Donate SIGN UP

Some interesting views from Bill Cosby. Comments?

Avatar Image
Zeuhl | 12:21 Fri 16th Mar 2012 | News
19 Answers
"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.

I can't even talk the way these people talk:

Why you ain't,
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be...

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.

In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an Education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.

The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.

These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids.

$500 sneakers for what?

And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was 2?

Where were you when he was 12?

Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol?

And where is the father? Or who is his father?

People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?

People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something?

Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?

What part of Africa did this come from??

We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa...

I say this all of the time. It would be like white people saying they are European-American. That is totally stupid.

I was born here, and so were my parents and grand parents and, very likely my great grandparents. I don't have any connection to Africa, no more than white Americans have to Germany, Scotland, England, Ireland, or the Netherlands. The same applies to 99 percent of all the black Americans as regards to Africa. So stop!

With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap ... And all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem.

We have got to take the neighbourhood back.

People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' - or men or whatever you call them now.

We have millionaire football players who cannot read.

We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs.

We, as black folks have to do a better job.

Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.

We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer."


Dr. William Henry 'Bill' Cosby, Jr., Ed. D.
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 19 of 19rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by Zeuhl. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
well said..and well put
Rather an easy statement to make when you are middle class (or super rich).

Cosby father was absent when he was growing up (He was in the US Navy) and it didn't seem to do him any harm.

He ain't wrong, but we hate to be preached at. Which is why no one has taken any notice since he uttered those words in 2008. (Not news)
Question Author
Not news itself perhaps but perhaps rather pertinent to some of the News items we discuss in this section on a regular basis.

Is he preaching? He's a celebrity and naturally finds a platform for his views.

Personally I think that the only option is for prominent people to make things happen in their own community.

This for example is much more useful and palatable than 'white folks' preaching and pontificating. But it does need backing up with positive action from within just as with British working class communities in the late 19th early 20th centuries.
Actually, he uttered those words in May, 2004 at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ended school segregation in the US.
Question Author
Actually, on re-reading Cosby's comments I think those characteristics and values are being adopted by some sectors of the white community.

The Ali G white-gangsta syndrome
The words were spoken of black American youth, but they could easily apply to the working class white youth in this country. The race element in Cosby's message is a total red herring.
Question Author
Funny echo in here :-)
Zeuhl

//// Actually, on re-reading Cosby's comments I think those characteristics and values are being adopted by some sectors of the white community. ///

/// The Ali G white-gangsta syndrome ///

Wasn't these almost the same words that Dr David-Starkey was lampooned over for daring to state similar back in August 2011?

/// he said: ‘A substantial section of the chavs have become black. The whites have become black. Black and white, boy and girl, operate in this language together . . . which is wholly false, which is a Jamaican patois that’s been intruded in England, and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country.’ ///

http://www.dailymail....ing-youths-races.html
Question Author
Indeed so Old Git

I wonder if it's due to the cultural (sic) influence of the usa more than a race thing though obviously the characteristics are of urban afro-american origin

You memories go back further than mine - were there similar american influences post-war?

slang, dress etc

there seem to be when we look at films, documentaries of the period

did it cause anxiety then?
I think you will find that you are being a little stereotypical in you views.

As a man with black skin and well respected in the US he is seen as an "example" as true as the words may be, they are about inner city people and can be seen as a slap in the face for all those hard working, god fearing, bring my kids up right, work all day every day, ordinary people who are balck and US citizens.

As in the UK it suits the media to explore and promote a certain stereotype whilst ignoring the decent silent majority. As an example he speaks of the sportsmen but ignores the products of the same university system who have degrees.

It easy to sit in the ivory tower that contains Cosby and pontificate but he does no good at all by re-inforcing stereotypes.

As was said this was said in 2004 for a more contemperous and enlightened observation I suggest some of Chris Roc's "stylings" would be more insightful.
Zeuhl

/// You memories go back further than mine - were there similar american influences post-war? ///

'YOU' memories????? isn't that the kind of language Bill Crosby is referring to. :0)

/// slang, dress etc ///

/// there seem to be when we look at films, documentaries of the period ///

/// did it cause anxiety then? ///

No it did not cause any anxieties, because apart from the introduction of a few Americanisms, the black gang culture language, drugs and actions didn't exist then in this country.

As you can see from British films of that period, we spoke differently and dressed differently than we do now only a few decades down the line.

The American films that we watched, with their 1920's and 1930's gangsters, along with the drug taking etc, did alarm British audiences into thinking, "aren't we glad it's not like that in Britain".

And as they say "look at us now".
Question Author
<<No it did not cause any anxieties, because apart from the introduction of a few Americanisms, the black gang culture language, drugs and actions didn't exist then in this country.>>

I never asked about <black> gang culture


I was thinking more of the other social shifts that allegedly started in the States post war; The Beat Generation (Daddio), Hells Angels, Blackboard Jungle and 'teenage rebellion', zoot suits, chewing gum, drinking espresso, rock n' roll, James Dean, Brando's The Wild One, Presley's gyrations etc
interesting! hope he is supporting obama's bills!
Some of the local 'Watch Committees' banned cinemas from showing Bill Haley's film, Rock around the clock, because they feared it might inflame the youth. They clearly knew how insidious American culture would be.
Has Crosby any political ambition?
The thing that's being missed here - and I really resent this...is that EXACTLY the same can be said of the toothless meth-addicted trailer trash living in the sub Bible belt of the US.

If you've ever seen 'Winter's Bone', you'll know what I'm talking about.

Somehow, their race is never given as a component for their socio-economic woes.

Blue collar workers tend to do the same thing - they buy what gives them immediate gratification because they don't ever imagine doing any better than their parents. They go to rubbish schools which give them rubbish qualifications, which lead to rubbish jobs, poor housing, healthcare etc.

Occasionally, there will be those that break out of the cycle - but much like the Karen Matthews of this world, there are many who don't.

It's a great falicy to exclusively look at race as the common denominator here, because every single country in the world has their own version of trailer trash.

We do too.

They are called 'chavs'.
I prefer the quote from Louis Farrakhan.

If you are a black man, and a white man runs you over in his car, it's his fault.

If, after a month, you're still lying in the road, it's your fault.

Brilliant.
excellent SP x
Question Author
^^^

With US medical care as it is

that's possible isn't it?

1 to 19 of 19rss feed

Do you know the answer?

Some interesting views from Bill Cosby. Comments?

Answer Question >>

Related Questions

Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.