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 ...
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!!
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