Again, I must applaud Bill Cosby for his outstanding stance on insisting that African-Americans be held accountable for their own moral decay. He remains unapologetic when it comes to stepping up to the plate and magnifying core issues behind social corruption, racial and class breakdown in African-American communities.
This past weekend, Cosby participated in a march in New Orleans with Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson rallying for the rights for Blacks to return to hurricane-devestated New Orleans and disenfranchised Black voters.
Faithful to his agenda, Bill Cosby held the mirror up to the collective consciousness of African-Americans who use the Katrina disaster, and the governments response to the poor, as a platform to cry victimization, and examined the collective actions (or rather inaction) of the community BEFORE hurricane Katrina hit. He points out that the moral fiber of the community was already in crisis and does not pretend to imply that the rash of victimization following the diaster excuses the pre-existing crime rate in these impoverished areas.
He insists, "It's painful, but we can't cleanse ourselves unless we look at the wound," Cosby told the rally of around 2,000 people. "Ladies and gentlemen, you had the highest murder rate, unto each other. You were dealing drugs to each other. You were impregnating our 13, 12, 11 year-old children."
I couldn't have put it better myself. Bravo Mr. Cosby!
Although it may hurt some folks to hear, the fact still remains, that going to Sunday services alone and dragging your kids or grandkids, kicking and screaming, is not enough to remedy the chronic tendancy for poor Black folks to gravitate towards a life of crime and idolizing designer clothes and rap lyrics riddled with mysogenous, homophobic, racist (i.e., nigga this or nigga that--not ok when black folks say it either) because they're either surrounded by it or take an active part in it under the guise of being 'underpriveledged'. Hey, someone's gotta point it out. Otherwise, we'll keep treating the consequences and not the root of the problems.
You can download Bill Cosby's entire speech online at: http://wakeupcallradio.org/
Monday, April 3rd archive.
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