Bill Cosby is a distance runner. He continues his high-profile campaign for black self-empowerment. Most recently in comments this week to the National Caucus of Black Legislators, in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Bill Cosby - TV star, comedian, educator and native Philadelphian was back on home turf bringing his "tough-love" talk to the the National Caucus of Black Legislators.He told them to get their act together and start fixing some of the problems afflicting black communities around the country.
"There are too many young men killing each other over irresponsibility," Cosby said at the opening session of the group's convention at the Wyndham Philadelphia at Franklin Plaza yesterday.
"You men, you African-American males, you've got to reach down and grab these boys - and some of these boys are 50 years old - standing on the corner. You need to go out on the streets and face these boys....
....Cosby also said he was tired of people complaining about a justice system that gives "more time to the black man selling crack than to the white man selling cocaine."
"Tell the boy not to sell drugs! That ought to take care of it right then and there."
.....In introducing Cosby, State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams commended the actor, who has been criticized this year for being too harsh on poor, urban communities, "for saying what a lot of others have been thinking."
Syndicated columnist Clarence Page thinks Cosby would be a great choice to head the NAACP, now that Kwesi Mfume has stepped down as the organization's President and CEO. Page writes:
....opportunities abound for those who are able and willing to take advantage of them. The struggle for equality involves more than civil rights. It also involves preparing our young people to take advantage of opportunities that the civil rights movement has opened up for them.America's leading civil rights groups have been searching for new agendas since the 1960s. Meanwhile, the gap has grown larger between formerly poor blacks like me who have benefited from civil rights advances and those who have been left behind in poverty and despair.
It is this gaping contradiction that inflamed Cosby at a 50th anniversary observance of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision earlier this year in Washington. Infuriated by continuing black-on-black violence related to poverty, he unfurled a monologue on self-reliance, personal responsibility and other moral values that need to be pounded into the heads of black youths and families.
Now, with Mfume's departure, says Page, the NAACP must "launch a new search for a new leader. I suggest Bill Cosby. He might not jump at the opportunity but he seems to have his priorities straight."
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at December 3, 2004 10:32 AM
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