10 :: Ain’t No Pudding Pops
In May 2004, Bill Cosby gave a famous talk at the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the Brown vs Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court Decision. It has since become known as the Pound Cake speech.
His words were scathing in their criticism of black culture. And they ignited quite a bit of controversy … just check out this excerpt to see why.
They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain’t, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be … and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. 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. In fact, you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.
People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we’ve got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower-economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won’t spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.
I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn’t know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father?
People putting their clothes on backward … isn’t that a sign of something gone wrong? People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn’t that a sign of something? Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn’t it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?
What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don’t know a thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.
Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person’s problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different ‘husbands’ — or men or whatever you call them now. have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can’t write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.
We cannot blame the white people any longer.
Now that’s real.
To learn more about the speech (and some of Cosby’s other recent social activism), check out this fascinating article. It’s long, but definitely worth the read.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:57 pm EST
Obviously, I am coming from a white middle-class perspective, but I tend to agree with a lot of Cosby’s comments — and not just concerning the black community. I work with a lot of high school students, both white and black, who are more concerned about what they’re wearing, what music they’re listening to, and hanging out by the stairs before school instead of caring anything about their education…These have always been the concerns of teenagers, but this year especially, our whole staff has really been struggling with a huge increase of apathetic, lazy behavior of students…. For years and years of history, people fought and even risked their lives to learn how to read; they marched and protested to earn the right to an education, and now that it’s totally free, there are so few kids who are willing to take the opportunity.
I think parents are the essential component. Last week I made 43 phone calls home to parents of students who have already failed my English class for the year or are on the borderline. A couple of parents answered, but I left mostly messages. Not a single parent called me back! No wonder my students have been so apathetic. No wonder that I have 43 kids with F’s! I’m not saying that my students are not responsible for their own grades - They are the ones who make the choices not to do their work. But when I don’t hear from a single concerned parent about their child’s grades…That’s making a statement.
I think Bill Cosby is trying to say that instead of blaming the system or waiting for the system to change, individual parents should be responsible and teach responsibility to their children.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:47 am EST
Wow … 43? That’s absolutely insane, Annie. It must be exhausting to care so much when they don’t.