Hurray for Bill.
Seriously, thank god he said something. Maybe I understand the dichotomy of this cultural clash because I work with African American college students all day. Maybe I understand how much things have changed because I was raised in a world that was just beginning to indoctrinate children with the belief that the color of your skin made little, if any, difference in who you are as a person.
So now Bill Cosby has to be the martyr? He has done more for race relations than anyone I can think of. Malcolm X didn’t make it into my home and Martin Luther King Junior was brought up once a year at best. My childhood is, however, filled with memories of “Picture Pages” and “Fat Albert” and of course, every Thursday growing up with little Rudy on NBC.
So why then does the racial climate feel so different these days? Just like Doctor Cosby pointed out last week to a stunned crowd…parents stopped being parents. Somewhere along the line everyone just cut his or her child loose. In the suburbs, kids are immersing themselves in an imagined culture of violence and it all too often seems to morph itself into real violence ALA Columbine.
In the inner city, single Mothers are the only ones that are sticking around to raise their children. So little boys are left to the streets to look for a father figure. Just who do they find? Pimps and dealers. These are the young men who children look up to because they have the Escalades and the two-way pagers and most of all the money. At home, Mom comes home from a 36-hour workday too exhausted to spend time with her children.
We need to rethink our society because kids today are being raised with violent images. It doesn’t matter if they see them on the street corner or on their Playstation. Without adults around to explain or at least temper what the kids are seeing with some advice, we’re loosing a whole generation. Their complete disregard for the English language and their inability to pay attention to something more than 30 seconds long are just byproducts of a society of no guidance, no ramifications and no regard for anyone but yourself and your need for instant gratification.
The only mistake the Cos made was trying to address these problems with one target audience. I think the problem extends well beyond the boundaries of race or economics. Kids today are raising themselves more and more. Growing up in the 70s and 80s we watched a lot more TV than the previous generation and our Mom’s took jobs outside the home and all too often our households were single parent homes. The difference is most parents took an active interest in their children and didn’t depend on the school system and Nickelodeon to raise us.
Seriously, thank god he said something. Maybe I understand the dichotomy of this cultural clash because I work with African American college students all day. Maybe I understand how much things have changed because I was raised in a world that was just beginning to indoctrinate children with the belief that the color of your skin made little, if any, difference in who you are as a person.
So now Bill Cosby has to be the martyr? He has done more for race relations than anyone I can think of. Malcolm X didn’t make it into my home and Martin Luther King Junior was brought up once a year at best. My childhood is, however, filled with memories of “Picture Pages” and “Fat Albert” and of course, every Thursday growing up with little Rudy on NBC.
So why then does the racial climate feel so different these days? Just like Doctor Cosby pointed out last week to a stunned crowd…parents stopped being parents. Somewhere along the line everyone just cut his or her child loose. In the suburbs, kids are immersing themselves in an imagined culture of violence and it all too often seems to morph itself into real violence ALA Columbine.
In the inner city, single Mothers are the only ones that are sticking around to raise their children. So little boys are left to the streets to look for a father figure. Just who do they find? Pimps and dealers. These are the young men who children look up to because they have the Escalades and the two-way pagers and most of all the money. At home, Mom comes home from a 36-hour workday too exhausted to spend time with her children.
We need to rethink our society because kids today are being raised with violent images. It doesn’t matter if they see them on the street corner or on their Playstation. Without adults around to explain or at least temper what the kids are seeing with some advice, we’re loosing a whole generation. Their complete disregard for the English language and their inability to pay attention to something more than 30 seconds long are just byproducts of a society of no guidance, no ramifications and no regard for anyone but yourself and your need for instant gratification.
The only mistake the Cos made was trying to address these problems with one target audience. I think the problem extends well beyond the boundaries of race or economics. Kids today are raising themselves more and more. Growing up in the 70s and 80s we watched a lot more TV than the previous generation and our Mom’s took jobs outside the home and all too often our households were single parent homes. The difference is most parents took an active interest in their children and didn’t depend on the school system and Nickelodeon to raise us.
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