Can't Blame White People

 

I recall the controversy a few years ago regarding what Bill Cosby said about the failure of black parents and communities, but had never actually heard or read exactly what he said.  Below is the full text, which ended this way:

We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.
We cannot blame the white people any longer.
It is not for media or anyone of this time anymore to say whether I'm right or wrong.
It is time, ladies and gentlemen, to look at the numbers.
Fifty percent of our children are dropping out of high school.
Sixty percent of the incarcerated males happen to be illiterate.
There's a correlation.
Tell the media to stop asking me what I think about people who don't
believe what I'm saying or feel that I'm too harsh or feel that I'm just
running my mouth because I'm old.
Seventy percent of the teenagers pregnant happen to be African
American girls.
Don't ask me to soften my message.

My thoughts:

a) The dysfunctional behavior he refers to is not unique to the black community; it's present in many communities where there has been long-standing discrimination and where there's multi-generational poverty and dependence.  See whites in Appalachia, for example.

 

b) Cosby is right that culture, however hard it is to define, is a critically important driver of outcomes for individuals and communities.  This is why every successful school I'm aware of that serves inner-city children has a huge focus on culture, seeking to inculcate traditional values of hard work, treating others with kindness and respect, eschewing all forms of violence (both verbal and physical), sacrificing for the future, etc.

 

c) He is wrong to talk about educational failures without highlighting the utter failure of so many of our public schools that are supposed to be educating these children.  I wonder if he's ever seen the attached data on teacher quality and how unfairly it's distributed?

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[Discussion of this is at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/cosby.asp]

Can't Blame White People
by 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?
Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up?
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.
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 saying...
you are hurting us.
We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.
We cannot blame the white people any longer.
It is not for media or anyone of this time anymore to say whether I'm right or wrong.
It is time, ladies and gentlemen, to look at the numbers.
Fifty percent of our children are dropping out of high school.
Sixty percent of the incarcerated males happen to be illiterate.
There's a correlation.
Tell the media to stop asking me what I think about people who don't
believe what I'm saying or feel that I'm too harsh or feel that I'm just
running my mouth because I'm old.
Seventy percent of the teenagers pregnant happen to be African
American girls.
Don't ask me to soften my message.

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