Posted by
TD on Thursday, August 24, 2006 2:23:20 PM
What's going on in America?
Bill Cosby spoke a couple of days ago at several elementary schools in Baltimore
, the events were sponsored by Coppin State University and titled "Fatherhood Works". Mr. Cosby touched on the subjects of education and being a father. How todays black culture is glorifying the gangsta/hiphop lifestyle and helping to ruin black families even more.
Quotes from his speeches below:
"Those of you that study, you can
recruit. If they can recruit people and get them not to
study, you can recruit people to try and study."
"This is a great evening because we're calling on men to come claim
their children. And that's part of being a man. You
cannot be a man at all if you haven't claimed your child. Some of you have three, four, five of them."
Today, I was looking for something to listen to on Sirius Satellite radio, I was passing thru the rap channels and overheard a dj commenting on Mr. Cosby. The dj was basically saying that Bill Cosby should shut up. That he was a hypocrite, because "Keenan" (not sure who Keenan is) had said that Bill was an a**hole and that he went to strip clubs. Umm, ok... well, drop out of school and just keep fathering children and not being a "father" to them. Because Bill is a hypocrite, all you young black men have a pass.
It's strange how people will say that if someone is a hypocrite, then it's ok to do whatever the thing is that the "hypocrite" is complaining about. Maybe Bill has done these things, a lot of men have. And maybe, just maybe, Bill learned from them and wants to pass along to a younger generation that it's a bad idea to be an uneducated spawning machine. That the way to live, is to take responsibility and be a father to your children.
Would it hurt the black community to have a few more fathers trying to help raise their children and a few less "hustlas" out there making things tougher for their communities? I suppose it would hurt those blacks, such as the dj I heard. He'd be out of job, and have to get another that might actually help his community and not restrict it's progress.
A quote from Spike Lee(he seems to get it):
"We have to get back to stressing education because this gangster rap
stuff is taking us down the wrong area. We have young black children growing up thinking that if
you get straight A's, act intelligent and try to get good grades,
that somehow they're acting white or that they're a sellout. But if you're on the corner drinking a 40, smoking a blunt
and holding your nuts, then you're black. Something is wrong."
I also read that Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, will be supporting Michael Steele's run for the U.S. Senate.
Maybe, just maybe, things are starting to turn around.