I'm not black, but I have to say that a lot of this makes a lot of sense to me -- especially the talking part. (and the parenting part, cause that applies to everyone, I don't care what color you are.) I've worked in several fields and watched people stop, listen to someone speak, and go "No, thanks, I want to be helped by someone else".
Worse, I've been in a jury and heard a LAWYER, in the defense of his CASE, come out with "...they was...." and "....he seen...." and "....she be...." and boy, let me tell you, there was talk about THAT in the jury room! And a good chunk of that talk was "....maybe this lawyer doesn't know what he's talking about -- did you HEAR how he talks?" which could have put his client at jeopardy. If you can't even speak properly, how can you be trusted to know the law you are trying to present?
********************
Bill Cosby: 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, already! ! !
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 neighborhood 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.
*************
Someone's comment: I think it's easy for people like Bill to say "better yourself"
when he went to college and was in the military.
He obviously had people helping him and pushing him.
No one is going to listen to some stranger.
*************
I wrote:
I'm sorry J. but I vehemently disagree. I am the grandchild of immigrants. My grandparents spoke better English (not their native language) then many people today. It's b.s., it's excuses.
My father was kicked out of his house at age TWELVE by his step-father. He slept on sofas at his friends' houses. He graduated from high school, earned a Silver Star in WW2, college and law school grad. He worked 3 jobs and had a wife and 2 small kids while in law school.
I have a friend, younger than I am, who grew up on W 25th in Cleveland. She had to leave school at age 12 to earn money to help her family survive because her father's was disabled in a bus accident. She now has her PhD.
Don't tell me anyone of those kids today that Cos is talking about can't do the same. They can and many do. The first thing many Southerners do who want to get ahead in their careers (esp. if the go East or to the Midwest) is lose the accent. Why? Because you are judged on how you speak. There are powerful examples on TV and in the movies on how to speak correctly. Instead of listening to rap, they should be watching The Daily Show or PBS.
And if these kids' parents aren't pushing them to be better, speak better, look better, respect others better, than shame on them. It is NOT a color thing, it's not an ethnic thing. It's a lazy thing. Keep your d---k in your pants and your panties on. If you're not going to be responsible for the next generation, than don't reproduce.
