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7A NEWS/tiClie CtarlDtte Thursday, May 27, 2004 ComedlaiiMor stands behind Gommenis GriUcizing parents News you can use all week long Cliarlotte Cosby By George E. Cuny NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON Comedian Bill Cosby has declined to retract remarks that were highly critical of “the lower economic” A f r i c a n - Americans that he claims are willing to pay $500 for sneakers but not half that amount for educational tools. At cere monies here last week com memorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision outlawing “separate but equal” schools, Cosby’s remarks caught many in the audience by sur prise. With NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund President Tfed Shaw and many other black dignitaries looking on, Cosby complained that “the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.” He said, “These people are not parenting. They are buy ing things for their kids — $500 sneakers for what? And won’t spend $200 for ‘Hooked on Phonics.’., .They’re standing on the comer and they can’t speak English. 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. And then I heard the father talk. ..Everybody knows it’s important to speak Enghsh except these knuckleheads...You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.” Cosby cited a 50 percent dropout rate for blacks. However, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the dropout rate for African- Americans was 13,1 percent in 2000, the last year for which statistics are avail able. Coshy’s comments about education were made in the larger context of African- Americans having to stmg- gle to desegregate schools 50 years ago and seeing many youth today who will not take advantage of those sac rifices. He pleaded with those present to take back the Black community. 'The comedian declined to acknowledge the existence of political prisoners. “These are not political criminals,” he said. “These are people going around stealing Coca Cola. People getting shot in the hack of the head over a piece of pound cake, and then we run out and we are outraged, saying “The cops shouldn’t have shot him,’ What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?” Cosby claims that some of his comments were taken out of context. Excerpts of the remarks can be heard on the Washington Post’s Website, www.washington- post.com, and it appears that Cosby was quoted accurate ly- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel colmnnist Eugene Kane wrote a column noting that like Cosby, he was bom in North Philadelphia and attended Temple University. “Given his record as a phil anthropist who had donated millions to black colleges and black causes in general, Cosby has certainly earned the light to speak his mind.” He continued, “Still, there’s a sense of imeasiness whenev er somebody like Cosby uses the same language some whites use to justify their racism. ...Particularly, the idea that poor blacks and their children weigh down' the rest of society, or that every black person behind bars deserves to be incarcer ated. Sure, some blacks may fit that description, not all. Some white people, too.” Kane wrote, “He’s not a poor black mother raising children in the inner city, so he has no idea how difficult that is in 2004 America, And if the TV star really wants to pass moral judgments on poor black women, ahem, Mr. Cosby, there is a little matter of you having an out- of-wedlock child yourself." After reading the column, Cosby telephoned Kane. The columnist said that in an hour-long discussion, Cosby explained that he did not intend to smear all poor blacks. “I didn’t say all black peo ple from the lower classes were to blame,” Kane said Cosby told him, “But I said that when you have a 50 per cent graduation rate, and some people can’t put two sentences together, and can’t write or spell...you’ve got people who have put them selves on a track to failure.” As for Autumn Jackson, who claims to be Cosby’s out- of-wedlock daughter, the comedian told Kane that she has repeatedly refused his offer to take a paternity test. In the interview with Kane, Cosby deplored the glorification of a pimp men- tahty, placing more empha- Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka arrested in Nigerian protest Soyinka By Herbert L. White NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION Pohce fired tear gas to disperse an anti-gov- emment demonstration in Lagos recently and briefly arrested dozens of protesters, includ ing Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. The protest was organized by a coahtion of opposition groups, human rights groups and civic groups under the name of Citizens Forum. It kicked off at Campos Square on Lagos Island. Among the 500 or more pro testers were banners and placards demanding the resig nation of President Olusegun Obasanjo and denouncing last year’s elections that gave him a second term in office as fi'audulent. The demonstration took place against a background of rising rehgious tension in Nigeria, following the massacre of more than 600 Muslims in the small town of Yelwa in Plateau State on May 2 and reprisal killings a week later of at least 36 Christians in Kano, the largest town in predominantly Mushm northern Nigeria. Heavily armed riot police blocked the route of the protesters in Lagos and shot tear gas canisters into their midst, forcing them to scatter. The marchers included human rights lawyer Gani Fawehinmi and doctor Beko Ransome-Kuti, a leading human* rights activist, as well as Soyinka, who was the first Afiiean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. They defied the tear gas and the afternoon drizzle and re-grouped to continue the march We have a totally different view of the world Cliarlotte $osit sis on athletics than acade mics and celebrating rap videos on BET, founded by Charlotte Bobcats owner Robert Johnson. It is now owned by "Viacom, which also owns MTV and CBS. “I am talking about parent ing. It is time for us to turn the mirror around. We have to take back the neighbor hood.” And he reiterated his com ment about the misuse of the English language. ‘^We can’t excuse these peo ple,” Cosby said. “There are generations who have been bom here and their English is worse than Koreans who have just been here a few years.” WIDE Never Looked So Good! Vf A It li II OUSE 704-847-1699 9129 Monroe Rd., Charlolie, NC Store Hours: Mon-Thur 10-6 • Fr110-7 • Sal 10-6 • Sun 12-6 but were then arrested by pohce. All those detained were later freed without charge. “TVe were protesting the increasing dictator ship in this country, which is bordering on fas cism,” Soyinka told IRIN after his release. ‘’We wfll continue to protest the manipulation of elections, the blatant abuse of the electoral protest which has put people in power,” he added. Soyinka accused the police of ‘’very deliber ately” using tear gas on peaceful protesters. Opposition and civil society groups in Nigeria accuse Obasanjo’s government not only of rigging general elections last year and local elections in March, but also of imple menting policies that have left an ever increasing number of Nigerians impover ished, heightening ethnic and religious vio lence. 'They are demanding Obasanjo’s resignation and the replacement of his administration by a government of national unity which would organize a ‘’sovereign national conference” to work out a new constitution for the coimtry of 126 million people. Police said the protest march was not allowed because the organizers failed to obtain a pohce permit as required by the Pubhc Order Act. The organizers coimtered that the constitutional guarantee of freedom of assembly overides the act, making a pohce permit unnecessary, A critic of successive mihtaiy regimes in Nigeria, Soyinka won the 1986 Nobel prize for literature. The playwright, poet and novelist was detained for two years during the 1967- 70 Nigerian civil war for his criticism of the government and was forced into exile between 1994 and 1998 for his criticism of late military ruler Gen. Sard Abacha. PrimeCare Medical Center Hani« M. Kwaku, Mil, MPH "Our Emphasis Is On Quality Healthcare" Anthony Snarini), MR, .ID A}k yj sboa^ sur uw stoU-of-tlM-tri Fadllry Internal Medicine comprBhBnsiwe oiabBtic llriinnl Corn Hpnrin Phy^innU Prn I mplnyitinnl Hnnilh ^r:rnntiinq X RAY SnrvinnK Maniif|BmBnl (Available onsite Ibrriiitjh mir Riabetaa Rntsoiirce Canter) *'Rar:anlly rncotinirad by the praiilit}imi« Amarir.an Riabafat; Patrick F. Evivn Kim Nnniy, PA R Rpari Mon., ton., Wad., Fri. 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May 27, 2004, edition 1
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