Bill Cosby Slammed for Comments in New Orleans
by Jim Kouri
Apr 6, 2006
At a rally attended by Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on Saturday, comedian and actor Bill Cosby urged residents of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, Louisiana, to "cleanse" themselves from the city's history of crime, violence, drugs and teen pregnancies.
Cosby has come under fire by the civil-rights establishment for comments made across the U.S., in which he's told young blacks to turn away from influences in rap music, stop violence and underage sex, and focus more on education and morality.
Cosby told the crowd, "It's painful, but we can't cleanse ourselves unless we look at the wound. Ladies and gentlemen, you had the highest murder rate, unto each other. You were dealing drugs to each other. You were impregnating our 13-, 12-, 11-year-old children. What kind of a village is that?"
At the rally in N.O. -- a city devastated by Hurricane Katrina last August --- Cosby told 2,000 people in front of the Convention Center of his desire for the city's society to have an "extreme make-over."
As is usual, Cosby is being slammed by most civil-rights leaders and black pundits who claim his comments hurt "the cause." They've attacked his speeches as being insensitive and wrong.
"They don't like it when [Cosby] puts the blame on pathological behavior in the black community, rather than the shop-worn tactic of blaming "whitey" for the problems in black neighborhoods," claims Mike Baker, a political analyst.
"The crowd and the speakers expected the usual 'George Bush' bashing and racism allegations. Cosby gave them a mirror and they didn't like what they saw."
According to the latest crime statistics for the embattled city, violent crime is on the rise once again. Some can be attributed to illegal aliens coming to New Orleans for jobs or outsiders looking to exploit the still chaotic environment, but much of the crime is occurring within the black community.
While people such as Rev. Jesse Jackson have voiced concerns over Cosby's speeches, in the past Jackson himself has chastised African-Americans in poor neighborhoods for what came to be known as "black-on-black crime."
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance. |
