Yo, cracka

Well, Bill Cosby has finally said what a lot of folks have been thinking for years now. From CNN:

Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some poor blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the civil rights movement gave them.

He shot back Thursday, saying his detractors were trying in vain to hide the black community's "dirty laundry."

[. . .]

"I can't even talk the way these people talk, 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is' ... and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk," Cosby said then. "And then I heard the father talk ... Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."

[. . .]

"When you put on a record and that record is yelling 'n----- this and n----- that' and you've got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that," he said.

Okay, before I get all the bullshit saying I'm a racist for making a deal about this, let me just tell you that my dad looked more like Bill Cosby than like me. Yes, I'm of mixed race, but I'm taken for a lily white boy. Well, that's until I spend any time in the sun. I know what it's like to grow up mixed-race in the 1960s and I'm glad those days will never return. However, American Blacks have come to find race as a handy excuse for underachievement. It's about time a real leader of the black community (not Jesse or Reverend Al) finally spoke up.

It's about time the black youth (and I hate speaking in generalizations) of America got another set of role models. Gangsta rappers are not people to look up to as Bill so eloquently points out. Dr. King is probably spinning in his grave and I can imagine what he thinks of the casual use of 'nigga'. If black youth will not respect themselves and their race, they will not receive any respect from other races. If black youth see the lack of education as a good thing, then they will always be 'stupid niggas' to racist whites.

Yes, racism is very prevalent in certain areas of this country, I won't deny that, but the lack of education, the adaptation of degrading slang, and the desire to be like these hoodlum assholes on MTV only gives the crackas more ammunition, playing into the long established stereotypes. Yes, Affirmative Action leveled the playing field, but now it's time for young blacks to be the best they can be, using the tools they've been given. There can be no excuse given to those who would seek to return to the days before Brown vs. Board and other significant rulings. If the sterotypes that 'blacks are stupid' or 'blacks are lazy' become mainstream once again, all the gains over the last 40 years will have been lost.