply, but Christianity is the foundational building block of Western Civilization.
BTW, an old American naming practice is to just pick a new name for yourself ~ one that sounds good to "the man" and brings money your way.
Picking out a name that just sounds good to your family or the neighbors is usually not a wise idea.
I remember him doing a tour saying this in 2005, and then he got hit with a sexual harassment charge and we didn't hear from him for a while. At the time I thought the timing was interesting, and thought somebody decided to dig up a woman willing to do an Anita Hill on Cosby
I don’t buy that your student was really that bright. I knew plenty of kids who had tricks enough up their sleeves to impress me, and who, as part of their act ‘threw it away’ or rejected it in dramatic fashion in order to be the James Dean of my class.
But it was specious. Upon further inspection I realized that their schtick was to impress me at odd intervals and in new ways, but that they didn’t have the goods. And they knew they didn’t have the goods. The trick is to keep me from figuring it out.
The kids with the goods almost always used it. And when they chose not to, it was never in such a dramatic fashion. They always failed to use it by getting distracted or misguided internally, but they never got on stage and gave a great speech about how ganstas don’t need smarts and tossed their smarts in a trash bin.
It makes for a good story but not much else.
I read a story once of what the world would have been Ike with out the U.S. Martin Luther King as it turned out lived to a ripe old age and died at home. In a mud hut wearing a grass skirt.
I wouldn’t know -
You know what? I'm good with him anyway. More successful black people in our country is good for all of us. So, have strong families, tightly knit communities, and thriving businesses. Hate me if you want to. Do as little business with "outsiders" as you wish.
But be successful.
I really hope what I underlined is not a true belief.
In the 60’s Bill Cosby did at least as much for civil rights as Martin Luther King. His humor was cleary about life in a poor black neighborhood, but it transcended race. Everyone could see their family, their neighborhoods in his stories, and that made whites see black people as essentially the same as themselves.
Then the race pimps got involved, and brought us to where we are today.
Cosby seems to be trying to repair that damage. I pray he succeeds.
The guy is a muitimillionaire curtisey(sp) of white people. He hasn’t lost a thing. These ungrateful pukes are arrogant and self-centered. They make me sick.
When we think about the really bad environments many kids are born into, we can somewhat understand their negative attitudes. They would be/are verbally and maybe physically abused if they choose to be good students. IOW, they don't fit in...they're not accepted.
A lot of the parents of these children need to wise up first, it seems to me.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a decent black man ran? Someone who was moral, worked hard, was patriotic, supported our military, was fiscally conservative? The time has come!!
No, I’m sorry I can’t understand it. That’s the most beautiful thing about living in the USA, you can rise above your circumstance. My parents, who both had alcoholic fathers, could’ve just said “oh well, my father’s a worthless POS, so I’ll never amount to anything because I had such a tramatic childhood”. No, they rose above their circumstance living in poverty and now have the most gorgeous piece of heaven in N. CA and have a very close knit family who all love one another. They committed to each other they would never allow alcohol to ruin what they worked so hard for. Nothing like what they had growing up. So, no, I don’t understand their negative attitude. Your life is what you make it. We live in a land of opportunity to all who want to work for it. And I think therein lies the problem, some don’t want to work for it.
Perhaps the appropriate reparation for those desirous of such would be a gov't funded one way plane ticket and a correspondence course in the new language.
“I personally think it has to do with the Protestant Work Ethic.”
I can’t disagree with that.
In other words, most African Americans would never have been born except for their ancestors' misfortune of being enslaved.
The same applies to most other Americans, except for first-generation immigrants or Native Americans...they wouldn't exist if their ancestors had stayed in their original homelands.
bump for later
In my post I was referring mainly to the black children reared in ghettos where warring gangs, drive-by shootings, frequent murders, drugs, etc. hardly inspire a desire for education. Those who want to learn are accused of "acting white".
Many of these kids probably come from generations of famililies existing on welfare.
Maybe I sound like a bleeding-heart liberal but I'm far from that. Crime deserves punishment, and in some cases, parents should be jailed along with their child.
“Protestant work ethic” is a factor, so is the Catholic tradition of family.
Most blacks are Babtist. I really feel a lack of family values is the problem. Catholic traditions really emphasize the traditional family, and parental obligations such as ensuring children are educated, and marry well are the norm among practicing Catholics.
As an adult my formation in the church has emphasized that my first apostalate is my family. With my husband being first. I always find myself wishing that those teaching be shared in the black community. I lived these neighborhoods for a time as a kid. It is a very negative environment. You really can’t blame them if that is all they know.
http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=16&ca=45&te=10&id=12737
This one I just can't figure. Your wages are garnished by the state.
This is like buying houses you can't live in. No wonder so many go to jail. (It is quite a bit cheaper and the food is free).
It isn’t a matter of losing to the white man, it’s more of a failure to acknowledge and live up to the highest human values and traditions which are not exclusive to color, race nor gender. It’s too bad that the Jacksons and Sharptons and others who have and enjoy such influence don’t teach these simple truths instead of preaching divisiveness and racial hatred. We would all be so much better for it.
I really hope what I underlined is not a true belief.
To leverage political influence for Democrats this idea has been suggested and stated for several decades by the Democratic Party and hence much of the media. There is no doubt that many black people believe this no matter how bad the Democratic Party performs.
Many people in our country hear both directly and indirectly a constant suggestion that the GOP is the home of KKK types or that rich white people hate black people(unless they are Democrat). It is the best way the Democtratic Party can influence a voting block. It is very easy to anger people and thus motivate them to stay on this plantation. It has worked for at least 40 years.
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