Cobb

The sentiment wasn't a surprise -- I hear the same things all the time from my black coworkers. I think the 'surprise', such as it was, was more the celebrity aspect of it. (for me at least)

Thanks for the link. I'm being deluged with traffic from this post, google searches & quite a few from a reggae message board that linked to it. I think this is the closest I'll get to the feeling of an Instalanche :)

Cobb,

You hit the nail on the head. WorldNetDaily, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity were all over it, like it was a rhetorical earthquake. They exposed just how few black folks they actually REALLY KNOW because this issue is discussed all the time: hair shops, barbecues, family dinners, informal chats, we've even discussed it at work. However, these discussions don't occur in "mixed company" (i.e., when white folks are around). John McWhorter talked about this phenomenon some in his "Losing the Race" book.

What WAS new was that Cosby had the gall to say it in mixed company at an NAACP dinner no less, where decorum rules the day.

Hey, I did say it was just plain old common sense and note that the reaction to Cosby's remarks was "astonishment, laughter and applause."

I just thought it was fantastic that he said it in front of Kweisi Mfume and his ideological ilk...

LOL!

Hello, Cobb ;) La Shawn sent me. :)

I think Cosby hit the nail on the head with his comments. It's encouraging to see more and more black conservatives making their voices known.

Cosby and Mfume follow-up in the NYTimes.

I thought Hannity's insight was pretty good. He pointed out that Cosby's comments were directed at "lower economic people", and people just assumed he meant blacks.

Then he's even more clueless. The context of Cosby's speech was a 50% black highschool dropout rate in ghetto schools. Then he went on to talk about blacks in jails not being political prisoners.

While I think Cosby was dead on, most of the commentary I heard from the white conservatives (granted, most of them are local to Philly, where we have a 'special' relationship with Mfume and Cosby) wasn't shock at Cosby saying it. It was the shock that was clearly evidenced by Mfume and company after he said it. Come one people! Cosby has never in my memory, been shy about this stuff. Being shocked or having your feather ruffled by the Cos for saying this stuff is like being shocked that John Kerry pointed out he served in Vietnam each time he spoke during a debate.
Still, I dind't hear Limbaugh, so I don;t know what or how he said things; I work for a living, so I can't set up a radio in the middle of the day. :)

While I agree with many things Dr. Cosby said in the Hamil Harris piece, I have a different perspective. The status of black America is a problem of the spirit of the human being, which in this case, just happens to be encased in a dark complexion shell. “The man” is not present when you wake in the morning. In the nurturing years, I realize most have never had someone say “on this day I have the choice to begin create the type of life you really want”. Not the Tony Robbins (I'm a big fan of Tony's) feel good type stuff because I know it's hard to feel good when little Sonny is looking for you with 9mm persuasion because he feels like you disrespected him. This goes back to your mother's mother system of instilled belief. Of course this pre-dates the "$500 sneaker" generation.

Instead of embracing the human spirit we bog it down with dogma. Our children feel destine to repeat the same cycle of the parents because there is no hope in this teaching. There should be higher regard for what is accepted as conviction. Beliefs should be guarded as a mother bear is of her cubs. There should be outrage in the black home when ideas contrary to the desired outcome are introduced the toddler who is in the flowering of understanding hears great uncle Ralph, whom they love dearly, spouting off about how we people would be further along if the white man was fair. It’s set in motion for the next generation. As well as Grandma’s kindly but repetitive saying about a camel though the eye of a needle before a rich person could enter heaven. As though there is virtue in poverty. The collective sentiment of programming in music, radio and TV also add to the doomed as a people status. If you are going to sample the mind of the collective you will always as W.E. B. Du bios so poignantly said as to see yourself thru the revelation of another. Even the prominent and accomplished succumbing to exchange of “well you know I’m still black”, in public or private greeting. Always remember that children are listening. We must get away from the communal mindset and standup individually.

While Bill’s comments were necessary and tough there’s another way of going about this and it’s very worthwhile experiment.

1) Don’t tell anyone your doing it. Do not seek approval or concordance.
2) Free yourself of all belief’s that do not serve you. Many will say you are selfish or you’re burn in hell. That becomes the first set belief’s to go.
3) Start a new belief of just being you. Who are you? Ponder that question because that is the first door to the greater knowledge of how to live the life you desire and free yourself to live by your own design.

Want to feel the love of God, learn to love yourself. In simplicity is your power.
Finally, free yourself of the past. Be it the history of slavery, your mom and dad, priest, pastor or rabbi. The ultimate prize of living is wisdom and the only way to acquire it is experience. All the past is an accumulation of experience that makes you wiser.
It’s only an experiment, if it does turn out the way like you can always go back.

Would love to exchange: www.biggameu2@juno.com

Bill Cosby was absolutely, 100% correct. We have to stop blaming Whites for the deeply dysfunctional behavior of the Black underclass. We have huge problems facing that part of the Black community - drugs, crime, Black-on-Black violence, the huge numbers of Black men in the criminal justice system, AIDS and "down low" bisexuality, gangs, Black disdain for education as "acting White", fatherless families, rampant teen pregnancy and a 73% illegitimacy rate, lack of respect for the larger society, and a subculture that glorifies "thug life". But the biggest problem is that we still are unwilling to face these problems head-on and at least admit that virtually all of them are self-inflicted. "We" have to fix "us". Thanks, Bill Cosby, and Amen! I appreciate you speaking truth to ignorance. We need to stop blaming Whites for our own self-inflicted problems, we need to get over this "cult of victimhood" mentality (nod to Professor John McWhorter), and we have to admit that the Black underclass bears almost all the responsibility for its current sorry condition. It's just that simple. One final point - I think we should nominate Bill Cosby to be the next president of the NAACP. I'm serious. Cosby just did more to help Black America in one 30 minute speech than Kwesei Mfume has done in the last five years.

Yup. Cos is right, and right all along; Mfume & the NAACP are incensed that he'd actually SAY it (can THEY be that clueless about the Cos?); Limbaugh & Hannity are just catching up.

Meanwhile Dr. Williams has been saying it dozens of times a year, either in his column http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/04/education.html or as occasional sub on Rush's show.

All of which raises the question: How much longer is NAACP going to sustain with the "victim" anguish? Haven't heard much reparations talk lately. It's credible with less & less families, insulting to more & more.

Re: Bill Cosby. I am very, very tired of African Americans complaining, always playing the victim, and yes of course the "White Man" is to blame for all our problems. Give me a break. Anyone who has an open mind understands that Mr. Cosby was not talking about all, but some African Americans who are not taking care of their responsibility, especially re: their children. Why are so many people upset with the truth?

Williams update:

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/04/cheers2.htm

Cos does it again:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cosby02.html