Mr. Bill Cosby and Mr. Juan Williams are Right
On May 17, 2004, Mr. Bill Cosby was the featured speaker at the NAACP’s gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1954 U.S Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. In his speech, Mr. Cosby called-out the African-American community for failing to parent African-American children (among other things).
In 2006, Mr. Juan Williams, a senior correspondent for NPR and political analyst for Fox News, wrote a book entitled, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America – and What We Can Do About It. In his book, Mr. Williams essentially endorses many of Mr. Cosby’s comments from his 2004 speech.
An excerpt from page 109: (Williams commenting on Cosby’s speech) Then he burst out of his parody and said it straight: Why don’t black leaders, black parents, black church people and schoolteachers, tell these black children to stop selling crack cocaine? Why don’t more black leaders point out that crack devastates black people, hurts black families, and spreads crime in black neighborhoods? (End of excerpt.)
On February 21 and February 28, 2007, Mr. Derrick Z. Jackson, an African-American columnist for the Boston Globe, wrote TWO different pieces whining about the differences in sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine crimes and crack cocaine crimes. Not one word beseeching blacks not to do drugs.
In a part from past ZACKlyRight practice of copying and pasting, I provide the links to Mr. Jackson’s perfect fulfillment of the Cosby/Williams indictment.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/
oped/articles/2007/02/21/when_justice_doesnt_add_up/
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/
oped/articles/2007/02/28/the_politics_of_drug_sentencing/
On May 17, 2004, Mr. Bill Cosby was the featured speaker at the NAACP’s gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1954 U.S Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. In his speech, Mr. Cosby called-out the African-American community for failing to parent African-American children (among other things).
In 2006, Mr. Juan Williams, a senior correspondent for NPR and political analyst for Fox News, wrote a book entitled, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America – and What We Can Do About It. In his book, Mr. Williams essentially endorses many of Mr. Cosby’s comments from his 2004 speech.
An excerpt from page 109: (Williams commenting on Cosby’s speech) Then he burst out of his parody and said it straight: Why don’t black leaders, black parents, black church people and schoolteachers, tell these black children to stop selling crack cocaine? Why don’t more black leaders point out that crack devastates black people, hurts black families, and spreads crime in black neighborhoods? (End of excerpt.)
On February 21 and February 28, 2007, Mr. Derrick Z. Jackson, an African-American columnist for the Boston Globe, wrote TWO different pieces whining about the differences in sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine crimes and crack cocaine crimes. Not one word beseeching blacks not to do drugs.
In a part from past ZACKlyRight practice of copying and pasting, I provide the links to Mr. Jackson’s perfect fulfillment of the Cosby/Williams indictment.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/
oped/articles/2007/02/21/when_justice_doesnt_add_up/
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/
oped/articles/2007/02/28/the_politics_of_drug_sentencing/
posted by Zack at 7:56 PM
7 Comments:
I've never heard of Juan Williams, but as for Bill Cosby, I have heard him called a "traitor to his race" by his own people. He is tuned out by many before he even starts to speak. Despite his sexual predator tendencies, Cosby does seem to offer up some words of wisdom for his race. Unfortunately, he is perceived as so out-of touch with the masses, and "too white", for his words to have any effect on those they are intended for.
Anonymous,
You are exactly right about how Cosby is thought of by today's "militant black" population.
"Too white" in some quarters of the black population means "educated". How crazy is that?
The greatest leaders in the black community of all-time, were supremely educated. Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr. All of them educated. All of them promoted getting an education.
For smiles, open just one of Mr. Derrick Z. Jackson's columns and tell me if he didn't learn excellent English. Is he successful? Is he "too white"? No, he won;t be referred to that way because he's too concerned with blaming others for the condition of some African-Americans and apparently not concerned at all about calling for any African-Americans to take responsibility for their own lives.
It's been 53 years since Brown.
Not that I'd put him in any "great leader" category yet, but I wonder, is Barack Obama black enough or not? I definitely think the perception among blacks is that he is just a little more "white" than they'd like him to be.
Just what kind of people do they want their children to look up to anyway? Al Sharpton?
Junkie,
Obama's story is a great one; if only we could celebrate it without making such a big thing about half his skin color. His mother is as white as his father is black. Someone still needs to explain it to me how half black / half white makes you black. Is the black gene greater than the white gene? Is the white gene greater than the black gene? Of course, only racists would think one way or the other.
Obama is a Democrat who bows at the altar of today's militant blacks. When I use the phrase "today's militant blacks" I mean today's shakedown artists (Jackson) and race-baiters (Bond). He's def. not vulnerable to "too white" because he doesn't make himself a target of those blacks that use white guilt and black shame for their power.
Dr. Condoleezza Rice is brilliant. Fluent in Russian. She's from rural Alabama! How many 50ish black woman from rural Alabama are fluent in Russian? Shame-filled blacks would think Dr. Rice is "too white". How crazy is that? Being brilliant makes you "too white"?!
Next time anyone is in a book store, pick up an Obama book and see if he uses proper English or not. I'm sure Dr. Rice has published nothing in 45 years that did not use proper English.
President Bush has it exactly right when he uses the phrase "the soft bigotry of low expectations". Why can't we expect the same of an 8 year-old black kid as we do an 8 year-old white kid? Who can possibly defend low expectations of an entire race?
The Brown decision was 53 years ago.
While I agree with much of your sentiment, I feel the need to respond to your question/comment:
"Someone still needs to explain it to me how half black / half white makes you black. Is the black gene greater than the white gene? Is the white gene greater than the black gene? Of course, only racists would think one way or the other."
Unfortunately, it undoubtedly is the result of past racist whites who treated anyone with virtually any black ancestors as being black, and thus subject to discriminatory Jim Crow laws, etc. In fact, I think there were actual statutes that defined people as being black and subject to such laws based on very specific analysis of their ancestry. So, I think it is a sad historical artifact of a sad chapter in our country's history.
I also want to point out that for those interested, Taylor Branch's three volume biography of Dr. King/history of the civil rights movement is fantastic and gives great insight into what blacks went through during that time. I think that Dr. King would agree with much of your sentiment and disagree with much of the Jackson/Sharpton rhetoric, but reading Branch's books has given me a new perspective in evaluating these types of issues.
Conscience,
First, before I respond to you, I need to let newsjunkie know that going forward I will always refer to her/him as newsjunkie and not my until-now-unnoticed-suggestive truncation (I thought I was being cute and personable). Conscience, you will always be Conscience.
Now, Conscience, I do not challenge your historical explanation of why fractional blacks are considered black and I accept it completely. That now makes two people in the entire world that now know that explanation for why Obama is considered black. The rest of the entire breathing world (except for newsjunkie, ROC, and Hardball) thinks he's black because a guilty, liberal, white media establishment needs a bona fide black hero and, by golly, they made one! Oh, I forgot (multi-racial) Tiger Woods. (Color-blind ZACKlyRight thinks Tiger is great because he worked hard and practices harder - and he's an American, but I accept others have different standards.)
In descending order, I'm prepared to go on record and say treason, murder of a child (born and unborn), murder of an adult, enslavement of a human being, rape of a child and rape of an adult make a "top 5" list of the most horrific crimes. All of these crimes go to depriving an American human being of the greatest gift. I'd be curious to know what others think. But, from me, what do "militant blacks" want? What do they want from me? More handouts? More quotas? More validation of victimization? How does that advance the objective?
(Now entering rambling mode) I think an African-American that gets a job or a promotion should be able to confidently share that news at the family dinner table knowing she/he got the job or promotion because of merit. How have we evolved that an entire American race can doubt (and every other race can question!) the reason for their success? The African-American mother that is denied the emotion of knowing she got the promotion because the Company chose her: "They chose me!" Not! As compared to, "They chose me . . . because I'm black." Guilty whites and shame-filled blacks are robbing so many blacks of the joy of success and accomplishment. US Supreme Court Justice O'Connor is now responsible for extending this atrocity another 25 years.
Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka was decided in 1954.
Although no offense was taken, newsjunkie appreciates the consideration of non-truncation.
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