July 1, 2004
MADONNA COULDN'T BE REACHED FOR COMMENT
Bill Cosby has more harsh words for black community (Don Babwin, AP, 7/1/04)
Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that too many black men are beating their wives while their children run around not knowing how to read or write.The link to this story from the Boston Globe is in the Celebrity section of the Arts & Entertainment page of the papers website. On the top of the page is a main link, with picture, to an article on what went wrong with Courtney Love's hair. Posted by David Cohen at July 1, 2004 11:12 PMCosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some poor blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the civil rights movement gave them. He shot back Thursday, saying his detractors were trying in vain to hide the black community's "dirty laundry."
"Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other n------ as they're walking up and down the street," Cosby said during an appearance at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference.
"They think they're hip," the entertainer said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."
He also had harsh words for black men who don't have jobs and are angry about their lives.
"You've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job, because you didn't want to get an education and now you're (earning) minimum wage," Cosby said. "You should have thought more of yourself when you were in high school, when you had an opportunity." . . .
Cosby lamented that the racial slurs once used by those who lynched blacks are now a favorite expression of black children. And he blamed parents.
"When you put on a record and that record is yelling n----- and you've got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that," he said.
Cosby appeared Thursday with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the education fund, who defended the entertainer's statements.
"Bill is saying let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field," Jackson said. "Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that."
Bill's going to find it harder and harder to hang onto his liberal credentials if he continues to tout issues Democrats don't want to deal with, since a major realistic effort to increase the black middle class and lower the amount of government dependancy is not seen as being in the party's long-term interests.
That said, Cosby's still not voting for Bush or backing any Republicans in 2004. But 2008 could be a different story.
Posted by: John at July 2, 2004 12:38 AMThat's just fucking priceless. Excuse my language.
Posted by: joe shropshire at July 2, 2004 1:44 AMThis is a great American tragedy. My heart goes out to those people who have truly tried to make a difference and set standards.
The Crosby story was interesting also.
Posted by: h-man at July 2, 2004 3:34 AMJohn,
The Dems and the African-American leadership don't want "a major realistic effort to increase the black middle class and lower the amount of government dependancy." If this happens they lose all the power/control they have.
Posted by: Bartman at July 2, 2004 9:06 AMCosby is a race man really. He just has an
unfashionable view of what's good for the race.
yes; it's a shame Bill Cosby ahs the same view of how to advance the African American community that Booker T Washington and Malcolm X had in an age which scorns individual responsibility.
Posted by: cornetofhorse at July 2, 2004 9:36 AMJH -- So you and he have a lot in common.
Posted by: David Cohen at July 2, 2004 9:41 AM"Bill is saying let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field," Jackson said. "Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that."
Jackson is deflecting Cosby's criticism by saying that Blacks have to be literate and sober in order to fight their real enemy, Whitey. What Cosby is saying (I think) is that Blacks are their own worst enemy. The most important struggle for a people (or an individual, for that matter) is not to win respect from others, but to earn your own respect.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at July 2, 2004 11:22 AMRobert: I think you're exactly right about what Jackson is trying to say: "We need to be sober, serious and educated to level the field against our real enemy." Of course, having reached that goal, they will discover that there's no battle to be had.
Posted by: David Cohen at July 2, 2004 11:59 AMThis issue will be resolved when the post-1968 generation of Democrats is dead or too senile to lead.
I've talked with a lot of young Democrats, and regardless of whether their liberal or centrist, we all agree the party is run by incompetent morons. I think in the next 10 years as a lot of 20-30 year olds slowly gain power, the party will change for the simple reason it needs to for electoral success. My generation isn't beholden to specific Sixties dogma.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at July 2, 2004 12:08 PM>This issue will be resolved when the post-1968
>generation of Democrats is dead or too senile to
>lead.
Problem is, by the time that happens, I'm going to be messing my Depends in a nursing home, listening to my age-cohort motormouth endlessly about That Most Significant Event In All Human History, Woodstock.
I'm 48. By the time the bulge gets through the boa, the boa will have pooped me out with them.
Posted by: Ken at July 2, 2004 2:16 PMChris,most of the young Dems I'm meeting fall on the Nader/Moore/Chomskey side.Most moderate young poeple I see have usually gone either Repub or Libertarian.
Posted by: at July 2, 2004 4:25 PM