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Cosby is Farrakhan.

I IRONHORSEA2
May 16, 2005, 12:06AM

SOUNDING BOARD

Cosby's ideas are not that different from Farrakhan's

By JAMES T. CAMPBELL
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

DARRELL Bruines has the kind of résumé that is the rule for many black men in low-income communities. Bruines began hustling at five, riding the bus alone at the same age. He is an ex-con and a former gang member and drug dealer. He also lost a leg to a gunshot wound. But Bruines had an epiphany: Change his life or die young. Bruines recently graduated with honors with an associate degree from the Houston Community College. Marylynn Harris is a single mother of two. She served in the first Gulf War and is pursuing an MBA. She works hard raising her two kids and takes responsibility for her life.

Bruines and Harris are examples of people who overcame long odds. Bill Cosby, the comedian turned social commentator, will point to them when he appears tonight at Texas Southern University.

Cosby has been touring the country holding what he terms "call-outs." ("I'm calling people out of their houses to come to a certain point and listen to what is going to be said.")
Cosby is not under any illusion that presenting examples of people rising above their condition will bring instant change to low-income communities. He believes that the real power of the "call-outs" is telling the underclass that they are strong, and that they can change their lives with sustained effort, education and resourcefulness.

He's not saying it will be easy. There are obstacles, such as institutionalized discrimination ("yes, racism still exists"), that must be overcome. "Sustainability is very important, especially for people who are abandoned, because they really don't feel that anything is going to be sustained except pain and trouble," Cosby said in a recent phone interview. "We've got to build on our people."
Some, notably professor and author Michael Eric Dyson, have blithely labeled Cosby's call-outs "The Blame the Poor Tour." While criticizing Cosby may sell books and bring the attention Dyson seems to crave, it does nothing to change the condition of poor blacks. What Dyson and other critics fail to acknowledge in their ad hominem attacks is that Cosby's conversation about self-empowerment is not unlike the one espoused by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Elijah Muhammad before him.

"We were brought to work. We have worked! We are still the workers. Some of us say, 'What will we do if we do not work for the white man? How will we live?' I'd say, when you are free and independent you have a job. You have a tremendous task of doing something for yourself. You have the job of building a civilization for yourself as other free and independent people are doing," Elijah Muhammad wrote in Message to the Blackman in America, 1965.

"If the people rise up, if the people begin to really learn their history about being who you are, I don't care if you are Mexican, Native American or African-American and you're lower economic, you learn the bravery of your people, then you look at the success stories of people," Cosby said. "Slaves had worst lives ... [as a slave] you had to be someplace to work for free, and be whipped and be fed the worst food. The thing we're doing is self-inflicted. ... People in the neighborhood have to teach people where they're self-inflicting, and you do this through word of mouth and through example."

Thus the call-outs.

Regarding his critics, Cosby said, "You can get anybody to stand and say where the wrong is coming from and how the wrong is doing us wrong. Bill Cosby is saying we are a strong people. We need to stop it."
And I'm saying, we need to start it. We need to start being embarrassed about what is happening in our communities. We need to start valuing our families, our children, our neighborhoods and our schools so they don't become prizes that go to the lowest bidder with the best proposal.

"I care," Cosby said. "I love [my people], but I'm embarrassed about these numbers, these failures. We could be worth more. Our neighborhoods could be worth more, our houses could be worth more, but we've got to take care of our own temples first. When I leave Houston I don't want to hear hearts and minds slamming shut and going back to the same old same old. I want them to begin to talk to each other gently."

We start talking gently tonight with Cosby's conversation at TSU. I'm listening, but I know the answer lies with the people in the communities, not with Cosby.
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N NorlandA1
Talk is cheap. All people do is Talk. People need money and lots of it. Kind of hard to have a substantial amount of money when for the first 300 years, you worked without being paid a dime for your efforts. Now at least, some folks get over $5.00 for their efforts to pay astronomical bills, put food on their tables and clothes for themselves and their children. Could Dr. Cosby live his lifestyle on that mere pittance? Africans need a NATIONAL bank account to help all of us, provided by us; we do not need the millionaires and couple billionaires TALKING about our plight, we need to UNITE monetarily.
I IRONHORSEA2
quote:
Talk is cheap. All people do is Talk. People need money and lots of it. Kind of hard to have a substantial amount of money when for the first 300 years, you worked without being paid a dime for your efforts. Now at least, some folks get over $5.00 for their efforts to pay astronomical bills, put food on their tables and clothes for themselves and their children. Could Dr. Cosby live his lifestyle on that mere pittance?


Now, I will say this before I shift to the point of being in defense for Cosby: Cosby was too hastey and too severe in his endeavor to give black America a wake up call. You simply can't make up for over 40 years of being a conservative, afro-socially non-controversial entertainer buy storming around trumpeting the shortcomings of black people in a few months.

However, you have to remember Cosby's origins--Bill Cosby grew up in the ghetto in Philly. He came from such humble beginings--when he played basketball in his backyard, all he had for a goal was a fruit basket, and all he had for a basketball was a soup can.

To come from humble such humble beginings and make it to where he is now speaks volumes. No one gave Cosby anything--he worked tooth and nail for everything he has. You can't point the finger at the success of a self-made man and ridicule him because what he's saying is undeniably true. Bill may have, over the years, become out of touch to a certain degree, nevertheless, the truth hurts, and his words are still painfully true.

Any man that has been responsible for not only raising millions of dollars over the years for HBCU's but also increasing the attendence of black students in college (during the "Cosby" and "A Different World" years) certainly deserves to be heard, and most definately deserves a little more compassion than many blacks have given him. He is Cosby but, nevertheless, he is still human.
FaheemFaheemA1
Maybe Cosby should be honest with the people on his "Blame the poor tour" across America.

What if Cosby got up in front the people and said:

I Bill Cosby was a terrible student in school, I failed the 10th grade three times, and never graduated from H.S. instead I joined the navy where i received my G.E.D. Upon leaving the Navy I enrolled in Temple University where I again proved to be a poor student and dropped out. I pursued my dream to be an entertainer and found my voice in Comedy, not the comedy of the day that dealt with social issues but comedy that sought to unite people on the basis that we are all human, I refused to be socially active in my comedy like Dick Gregory and other comedians of the day were and I ignored the Civil Rights movement that was happening at the time. Because of my comedic genious Temple University awarded me an Honorary degree which I parlayed into a Doctorate Degree by writting my dissertation on TV shows that I created and hardly if ever attended class and I received college credits towards my Doctorate for appearing on Sesame Street and the Electric Company. So to be honest, were it not for my comedy I very well may be on the corner or dead by now, because I was not particularly a good student and had no other skill besides my comedy.


Maybe if Cosby told that truth I would listen.
I IRONHORSEA2
quote:
So to be honest, were it not for my comedy I very well may be on the corner or dead by now, because I was not particularly a good student and had no other skill besides my comedy.


The point is, Bill didn't end up on the corner or dead. The point is, Bill has accomplished more for black education as a black entertainer than any other entertainer in history, whether he was a poor student in college or not.

The point is, whatever genius Cosby had, he used it for the betterment of blacks to achieve an education.

The point is, for once, a black sitcom, "Cosby," showed the better side of a black family instead of capitalizing on poverty and ghettoness i.e. "Good Times."

The point is, Bill Cosby surrounded himself with the right people in climbing the ladder of success in his career. We, as a black people, need the Bill Cosbys just as much as we need the Michael Eric Dysons, the Colin Powells, the Cornell Wests, the Maxine Waters, and Condoleezza Rices. We need them all and they all serve a purpose, in one shape or form, in the grand scheme of things.
FaheemFaheemA1
The Pimp, the prostitute and the drug dealer also serve a purpose in one shape or form, in the grand scheme of things.

Cosby philanthropy is undeniable, the money he has donated have done wonders for young Black men and women trying to get an education, but no one can build up enough equity through their philanthropy that will serve as a shield to protect them from being criticized when they have spoken ignorantly and without any information to back up half the garbage coming out of their mouth. The assumed truths of what Cosby said is only thought to be true by those who refuse to look deeper into what he is saying and continue to say as he travel the nation blaming the poor. It sound all good on the surface but when we delve into it, we see the ignorance from which it comes.
I IRONHORSEA2
Faheem I most certainly criticized Cosby for being out of touch--the mistake he made on his "blame the Poor Tour," nevertheless, I would not condemn him completely.

I still support what Bill is saying because I've personally witnessed the disparities Cosby voiced his opinions on. We, as a people, are in trouble--Hispanics are taking menial labor out from under us and recieving more sympathy as the new minority by the government, and whites are covertly grooming asians to make up for their (whites) declining numbers, while simultaneously fighting to keep the glass barrier in place in corporate America, as the birth rate amongst whites has been on a steady decline annually.
FaheemFaheemA1
It is funny how all the Bill Cosby defenders attribute things to him, he neither say or have done. Just like Debra Dickerson when speaking with Eric Dyson said of Cosby; "he probably regrets saying what he said in the manner in which he said it." The truth is Cosby does not regret anything nor does he add the explanations to his words that his defenders try so hard to add to them, and he is traveling the nation saying the same thing. Cosby would never speak of the "Glass Barrier" as you have, nor would he speak about White folk breaking the law by hiring Latino men and women in the country illegally to do jobs Black men and women would do. Contrary to what you have written, Latino men and women are not taking anything from us, they are being given those things in lieu of them being given to us because they will work outside employment laws.
FrenchyFrenchyA1
quote:
Originally posted by Faheem:
Maybe Cosby should be honest with the people on his "Blame the poor tour" across America.

What if Cosby got up in front the people and said:

I Bill Cosby was a terrible student in school, I failed the 10th grade three times, and never graduated from H.S. instead I joined the navy where i received my G.E.D. Upon leaving the Navy I enrolled in Temple University where I again proved to be a poor student and dropped out. I pursued my dream to be an entertainer and found my voice in Comedy, not the comedy of the day that dealt with social issues but comedy that sought to unite people on the basis that we are all human, I refused to be socially active in my comedy like Dick Gregory and other comedians of the day were and I ignored the Civil Rights movement that was happening at the time. Because of my comedic genious Temple University awarded me an Honorary degree which I parlayed into a Doctorate Degree by writting my dissertation on TV shows that I created and hardly if ever attended class and I received college credits towards my Doctorate for appearing on Sesame Street and the Electric Company. So to be honest, were it not for my comedy I very well may be on the corner or dead by now, because I was not particularly a good student and had no other skill besides my comedy.


Maybe if Cosby told that truth I would listen.


thanks He should toss in a few mentions of his own numerous infidelities before saying anything about valuing the Black family. What does HE know about that?

Gee thanks Bill for taking a break from drugging and molesting women to "call folks out."

quote:
"Our neighborhoods could be worth more, our houses could be worth more, but we've got to take care of our own temples first."


Indeed. Bill Cosby should address his temple first before opening his trap and scolding poor people. Why doesn't he "call out" some of his tony Black neighbors who spend all day tap dancing for The Man and betraying their brethren for money? Why doesn't he "call out" the corrupt institutions that contribute to Black poverty and lack of education? Could it be because his white buddy, the DA, did him a favor and pushed his sexual crimes under the rug after a favorable real estate deal? Shove it, Bill.
EbonyRoseEbonyRoseA1
Gee ...

I can't seem to think of one person who would be considered in the same category as Cosby (whether it's education/philanthropy/entertainment/famous person or whatever you want to call him) who stands up and publicly professes a list of their shortcomings in order to be taken seriously about their social activism.

By the same token, I can think of a lot of people who have done wonderful things for our people and community and who are very much worth listening to as a voice for our issues who are definitely less than perfect human beings. In fact, if I discounted the trustworthiness and motive of every Black person who has become a public figure who had some kind of personal flaw, I would have no one to respect, and would have missed out on a lot of knowledge about our social condition in this country.
NmaginateNmaginateA1
EBONY,

It seems like the idea presented is, for Cosby:
With The Judgement Ye Judge, Ye Shall Be Judge.

It's also called HYPOCRISY.

It's not Cosby's personal flaws that people are taking exception to, it's his underlying ideology that's being questioned, IMO.

BTW, Dyson vs. Steele (Shelby) was the main event on ABC's Nightline.

Steele said "personal responsibility" is the only hope for African-Americans. And then he(they) wonder why they get tagged with saying things to "get White America off the hook."

Ironically, Dyson noted in his book that we are well aware that's all we have had in so many cases. I'm trying to see how exactly the Cosby-ites like Steele reconcile Cosby praising FARRAKHAN and the NOI for their "personal responsibility" efforts when we know they ain't letting White folks "off the hook."

And Steele was talking about how White America so graciously poured out their souls (it seemed) and their money via Affirmative Action, Civil Rights, etc. and after all they did to help us.... (*sorry... I'm laughing in disagreement*)... after they did all that we can't tell them and (I guess even worst) ourselves that we need to take responsibility for ourselves as if its been absent and unheard of...

What PROPAGANDA (and cultural indoctrination) can do for you...
S ScalderC5
Yeah, I also caught 'Nightline' last night with M.E. Dyson and S. Steele and I must first say that I thought Shelby Steele was certainly the wrong voice selected to address Dyson's 'charge' regarding Cosby. Steele's contention that the comments by Cosby have been overcomplexified with socio/political minutness and that attempts to lable his stance as left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative are a bit much is (in my opinion) right on the money, BUT, the "manner" in which Steele tries to frame Cosby's position to align nicely with the sentiments of 'white amerika' reveals a disappointingly juvenile naivete on his part, and was quit frankly offensive and disturbing to me.....but coming from Steele, I was not at all surprised. Michael Eric Dyson's assertion (I'm gonna get his new book) that the larger society's role in the continual and systemic exclusion and alienation of those poor people who do exhibit 'personal responsibility' coupled with his indictment of the so-called black middle class and their lack of response and responsibility to the poor should all be factored in Cosby's equation is also right on the money. Now certainly, this could prove to be quit an interesting social dynamic to ponder and pontificate by black intellectuals, politicians, writers and the like- ('until the cows come home').......but for me, the bottom line is this: Cosby is putting his money where his mouth is, not only talking the talk but walking the walk-- regardless of the skeletons in his own closet. Our house is on fire people!.....and instead of wasting time trying to figure out what lake the water has come from, we need to get out of the damn way and let the man douse it! More power to Mr. Dyson and Mr. Steele,...I hope ya'll are successful at selling your books and chit, but at the same time, can ya'll go get a bucket of water as well??!!??
MomentumMomentumA1
Scalder said:
quote:
Cosby is putting his money where his mouth is, not only talking the talk but walking the walk-- regardless of the skeletons in his own closet. Our house is on fire people!.....and instead of wasting time trying to figure out what lake the water has come from, we need to get out of the damn way and let the man douse it! More power to Mr. Dyson and Mr. Steele,...I hope ya'll are successful at selling your books and chit, but at the same time, can ya'll go get a bucket of water as well??!!??


I like that... tfro

Yes indeed our house is on fire.
MomentumMomentumA1
I think Cosby is very disappointed that his generation did not lead better but in fact in many respects the black community has gotten deeper into trouble. So I think his outspokenness is due to trying to make up for what could have been. We should be in a much better position than where we are today. I think he feels some guilt that his generation did so poorly after the Civil Rights movement. I believe we were sold out by so-called black leaders to the Democratic Party who used our community to empower white liberals meanwhile little was done for our community from the Democratic Party. I think many black Democrats became workers for the Party PRIMARILY instead of forcing the Party to support and make policy to uplift our community.

I think we were diverted from our own community in support of white liberals who had no intentions to help us. We would be much farther ahead if we depended on one another and primarily use our energy and our political support that is beholding to the black community.
FaheemFaheemA1
Momentum, how do you reconcile your assertion above with Black progress over the last 40 years or so? This is what I find amazing when I hear criticism of Black leadership from those who speak ill of Black Leadership. On one hand when charges are being levied at this nation for it treatment of Black men and women and the continued perpetuation of institutionalized racism and discrimination the Conservative American loving Black person brags about Black progress over the last forty years and the ever growing Black middle class and rail on and on about how race is no longer a problem in America. However when it is time to criticize Black leadership then the Conservative America loving Black person paint a picture of very little progress over the last forty years and there is no mention of the growing Black middle class and all other wonderful things they use to buttress their belief in America.

So my question again is how do you reconcile your belief that Black leadership has not done anything with your contradictory belief in Black progress over the last forty years?

I recall I pointed out on this site and on my Blog that Bush No Child left Behind Act as fundamentally flawed as it is, does not happen without Black Leadership and Black liberals first raising a fuss about the deplorable public education system and how badly the school districts servicing primary Black children are under funded. And yet the negro apologist who love Bush have their damn nerve to celebrate this policy that they had no hand it making possible because when Black leadership and Black liberals were speaking out about the deplorable school system these no good negroes were kissing white folk ass and talking that personal responsibility bullshyt but when Bush speaks about racist teachers who think less of Black children, all of sudden the ass kissing Negroes agree that a great many teachers are racist and enter the classroom with low expectations in regards to what they expect from our children. Negro-Cons would love to have it both ways and only believe truth when it is coming from a white person. If Bush and his cronies truly believed personal responsibility was the problem than the NCLBA would have never been made policy nor would they be fighting so hard for vouchers.
MomentumMomentumA1
quote:
Conservative American loving Black person brags about Black progress over the last forty years and the ever growing Black middle class and rail on and on about how race is no longer a problem in America.



Faheem, did I say that? When? Where?

quote:
Black liberals first raising a fuss about the deplorable public education system and how badly the school districts servicing primary Black children are under funded.


The poor conditions of our schools have not changed over the last 40 years. Much of that time Democrats were in power in the House and Senate, the very ones who spend the money.

And BTW, I'm not conservative I know that liberal policies when genuinely put forth is best for our community and the country but it is just talk and the liberals use such policy not to uplift the country but to keep them in power. They had many years to make liberal policies work and they could have if they were implemented correctly but they lost their chance to impress the masses.

My fear is as conservative become more powerful the Criminal Justice System will also become more corrosive toward the black community whose hefty punishment laws are made up by conservatives politicians and judges. And often Democrats support many laws that ruin the lives of many young blacks before they can get started. I have no delight in conservatives.
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FaheemFaheemA1
Ok, I feel what you are saying and don't have a problem with it, my concern is the continued attempt by some amongst us to equate issues raised by Black leadership and Black folk with white liberalism. Black folk are not Liberals because we are a bunch of dumb people who can not think for ourselves and I think your position that liberal policy when genuinely applied is best for our community asserts the same thing, so on that we are definitely in agreement.

My concern is also the constant criticism of Black leadership without a trustworthy alternative, who will speak truth to power on our behalf. Let me digress for a moment,

You know the worst part about the response to Vicente Fox comments? The absence of a response from the chief Diplomat in America who is a Black woman; one would think when a foreign head of state makes a comment rooted in ignorance about Black men and women in America that the very least the state department would do is respond and with a Black person at the helm you would expect that Black man or woman to respond. I may be wrong but I think if Collin Powell was still Secretary of State he would have responded. Back on topic...

Our schools system is definitely worse off than ever before in many cities and states, and this condition did start to brew under Democratic Administrations. I think this only says to us that white folk are going to be white folk no matter the political party and because of that Black folk need to be Black folk and work for the uplift of our community.
MomentumMomentumA1
Faheem, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt you sound a bit shell shot from turn coat Negroes. But keep in mind that many blacks are very disappointed with our black leadership appointed by the media and the Democrats and will give conservatives a chance because they feel they have nowhere else to go. I can sympathize a bit with that. But I know that liberal policies is best for all but it takes special kind of conscience, one of SERVICE to implement such policies. We can have low taxes with high revenues going to the fed, state and local governments and have both universal health care and or ownership care from personal savings accounts built up with our tax money. Just so it is there for all citizens. But our politicians are playing power games with our tax money for their own empowerment, they are not concerned with us, especially black people. If they make such policies they also want make sure that we are poor as a result of such benefits, we must as a people be fully dependent on them and it does not have to be that way but it insures their dominance.

I have lost faith in the American system, it will crush under it's own ineptness and mismanagement of the country's wealth, too many ideologues making policies who are not focused on doing the right thing looking out for Americans as if we were all family.

quote:
Black folk are not Liberals because we are a bunch of dumb people who can not think for ourselves and I think your position that liberal policy when genuinely applied is best for our community asserts the same thing, so on that we are definitely in agreement.


Amen, the most affluent country in the world is Sweden who have strong social policies, all the people have the basic things they need, a decent roof over their heads, strong family policies, if a woman becomes pregnant she has 2 years to stay home with pay from her job and a stipend from the government and her husband also get time too to stay home or he can give it to his wife so she can stay home longer. And her or his employer has to keep that position for them when they return to work. They also have more affluent people per capita in the world. They have the most patents in the world they can be creative and innovative because as a society do not have to worry about the basics, housing, child care, health care, food and education and employment. All this is well guarded with strong immigration laws, they take care of their own.

quote:
My concern is also the constant criticism of Black leadership without a trustworthy alternative, who will speak truth to power on our behalf.


Yes I agree with you on that because as it is the only alternative that is attracting blacks are conservatives and they will play us just like the Democrats are. The Republicans will have to reform their views on Criminal Justice before I take notice but as long as lobbyist are able to roam the halls of Congress the people don't have a chance, special interest will always win in our system of government.

quote:
Our schools system is definitely worse off than ever before in many cities and states, and this condition did start to brew under Democratic Administrations. I think this only says to us that white folk are going to be white folk no matter the political party and because of that Black folk need to be Black folk and work for the uplift of our community.


USA spends more money per school kid than any other country in the world and that is because our public schools districts are mismanaging our tax money and we having to continually build more schools to accommodate the flood of immigrants who overstay their visas and sneak over our borders. You know that there is one administrator for each teacher and that more than half of the money goes toward administrators than the classroom? This is what I'm talking about and this is why conservatives are in the majority across the country because people are sick and tired of what has been going on for the last 40 years with Democrats spending the money and making policies that have virtually no effect on uplifting and improving our way of life, they have hurt liberalism because of their sorry implementation of it. Now people will soon find out that conservatism don't give a damn about people and even more people will be left out in the cold. The black community is the canary in the coal mine and will be the first to feel the consequences of policies implemented by conservatives.
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K Kevin41A1
Momentum...the thing about conservative blacks is that they cannot logically justify their stance on an issue in terms of policy outcomes....and when you bring that to their attention...they divert to vague azz rhetoric that is personal in nature...and insulting to the intelligence......as if someone got lost in their stupid azz transition....i would skip politics all together before I side with someone diametrically opposed to the black majority on every issue......when policies have an adverse effect on black people and lower our employment and educational attainment rates and increase poverty as a result......there is nothing logical a racist white or a self-hating black can tell me...I will verbally chastise them both accordingly....
K Kevin41A1
Any policy that ever opened up opportunities or granted rights to blacks was liberal in nature, not necessarily the product of white thinking....i think many of us get the two confused....like many blacks think that religious bullschit and values equates to political conservatism.......nope..that is social conservatism, which most of us are socially conservative...politcal conservatism benefits the rich white male as its intended audience...it disenfranchises everyone else excpet those who were able to work through it....it is institutional racism.......at some point we have to come to the realization that someone who always takes the opposite stance against us is either out avowed enemy or we are too dumb to think in our own self-interest....now which one is it? It is not the fact that we are dumb...for sure..........
HeruStarHeruStarA1
What about the moderate liberal or the moderate conservative? No one can rationally within themselves fully align themselves with either extreme ideology. What Cosby and Farrakhan have in common is there moderate approach to defining the crediblility of all the honest folks in the black community. We manifest our integrity by humbling ourselves and uprooting the few bad seeds that perpetuate the black stigma.

We increase our expectations from ourselves when we "clean house". We know as a people that we've been living in this social fuilt for far too long, so we uplift eachother notwithstanding the oppositions view of us being hopeless and helpless.

quote:
," Cosby said in a recent phone interview. "We've got to build on our people."


This isn't a quote from an extreme black liberal that depends on the white liberals. Neither is it a quote from an extreme black conservative
quote:
diametrically aligning themselves with the opposition.

Black conservatives care for themselves. Black liberals care for what other people can do for themselves. Moderates care about what We can do for Ourselves.
MomentumMomentumA1
Kevin, we share many of the same sentiments regarding black conservatives. Most black conservatives want to ignore how our history in America has indeed shaped our situation today. We did not genetically inherit the issues we contend with today but passed down to us through brutal social experiences by our parents (of course depending how old you are) grand parents and so forth. My great, great grandmother was born into slavery, my father was cared for by her that puts her as the only person between my father and I from the time of slavery. My father was born in 1911. I was born late into his life. So in that perspective none of us are far removed from slavery. It would be foolish to think that many of those attitudes and social skills that our ancestors used to cope with that time have have not survived and indeed some of them hold some of us back today. That is another subject. It is waning as generations pass but still do have a profound affect on our community today. The lack of recompense and contrition from those who inherit the bounty from our unfair treatment in America, not just including slavery but 100 years plus of brutal social segregation is an affront to me and is to many black people today. Yet many conservatives would let this go and while many of our people have not come out of the effects of our history in a sense of social attributes that were passed down to us as a community.

I was watching Tony Brown the other day and he is a moderate Conservative in my opinion but I would never think of him as an uncle tom for his political views although I think he is missing the point of why liberal politics would be in our best interests. I don't think he rejects all liberal politics and I don't agree with all liberal ideas no pure ideology has all the answers but I do indeed believe generally liberal policies are best for all humans on this planet.
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MomentumMomentumA1
Michael, it's good that we agree on something but conservatives are actually worse and have much to answer for. It was the ECONOMICS of MARKET conservative policies that brought our ancestors here on slave ships in the first place. Conservatism is an outdated ideology because by itself does not provide the basic things people need to contribute to the community but instead people are worried how they will get by from day to day. We can have a strong social net that gives people a base to leap forward with low taxes, instead of having people compete against each other just to make ends meet. This is why illegal immigration is not good for the black community because it puts another competitor in the same arena with us competing for the same things we want.
DennisKalitaDennisKalitaA1

 

 

The Greeks say that heroes have tragic flaws. Bill Cosby  made real contributions. He accomplished great things aside from his impatient sermonizing. That one little weird tragic flaw got him!  It could be anything. You could be a saint 24/365  except on Halloween when you dress up as Freddie Kruger and rape a child in the neighborhood. That is a no-no. Right, Bill?  So is drugging and raping women while they are asleep. He had a tragic flaw. It’s hard to integrate your whole personality and if you’re a serial-killer or a somniphiliac rapist, that presents an extra hyper-extreme problem.  Bill knows.

FaheemFaheemA1
Originally Posted by Faheem:
The Pimp, the prostitute and the drug dealer also serve a purpose in one shape or form, in the grand scheme of things.

Cosby philanthropy is undeniable, the money he has donated have done wonders for young Black men and women trying to get an education, but no one can build up enough equity through their philanthropy that will serve as a shield to protect them from being criticized when they have spoken ignorantly and without any information to back up half the garbage coming out of their mouth. The assumed truths of what Cosby said is only thought to be true by those who refuse to look deeper into what he is saying and continue to say as he travel the nation blaming the poor. It sound all good on the surface but when we delve into it, we see the ignorance from which it comes.

 

Originally Posted by DennisKalita:

 

 

The Greeks say that heroes have tragic flaws. Bill Cosby  made real contributions. He accomplished great things aside from his impatient sermonizing. That one little weird tragic flaw got him!  It could be anything. You could be a saint 24/365  except on Halloween when you dress up as Freddie Kruger and rape a child in the neighborhood. That is a no-no. Right, Bill?  So is drugging and raping women while they are asleep. He had a tragic flaw. It’s hard to integrate your whole personality and if you’re a serial-killer or a somniphiliac rapist, that presents an extra hyper-extreme problem.  Bill knows.

Wow, what a difference 10 years make. As I look over my words in this thread and the other thread about Cosby and his moralizing, I can’t help but wonder what the Cosby defenders of 10yrs ago have to say about the revelations that are being made known today. I don’t revel in the fall of any Black man or woman but Bill Cosby has been a fraud for so long and as I noted earlier he and his defenders thought his philanthropy would be a shield from the realities of whom he is and was.

 

Dennis, are you really calling the drugging and rapping of women a tragic flaw? You think by adding the word tragic to describe his raping of women as a flaw is acceptable. Bill Cosby is a scoundrel of the worst kind. A moralizing rapist whom used his celebrity to rape women and in the latest information to be released said in court documents he would know whom he could drug and what amounts to rape based on their demeanor. He is akin to a child molester whom know how to choose the children they can molest and get away with molesting. The real tragedy is that he alienated so many Black folks long before these rape allegations came to light that there is no one left to defend or support him except those whom would liken his raping of women to a Flaw, sorry a tragic flaw. I said it ten years ago and I will say it now Fuck Bill Cosby but I do appreciate all that he has done via his philanthropy.

 

N NorlandA1

How would Bill Cosby like for his daughters to hook up with a "Bill Cosby?" It doesn't make a damn bit of difference what he donated or where or how much. He has a sexual psychological problem that involved lots of womens' daughters. There's something wrong with him and probably always has been. He camouflaged it very well. Serial killers do the same thing.  Bill Cosby's going to mess around and find his dried up old ass in a maximum security prison, 3 dudes to a cell, if these people find something in that 2005 1,000 page whateveritis. He didn't want his wife to know, she knows now. He spent secret money on tuition secretly, she knows that too now. These women are singing like birds. Cosby could end up finding his 78 year old ass somewhere he never thought he'd be. He's heading on his way to becoming  either Tiger'd or O. J.'d. All that drugged love for the Caucasoid Tail's gonna turn around and devour him like a Black Widow spider. He's done!!!!!!

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