Bill Cosby: Parenting is the Answer
A report issued by the liberal advocacy group for children said that a black boy born in 2001 has a one-in-three chance of going to prison in his lifetime, compared to a one-in-six chance for a Latino boy and a one-in-17 chance for a white boy.
Cosby said the answer is “old-time parenting.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t have time” to spend with your children, he said. “You’re going to have time later in front of a judge.”
Cosby said reporters “misrepresented what I said” in his 2004 address to the NAACP on the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision that struck down racial segregation in public schools. Some critics accused him of blaming poor African Americans for their own plight.
Cosby noted this correction:
“I was talking to my people. I wasn’t talking to white people. I was talking to black people,” he said. He recalled his anecdote about parents buying their children $500 basketball shoes instead enrolling them in “Hooked on Phonics.”
“If you buy $500 sneakers because you want to buy your child’s love, you’re in trouble,” he said.
While this may be a concept that’s seen in black communities, I believe it’s becoming more an epidemic across all races.
When you’re in a community that’s predominately white, you’ll see white parents buying their children rather than parenting them.
If you’re in a community that’s predominately black and the crimes are committed by blacks, it’s not racial profiling, it’s law of probability.
You wouldn’t buy snow skis if you lived in Hawaii would you?
I think Bill Cosby has a lot of great points. I love that man, always have. I only wish more people would look to Bill Cosby as a role model instead of the gangsta rappers we have today.
I wish more white kids would look to someone making a humanitarian difference in the world rather than the likes of Kid Rock or Tommy Lee.
As long as we parents allow our kids to buy what they want as a means of keeping them happy, we’ll not see much change regardless of race.
Tags: bill cosby, kid rock, kanye west, tommy lee
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Parenting
1 opinion for Bill Cosby: Parenting is the Answer
Jennifer
Sep 26, 2007 at 7:05 pm
I agree.. it’s not race specific to spend time or not spend time with your child. I see it across the board. It’s a shame. Everyone works double jobs and kids do before school groups, school, and then after school clubs, and some even do weekend tutoring or clubs. I think families need to step up and think about if they need three cars and the bigger house or if they want the time with their kids. Stuff won’t produce happy families.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: