Bill Cosby: African-Americans 'Not Holding Up Their End of the Deal'

ABC News ^ | 29 June 2005

[rave123]

If you don’t believe me when I say he was talking about lower income blacks, read some of the excerts:

Interview at Washington Post"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!"
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.

2nd interview with Tavis Smiley
Cosby: The mistake I made was not in clarifying that I wasn't talking about “all.” I think that unless it's later on, I think I said prior to this, the 50% dropout. I think I said that prior to this, “50% dropout in school.” Very, very important, because with that, that means 50% of our African American males, from grade 9 through 12, in certain parts of the city, have no education.
Follow up of an interview:
In an interview yesterday, Cosby said he is speaking out because dropout, illiteracy and teen pregnancy rates are at "epidemic" levels among less-affluent African Americans. "You can't get me to soften my message," he said. "If I had said [it] nicely, then people wouldn't have listened."

So, whether you agree or not. That's a personal opinion. He was talking to a specific group of people(lower income blacks).
And we can say it is a great message fo anyone that falls in this category whether they are black or white; however, he had a specific audience in mind.

[GOP_Proud]

I suggest that you look at his recent interviews. He makes it very clear.

I never said he was NOT addressing the low income group. What I said is that he is speaking to ALL income groups.

[coconutt2000]

Sure.

And what do you think about this idea for "executing" Osama?

I thought it might be poetic justice to load up Osama bin Laden into a 747, and remote control crash it into a terrorist training camp with a cargo of high explosives.

Just a thought.

[kerryusama04]

I hope the last thing Osama sees is the Iraqi constitution and Zarqawi surrendering in tears to US forces.