Blacks and the ghetto and gay issue

Comedian Bill Cosby continued his one-man crusade to improve the futures of young African-Americans talking to America's black community like this and this.

Earlier in the year Cosby fired away at low-income blacks for spending $500 on their children's shoes but not spending $250 on educational tools such as "Hooked on Phonics."
Criticizing African-Americans for wearing saggy pants, speaking improper English and giving children names like "Shaniqua, Shaligua, Mohammed and all that crap," he said, "I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange [prison] suit," he said in May. "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? ... You can't keep saying that God will find a way. God is tired of you."

Cosby received a lot of heat for those words. People were telling him he sounded like rightwing white people. Well, yeah...that's right. That is what we have been saying for a long time because it is true. If it takes a respected black man to get people to listen then more power to him. Cosby was quoted as saying, "I don't care what rightwing white people say." Good. I don't want him to care about what anyone says as long as he is spreading the message of discipline, education, and values to young black Americans in the inner city who so need it.

In his remarks around the country Cosby had this to say:

Cosby asked: "Do you see in that yard any drug dealers? Do you see any teenage pregnant girls? Take a look at them, and put the future on them. Without love, education and care, they begin to look like the statistics. ... You cannot tell me it's impossible to put your children in first place and raise your child strong."

Cosby concluded: "It's a movement now that needs to happen. ... It's time for people to just stop seeing themselves so much as victims, so much in poverty, and realize what education does and fight for it like you're fighting for your life – and you are because that's what our children are."


Arlene Ackerman, the San Francisco's first black superintendent of schools, told the Chronicle she was glad Cosby had aired his frustrations, even if they were not politically correct.
"We haven't figured out a way to talk about it as African-Americans. ... At least now we're talking about it," she said. "The truth is, many of the things he said are reality for those of us who work in urban public schools."

On a related note, eleven percent of African American voters supported President Bush in the election, up from nine percent in 2000. That is a promising increase for Republicans. I hope that it is wall that we have broken through and will continue to see increases in African American support. Many were saying that the evangelical black church's came out for Bush. I wondered about that.

My black friends are upper middle class and supported Bush. I wanted the opinion of someone in the lower income bracket. I had an opportunity the other day. I was having my car worked on at the dealership and they sent a car to come get me. The black man driving had a black gospel station on the radio. We had about a 20 minute ride, so being the shy person I am, I asked him if he attended a black church regularly and thought of himself as a devout Christian. He said yes. I asked him how the black gospel stations handled the election. Did they endorse anyone? He said he thought they had been pretty fair in presenting both sides. I asked him if he minded if I inquired how he voted. He said he had voted for Bush and it was the first time he had ever voted Republican. I asked him why. He said it really came down to the gay marriage issue and believing that Bush was a man of God. He said the whole gay thing was like Sodom and Gomorah. It was just wrong and he didn't believe that Kerry was really against it. I asked him if he thought abortion was wrong as well. He said yes. I asked, "So, if the gay marriage thing is immoral and that is why you felt you had to vote for Bush, why hasn't the abortion issue bothered you enough to vote Republican before?" He answered, "I don't know really." I apologized for quizzing him and he said no problem, he was enjoying it. So I said. "Doesn't your pastor ever address the abortion issue?" and he said "No. Not that I have ever noticed. I think that is something we just don't want to talk about."

I found that very interesting. I still don't understand why gay marriage, which is a between 2 adults and does not actually hurt anyone, bothers him more than the destruction of innocent life. I am not defending gay marriage, I am just saying that in my view, weighing the the right and wrong of it, the killing of an unborn child just seems worst to me. Yet that is not the issue that concerned most Christian black voters. It was the gay issue. That does spell trouble for the democratic party because that issue is not going away and more and more blacks will be bothered by the democratic embrace of it.

Consider this... In Ohio 61 percent of African-Americans supported a ban on gay marriage and Bush won 16 percent of the African-American vote in Ohio and 13 percent in Florida -- significant showings for a Republican.

What do yall think?