Monica
07-26-2004, 05:18 PM
...Contain Meaning. (http://www.thetriangle.org/news/2004/07/23/EdOp/Bill-Cosbys.Controversial.Words.Contain.Meaning-695358.shtml?page=2)
Bill Cosby's harsh words on the condition of many of today's black youth have evoked many responses. I thought that I should get my two cents' worth on it as well. I wholeheartedly applaud Bill Cosby for saying what he did, and I completely agree with his views. I have felt for a long time the exact things that he expressed in words in front of a group of black leaders a few weeks back.
My roommate once remarked to me that "this rap culture is going to lead to the destruction of the black community." I think he was right on the mark in saying that. While some rap music may actually be music and something constructive, in my opinion, the vast majority of it, especially the "gangsta rap," plays no constructive role whatsoever in society. I've had the misfortune of hearing these "songs" in many places in Philadelphia, whether it be on the street, subway, or in retail stores. I've also had the misfortune of seeing their videos.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but almost all the rap or hip-hop videos on the market today have something in common. They tend to portray women as sexual objects and nothing more. They also usually have a few lines here and there about breaking the law and quite a few tend to be quite liberal with their usage of the n-word. There's other stuff too, but I can't understand most of it because it doesn't seem to be any sort of comprehensible English.
I've always wondered about this. The n-word was, and still is, a very hateful word. It was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. That word stripped black people of their humanity, and made them second class citizens.
But today's black youth seem to have absolutely no problem going around calling each other that word with such frequency that it would make a Ku Klux Klan member proud. Usage of that word in popular rap music today, and the mimicking of that by black youth is an insult to the civil rights movement, and it takes all the optimism that was once present for the community and flushes it down the toilet.
Bill Cosby was no doubt pained to see what's happening today. Rather than have a role model like him or the character he played on TV, a well-to-do physician, far more black youth today seem to emulate the thugs who pose as music artists. What would have pained him more than this is the apathy shown by black elders and the community as a whole. It doesn't take years of research into society to figure out that something's not right with the state of urban black youth today.
Next time you leave Drexel a little after lunchtime, walk a couple of streets to the west and observe the kids walking out of West Philadelphia High School at 36th and Market Streets. To describe what you would see on an ordinary day, I'm going to quote Bill Cosby:
"Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 p.m. every day. It's cursing and calling each other nigger ... they think they're hip. They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."
He said this in response to those who suggested that perhaps he shouldn't air blacks' societal problems in public. His response couldn't have been better. If you want to fix this problem, and we have a huge problem here, you can't keep it under wraps. It has to be brought out into the open, and dealt with through a combined effort by society as a whole.
Once again, I'm going to ask you. Those kids you see walking out of West Philadelphia High School, how many of them are going to be part of freshman orientation at Drexel University next year? How many of them are going to be part of freshman orientation at any university?
Forget reading or writing most of these people seem to lack even the ability to speak in a dignified manner. My friends and I often joke about the ridiculousness of the slang that has words like foshizzle, izzle, nizzle, etc. However the saddest part of the situation is that there are people that actually speak like this in their day to day lives. Last time I checked, these words weren't in the Oxford dictionary. As Bill Cosby remarked, "You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."
Good for Bill Cosby! The first step to solving any problem is in recognizing that there is a problem. And there definitely is a problem. The average SAT score for blacks is a full 200 points lower than that of whites. According to the Economist, black high-school students graduate an average of four years behind white students in terms of basic academic skills. In today's service oriented economy and intellectual atmosphere, most jobs that can be done only with a high school diploma are either being mechanized or being outsourced.
There is no doubt that I will probably come under quite a bit of fire for writing this commentary. I might even be accused of racism. I say these things not because I look down upon today's black youth, but because I know that those kids walking out of West Philadelphia High School can be far better than what they are right now. In them are potential doctors, astronauts, scientists, engineers and lawmakers. If today's black youth aren't educated, it's going to make it even tougher for the next generation to be educated, and all the struggles of the civil rights movement would have come to naught.
I agree. I love Bill Cosby's work in the Cosby Show and now in Fatherhood. He is one of the last decent role models left that I can recall, for everyone, not just black people. The Civil Rights movement was fought for the Black Youth to have a chance at education that they deserve, and they're literally throwing it into the gutter. White people no longer try and stop them from having a great life, now they just stop each other...
Thoughts?
Bill Cosby's harsh words on the condition of many of today's black youth have evoked many responses. I thought that I should get my two cents' worth on it as well. I wholeheartedly applaud Bill Cosby for saying what he did, and I completely agree with his views. I have felt for a long time the exact things that he expressed in words in front of a group of black leaders a few weeks back.
My roommate once remarked to me that "this rap culture is going to lead to the destruction of the black community." I think he was right on the mark in saying that. While some rap music may actually be music and something constructive, in my opinion, the vast majority of it, especially the "gangsta rap," plays no constructive role whatsoever in society. I've had the misfortune of hearing these "songs" in many places in Philadelphia, whether it be on the street, subway, or in retail stores. I've also had the misfortune of seeing their videos.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but almost all the rap or hip-hop videos on the market today have something in common. They tend to portray women as sexual objects and nothing more. They also usually have a few lines here and there about breaking the law and quite a few tend to be quite liberal with their usage of the n-word. There's other stuff too, but I can't understand most of it because it doesn't seem to be any sort of comprehensible English.
I've always wondered about this. The n-word was, and still is, a very hateful word. It was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. That word stripped black people of their humanity, and made them second class citizens.
But today's black youth seem to have absolutely no problem going around calling each other that word with such frequency that it would make a Ku Klux Klan member proud. Usage of that word in popular rap music today, and the mimicking of that by black youth is an insult to the civil rights movement, and it takes all the optimism that was once present for the community and flushes it down the toilet.
Bill Cosby was no doubt pained to see what's happening today. Rather than have a role model like him or the character he played on TV, a well-to-do physician, far more black youth today seem to emulate the thugs who pose as music artists. What would have pained him more than this is the apathy shown by black elders and the community as a whole. It doesn't take years of research into society to figure out that something's not right with the state of urban black youth today.
Next time you leave Drexel a little after lunchtime, walk a couple of streets to the west and observe the kids walking out of West Philadelphia High School at 36th and Market Streets. To describe what you would see on an ordinary day, I'm going to quote Bill Cosby:
"Your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 p.m. every day. It's cursing and calling each other nigger ... they think they're hip. They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."
He said this in response to those who suggested that perhaps he shouldn't air blacks' societal problems in public. His response couldn't have been better. If you want to fix this problem, and we have a huge problem here, you can't keep it under wraps. It has to be brought out into the open, and dealt with through a combined effort by society as a whole.
Once again, I'm going to ask you. Those kids you see walking out of West Philadelphia High School, how many of them are going to be part of freshman orientation at Drexel University next year? How many of them are going to be part of freshman orientation at any university?
Forget reading or writing most of these people seem to lack even the ability to speak in a dignified manner. My friends and I often joke about the ridiculousness of the slang that has words like foshizzle, izzle, nizzle, etc. However the saddest part of the situation is that there are people that actually speak like this in their day to day lives. Last time I checked, these words weren't in the Oxford dictionary. As Bill Cosby remarked, "You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."
Good for Bill Cosby! The first step to solving any problem is in recognizing that there is a problem. And there definitely is a problem. The average SAT score for blacks is a full 200 points lower than that of whites. According to the Economist, black high-school students graduate an average of four years behind white students in terms of basic academic skills. In today's service oriented economy and intellectual atmosphere, most jobs that can be done only with a high school diploma are either being mechanized or being outsourced.
There is no doubt that I will probably come under quite a bit of fire for writing this commentary. I might even be accused of racism. I say these things not because I look down upon today's black youth, but because I know that those kids walking out of West Philadelphia High School can be far better than what they are right now. In them are potential doctors, astronauts, scientists, engineers and lawmakers. If today's black youth aren't educated, it's going to make it even tougher for the next generation to be educated, and all the struggles of the civil rights movement would have come to naught.
I agree. I love Bill Cosby's work in the Cosby Show and now in Fatherhood. He is one of the last decent role models left that I can recall, for everyone, not just black people. The Civil Rights movement was fought for the Black Youth to have a chance at education that they deserve, and they're literally throwing it into the gutter. White people no longer try and stop them from having a great life, now they just stop each other...
Thoughts?