Bill Cosby lashes out at the black community again

[davida.b.]

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/07/0...s.ap/index.html

Bill Cosby has more harsh words for black community

Friday, July 2, 2004 Posted: 1841 GMT (0241 HKT)

Bill Cosby, with Jesse Jackson, right, blasts critics who complained when he upbraided low income blacks.

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that black children are running around not knowing how to read or write and "going nowhere."

He also had harsh words for struggling black men, telling them: "Stop beating up your women because you can't find a job."

Cosby 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."

In his remarks in May at a commemoration of the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision, Cosby denounced some blacks' grammar and said those who commit crimes and wind up behind bars "are not political prisoners."

"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," Cosby said then. "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."

Cosby elaborated Thursday on his previous comments in a talk interrupted several times by applause. He castigated some blacks, saying that they cannot simply blame whites for problems such as teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates.

"For me there is a time ... when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."

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----- this and n----- that' 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.

He also condemned black men who missed out on opportunities and are now 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 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."

Cosby also said many young people are failing to honor the sacrifices made by those who struggled and died during the civil rights movement.

"Dogs, water hoses that tear the bark off trees, Emmett Till," he said, naming the black youth who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955, allegedly for whistling at a white woman. "And you're going to tell me you're going to drop out of school? You're going to tell me you're going to steal from a store?"

Cosby also said he wasn't concerned that some whites took his comments and turned them "against our people."

"Let them talk," he said.

[Gotti......Xl]

IAM NO GONNA READ THE SHIT

[davida.b.]

I guess noone around here gives a shit about Cosby anymore.

[DAYUM]

heard about this my grandma was watching it but i dont give a shit about him i aint black lol

[smerlus]

IAM NO GONNA READ THE SHIT

probably because he's talking about you

[eS El Duque]

heh..this should apply for us hispanics aswell 

[DAYUM]

heh..this should apply for us hispanics aswell 

why?

[The Watcher]

he's just tryin to motivate people

[smartass]

bill cosby was a black face, and now hes hangin out with jesse jackson? he does what the white man tells him to do. i never took him seriously.

[eS El Duque]

heh..this should apply for us hispanics aswell 

why?

because i got tons of hispanic friends who blame most of their shit on some white guy/girl...instead of looking at themselves

[ZILLA THA GOODFELLA]

because i got tons of hispanic friends who blame most of their shit on some white guy/girl...instead of looking at themselves

and there's tons of white people doin the same shit vice versa...........face it, that's how our society is classed out to be.....Bill Cosby should shut tha fuc up and go to the hood and work with his people face to face, see what's really goin on.....there's a bigger picture out there than "learning how to read".....U can't make a difference by criticizing....Lower class people have trouble in school, its no surprise, whether its black, white, yellow, red, hispanic, middle eastern....don't matter....setting up a press conference and makin lame ass statements infront of 30 old white people is not gonna help....what this man is doin fueling the hopeless mentality in the lower/workin class communities by criticizing them.....if U really concerned, then pick a neighbourhood and TRY to do something.....

[Native_Joe99]

damn i hear some hella idiotic and ignorant comments, yall fail to hear the truth from his words, its time to quit sleeping and start your day....

[LyRiCaL_G]

looks like cosby need some bred