Blacks can't speak English - Bill Cosby

by closer2fine 129 Replies latest jw friends

closer2fine

sorry if this was already posted, I did a search & didn't see it.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38565
MINORITY REPORT
Bill Cosby: Blacks can't speak English
NAACP leaders stunned by remarks of prominent comedian
Posted: May 20, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
In the presence of NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and other African-American leaders, comedian Bill Cosby took aim at blacks who don't take responsibility for their economic status, blame police for incarcerations and teach their kids poor speaking habits.
Cosby made his remarks at a Constitution Hall event in Washington Monday night commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision that paved the way for integrated schools, reported Richard Leiby in his Reliable Source column for the Washington Post.
Leiby said Cosby's remarks were met with "astonishment, laughter and applause."
When Cosby finally concluded, Leiby said, Mfume, Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert and NAACP legal defense fund head Theodore Shaw came to the podium looking "stone-faced."
Shaw told the crowd most people on welfare are not African American. He insisted many of the problems his organization addresses among blacks are not self-inflicted.
Cosby said, according to Leiby: "Ladies and gentlemen, 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 won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.'
He added: "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' ... 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!"
The Post said Cosby also targeted imprisoned blacks.
"These are not political criminals," he said. "These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back 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?"
roybatty

Here in Chicago it's always saddened me that the biggest enemy of the poor and African-Americans is other African Americans who have power. Jesse Jackson and other black political leaders here rape the black community, use it for their own gain and blame "the man." It sickens me to read about the trillions of dollars that have been spent to help minorities but in reality little of it has actually helped any of these people. Even when newspapers run stories like Jesse getting caught with that young woman, getting her pregnant and then pays her hundreds of thousands of dollars (from "non-profit" companies he runs) to keep quit, nothing is done. There is no public outrage. Very sad.
Doubtfully Yours

He spoke it like it is. And, boy, am I glad one of their own recognized this.
DY
undercover

He'll be accused of being an Uncle Tom, wait and see.
Doubtfully Yours

I am a minority myself, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize the truth.
Up North, in the New England area, when a community of Hispanics moved in, you can go there a couple of years later and the place won't look the same; so horribly mistreated, dirty, broken, lots of gangs and kids hanging out doing nothing in the streets, lots of people living off public assistance and feeling entitled. Just outrageous!!!!!!!
And, yes, Blacks and Hispanics alike have commited atrocities against the English language and too bad this type of lingo has been accepted by celebrities and others!!!!
Many people bring about their own misfortune. So, yes, Bill Cosby is right this time and I hope he doesn't soften up and issue an apology.
DY
flower

I like Bill Cosby and he has a good point. I get quite annoyed when I hear people talking the way that he described in that 'ghetto slang'. Its terrible and just adds to the perception that all black people are uneducated and ignorant. Such is not the case however and what I dont like is that people take the actions of these few uneducated, ignorant people and lump ALL minorities in together as belonging to that class of people.
There are also a lot of white people who are uneducated and dont know how to speak properly too but that I guess is besides the point that he was trying to make.
Anyway, maybe coming from a black American idol like Bill the comments will make some of those people stand up and look at how easy it would be to educate themselves and their children.
flower
scotsman

And, boy, am I glad one of their own recognized this.

And, yes, Blacks and Hispanics alike have commited atrocities against the English language and too bad this type of lingo has been accepted by celebrities and others!!!!

Where are we, 1935? I didn't realise people still spoke like this. Doubtfully Yours, whether you're a minority yourself or not, you're undoubtedly racist.
Leolaia

This reflects the common uninformed belief that the only "real" English is White Vernacular English, from which "Standard English" was derived as a special register mostly in formal writing. Since the difference between the two can be very slight, many people conflate the two and think of them as the same thing. Some White Vernacular English dialects, like the regional dialects in the Appalacians, in Texas, in Norwich, England, etc. are quite different from Standard English, and the Standard must be learned quite consciously by speakers of these dialects. Then you have other English dialects like Hibero-English spoken by the Irish, or Welsh-English, or Singaporean English, etc. These are vernaculars just like other White vernaculars, but differ even more from Standard English by including grammatical rules from the languages spoken by their ancestors (e.g. Gaelic, Welsh, Cantonese, etc.). They might sound like "bad English" to the ears of people who do not speak these dialects, but they are every bit as rule-governed, stylistically rich, every bit as a language, as any other dialect. Black Vernacular English falls into a similar category. It is a vernacular, not a standard language, and it is the vernacular to a population that once spoke other languages (e.g. West African languages) in the past. In much the same way, French differs from Italian in part because the Latin adopted in France was influenced by Gaulish. But as it turns out, most of the things in Black Vernacular English that differ from other White Vernacular Englishes in America can be traced back to Britain. It thus has its own peculiar combination of features that are found in other English dialects. And it is as rule-governed as any other language; it is not "anything goes" or "only slang", just as Hiberno-English isn't "anything goes". It has its own grammar that is distinct from the grammar of Standard English. Judging it as ungrammatical is like taking the Aquitanian dialect of French and saying it is ungrammatical compared to the standard variety of Parisian French. Part of the problem in teaching Standard English to native speakers of Black Vernacular English are when teachers call their native dialect "bad English" and present the Standard as superior to the home language. This sets up a huge mental block; since the Standard is really a variety of White Vernacular English and the two sound very much alike, it is tantamount to saying that the White language is better than the language of Blacks, and by implication that Blacks are inferior. Standard English should be presented for what it is, a necessary form of English that is required for getting good jobs and something that is a very valuable tool. It should not be presented as something that replaces the vernacular, for it is through the vernacular that one's identity is expressed and mental blocks often go up when one feels his or identity is being attacked. Of course, this only applies to those students who are speakers of this dialect, and of those that do there are also regional differences and a continuum of how much the dialect resembles the Standard (i.e. acrolectal versions of the vernacular).
Bill Cosby probably speaks both and perhaps is more at home in Standard English in his professional life. Who knows how he really speaks when he's home with his closest relatives. He is really talking about how blacks need to learn the Standard and how not enough attention is being put on this in communities and our schools. He is absolutely right that Standard English is critical to equality, and it has to be an important (maybe even a top) priority. But Black English is absolutely a dialect of English, inherently as good as any other, but heavily stigmatized in our society (both in and outside the Black community), and comes without the privileges that the Standard brings. The schools should focus on helping students become "bidialectal" and not denigrate Black English as simply "poor speaking habits". Including Black role models of Standard English usage like MLK Jr. or Malcolm X can also help distance the Standard from being perceived as the "cracker language". Rather than trying to make students think they are "unlearning bad habits", teachers should encourage students to approach it learning a "new way" to speak English. Discouraging students from the Standard by maligning their own native dialect as "ungrammatical", inferior, etc. only helps perpetuate the status quo of inequality.
Some books on this subject I highly recommend are "Spoken Soul" by Rickford & Rickford and "English With an Accent" by Lippi-Green:
http://www.edu-books.com/Spoken_Soul__The_Story_of_Black_English_0471399574.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0415114772/reviews/103-1970578-2299860
undercover

Which vernacular does, "What's the schnizzle, my nizzle?" fall under?
Leolaia

Youth slang forms a part of every vernacular, though the productivity of slang depends on the community. One of the primary functions of slang is to mark identity, to mark oneself off as different from others, being trendy, or belonging to a particular group. But though it is very salient and noticeable, it does not form an important part of the language. Slang words are ephemeral and easily replaced and rarely does one hear an 80 year old indulging in slang as much as he/she did as a youth. What really counts in a language are the phonological rules, the grammatical rules, and the non-slang lexicon. It is erroneous to reduce Black Vernacular English to mere slang.

Blacks can't speak English - Bill Cosby

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