Self-emancipation, self-realisation

We are so racially sensitive that once “outsiders” or “others” criticise our race, tribal leaders immediately train their snipers at the messenger, in an effort to obfuscate the message.

It, therefore, falls upon someone from within the flock to rise to the occasion and say what needs to be said. This is the only route to self-realisation and self-emancipation.

Barack Obama and comedian Bill Cosby are the most recent examples of hard-talking, frontline black leaders.

I wish to remind readers of Cosby’s historic May, 2004, speech on the 50th anniversary of the landmark racial discrimination decision of the Supreme Court, in the case of Brown v Board of Education. Here goes:

Cosby’s comments:

“Ladies and gentlemen, these people set; they opened the doors; they gave us the right, and today, in our cities and public schools we have 50 per cent drop out.

In our own neighbourhood, we have men in prison. No longer is a person embarrassed because they’re pregnant without a husband. No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child.

The lower economic and lower middle economic people are not holding their end in this deal…I’m talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was two?

Where were you when he was 12?

Where were you when he was 18, and how come you don’t know he had a pistol?

And where is his father, and why don’t you know where he is? And why doesn’t the father show up to talk to this boy?

We cannot blame white people. White people don’t live over there. They close up the shop early. The Korean ones still don’t know us as well…They stay open 24 hours.

I’m telling you, and people in jail, and women having children by five, six different men. Under what excuse, I want somebody to love me, and as soon as you have it, you forget to parent. Grandmother, mother, and great-grandmother in the same room, raising children, and the child knows nothing about love or respect of any one of the three of them.

All this child knows is ‘gimme, gimme, gimme.’ These people want to buy the friendship of a child….and the child couldn’t care less. Those of us sitting out here who have gone on to some college or whatever we’ve done, we still fear our parents.

And these people are not parenting. They’re buying things for the kid; $500 sneakers, for what? They won’t buy or spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics.

Are you not paying attention, people with their hat on backwards, 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’s got her dress all the way up to the crack…and got all kinds of needles and things 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 damned thing about Africa.

With names like Shaniqua, Shaligua, Mohammed and all that crap and all of them are in jail.

(When we give these kinds names to our children, we give them the strength and inspiration in the meaning of those names. What’s the point of giving them strong names if there are not parenting and values backing it up)?"

Start parenting

“I can’t even talk the way these people talk. ‘Why you ain’t where you is go, ra,’ I don’t know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house.

You used to talk a certain way on the corner, and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads.

You can’t land a plane with ‘why you ain’t… ’You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they’re moving ahead on this?

I just want to get you as angry that you ought to be. When you walk around the neighbourhood and you see this stuff, that stuff’s not funny.

These people are not funny any more. And that’s not my brother. And that’s not my sister. They’re faking and they’re dragging me way down because the State, the city and all these people have to pick up the tab on them because they don’t want to accept that they have to study to get an education.

When you go to the church, look at the stained glass things of Jesus. Look at them. Is Jesus smiling? Not in one picture.

So, tell your friends. Let’s try to do something. Let’s try to make Jesus smile.

Let’s start parenting.

Thank you.”

By Anand Ramlogan

Site Admin Note:

The full text of Bill Cosby's speech is available at: (click) American Rhetoric