How long before the "leaders of the black community" jump all over him for suggesting something so "white"?



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Bill Cosby Urges Black Students to Study

Oct 12, 3:37 PM (ET)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Bill Cosby spoke bluntly to students at Richmond's mostly black public schools, urging them to dedicate themselves to graduation, not gangs, and to control anger that threatens to derail their dreams.

Cosby toured four schools Monday with former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who is running for mayor. Instead of talking about politics, Cosby stuck to his no-nonsense message to inner-city black children.

"Study. That's all. It's not tough. You're not picking cotton. You're not picking up the trash. You're not washing windows. You sit down. You read. You develop your brain," he said at Fred D. Thompson Middle School, where 65 percent of the 700 students meet low-income criteria for free or reduced-price lunches.

There and at George Wythe High School, the 67-year-old actor-comedian urged black children in their teens to begin studying in groups, for girls not to allow themselves to become pregnant and for boys not to compensate for love they lack at home with gangs or sex.

"I'd like to tell you I don't think things have changed since I was 14," Cosby said. "There are still old people who drink, do drugs - who will stop and take the time to tell you don't be like them. Have you heard them? Pay attention to them."

Cosby mentioned sex and an auditorium packed with sixth- through eighth-graders buzzed with laughter, catcalls and whistles. Then he mentioned algebra and the room momentarily quieted.

"Everybody knows about sex. Not too many people want to know about algebra," he said.

"Let's think about love. Let's think about where it is and where you can get it, but not sex. You're too young for sex," he said jokingly. "You don't have sex 'til you're 50 years old. What, that's too old? Well how about 49?"

Bill Cosby is such a sellout Uncle Tom.

It's a damn shame that a celebrity like Cosby has to show up to shake up the students.  The Richmond Public School system is completely incompetent, and corrupt.  The city government is no better.  The students get constantly fed a line that they are unfortunate victims of a system designed to keep them down.  

Virginia is a very unusual state, in that all incorporated cities are unique entities.  Cities do not exist in counties.  What this means is that the tax base is very constrained.  Cities used to get around this constraint by annexing parts of counties.  The last time Richmond did that (25+ years ago) was such an obvious grab of wealthy suburbs that the VA legal code was ammended to make any further annexations of counties by cities impossible.  The city does not have the ability to reach into the suburbs for tax revenue.  Thus, a city like Richmond is very sensitive to mismanagement.  Extremely bad policy drove the middle class (black and white) out years ago, and all you have left are the wealthy, the poor, and VCU students.