NOT MUCH MORE NEEDS TO BE SAID (this was sent to me in my email, I responded below)
BILL COSBY - A MUST READ (?)
The Reverend Jesse Jackson almost never gets
upstaged and I had never seen the Reverend
Jesse Louis Jackson cry in public until last month.
Jackson invited Bill Cosby to the annual Rainbow /
PUSH conference for a conversation about the
controversial remarks the entertainer offered on
May 17 at an NAACP dinner in Washington , D.C.
when America 's Jell-O Man shook things up
by arguing that African Americans were betraying
the legacy of civil rights victories. Cosby said
'the lower economic people are not holding up their
end in this deal. These people are not parenting.
They are buying things for their kids. .
$500 sneakers for what? But they won't spend $200
for Hooked on Phonics!'
Bill Cosby came to town and upstaged the reverend
by going on the offense instead of defending his
earlier remarks. Thursday morning, Cosby showed
no signs of repenting as he strode across the stage
at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom before a standing
room only crowd. Sporting a natty gold sports coat
and dark glasses, he proceeded to unload a Laundry
list of black America 's self-imposed ills. The iconic
actor and comedian kidded that he couldn't compete
with the oratory of the Reverend but he preached
circles around Jackson in their nearly hour-long
conversation, delivering brutally frank one-liners
and the toughest of love.
The enemy, he argues, is us: "There is a time,
ladies and gentlemen, when we have to turn
the mirror around." Cosby acknowledged he wasn't
critiquing all blacks. . .. just the 50 percent of African
Americans in the lower economic neighborhood
who drop out of school, and the alarming proportions
of black men in prison and black teenage mothers.
The mostly black crowd seconded him with choruses
of Amens.
To the critics who pose, it's unproductive to air our
dirty laundry in public, he responds,
"Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day."
It's cursing on the way home, on the bus, train,
in the candy store. They are cursing and grabbing
each other and going nowhere. The book bag is very,
very thin because there's nothing in it.
Don't worry about the white man, he added.
I could care less about what white people think
about me. . . Let them talk.
What are they saying that is so different from what
their grandfathers said and did to us?
What is different is what we are doing to ourselves.
For those who say Cosby is just an elitist who's
"got his" but doesn't understand the plight of the
black poor, he reminds us that,
"We're going to turn that mirror around.
It's not just the poor-everybody's guilty."
Cosby and Jackson lamented that in the 50th years
of Brown vs. Board of Education, our failings betray
our legacy. Jackson dabbed away tears as he
recalled the financial struggles at Fisk University ,
a historically black college and Jackson 's Alma mater.
When Cosby was done, the 1,000 people in the room
all jumped to their feet in ovation.
We have shed tears too many times, at too many
watershed moments before, while the hopes they inspired
have fallen by the wayside. Not this time!
Cosby's plea to parents:
"Before you get to the point where you say 'I can't do
nothing with them' , do something with them."
Teach our children to speak English.
There's no such thing as "talking white".
When the teacher calls, show up at the school.
When the idiot box starts spewing profane rap videos;
turn it off. Refrain from cursing around the kids.
Teach our boys that women should be cherished,
not raped and demeaned.
Tell them that education is a prize we won with blood
and tears, not a dishonor.
Stop making excuses for the agents and abettors
of black on black crime.
It costs us nothing to do these things.
But if we don't, it will cost us infinitely more tears.
We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail
without a second thought, but when it comes
to sending messages regarding life choices,
people think twice about sharing.
The crude, vulgar, and sometimes the obscene
pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion
of decency is too often suppressed in the schools and
workplaces.
I passed this on... Will you?
__._,_.__
My dear cousin sent this to me and I am going to respond by saying this… I bristle when Bill Cosby and others point to the ills of the Black community and almost singlehandedly point the blame at blacks who are in the lower/lowest socioeconomic class. If he made the comments above, which I am not certain he did because I wasn’t at this supposed speaking engagement, my response is he is right. We are in a crisis in our inner cities. We perpetuate decades old fallacies that getting good grades and speaking English properly means someone is acting or “talking white”. We allow our children to listen to the most profane songs on the radio and even use profanity in front of them and sometimes while speaking to them, most times without even bothering to say the old adage “do as I say, not as I do.” I could go on and on about the things I have witnessed and experienced in urban centers across this country, but we already know these things, don’t we? But what about us? You know… those of us who were raised in the very neighborhoods Mr. Cosby decries in his speeches but managed to do well in school, get college degrees and get the good jobs. The first thing we, the middle class, did was pack up and leave the very neighborhoods that nurtured us. We may go back on special occasions, weddings, funerals and maybe Thanksgiving but we certainly don’t spend any real time there. So the children and young adults in desperate need of tangible role models don’t see us and that you can make a decent living without engaging in a life of crime, they see the drug dealers and gang bangers and that’s who they want to become. (Hell, didn’t we all fantasize about being rich and living the good life when we were kids? Well, to many of our youth living in the inner city that life is the drug dealers’ life! )
I mean since we are airing dirty laundry here let’s talk about the black middle class because we are the silent epidemic. What about those of us in the middle class who will buy a new car but won’t pay tuition for our child to attend a prestigious private school? Or those of us in the middle class who work 10-12 hours (or more) a day while our children sit in childcare or home alone? Or those of us who wake up on Sunday, get sharp and go to church, dinner or the movies while our children sit at home? Or, stop me if you know this couple, those of us who go on vacation and leave our children at home… went to the Obama inauguration but left our children at home, even the ones who could carry their own bags?! What about those of us that are active in our sororities and fraternities but have never met any of child’s teachers? My point is, are we doing such a better job at raising our kids than our lower class brothers and sisters because truth be told many of us are not raising our kids. What happens to children whose parents’ value things, a promotion, a title and not them? What happens when YOU don’t raise your own children? I instruct you to look at our white counterparts and their children… rampant drug abuse and promiscuity in most cases and a child that hates you i.e. the world. (Hello, I smell a Columbine in our future!)
My point… is that while we sit on our high horses pointing fingers at all of those lower class blacks we, the black middle class, need to be looking at ourselves. Did we abandon our communities for the suburbs? Do we maintain a meaningful connection with our inner city communities/youth/families either through mentoring or volunteering at an organization designed to provide much needed services and/or hope to them? What kind of example do we set for our own children? What kind of time do we spend with our children? (I hate to break it to you but kids in the “hood” and those in the suburbs are listening to the same music, cussin’ and all!)
So I agree with the section that says we must turn the mirror on ourselves. Now all I am waiting for is Mr. Cosby and Mr. Jackson to talk about this!
I passed this on… will you?
