BelleMcNally said:
Cultural Sicknes? Don't you think that's a little extreme?
FWIW, I could understand the acceptance speech and thought it was a nice breath of fresh air. Fo' shizzle.
Cosby does get a little worked up, but what is the appropriate label for a situation where a culture celebrates self-destructive behavior, such as:
- Out of wedlock children (per the CDC,
69.2% of births to black women, compared to 23% for whites, 34% for Hispanics and 14.9% for Asians and Pacific Islanders). Here's some interesting insight on that from the wonderful book "
Dads in the 'Hood:"
"Several teens interviewed by Jason DeParle in his
New York Times Magazine story scoff at the boring sameness of marriage, even while they yearn for fathers. "I need some little me's - children," one 16-year-old told DeParle, but, he continued, "I just can't see myself being with one woman." As another teen explained, "That'd be too plainlike you have to see the same woman every day." A young man with this attitude does not spend time "looking for Ms. Right" or "working on a relationship," or any of the other rituals of middle-class courtship. Like Tyrell, first he is with one woman, then he is with another; in all likelihood, there will be more in the future. Sex happens. And so do babies.
It's not at all uncommon to meet poor men who have left behind a winding trail of exes and their unanticipated progeny. One man I spoke with has five children by two women; another, apologizing for his shoddy birth control practices by explaining that he "likes it raw," has seven children by five women; he was 15 when the first was born. When asked about his offspring, an edgy Haitian, who owes the State of New York child support of $35,000, starts counting slowly on his fingers. He stops at four, but he doesn't seem to be joking; it's as if he's never thought of the products of his many affairs as a single group that could be labeled "my children."
- Massive victimization by crime (in 2003, young black men between the ages of 15 and 35 made up 13.9% of all males of that age range in the U.S., but were the victims of 57% of the homicides of all men in that age range. Looked at another way, that miniscule 2% of the population was the victim of 28% of all homicides that year). The USA doesn't have a significant violent crime problem, it has a significant
inner city violent crime problem.
Yes, Cosby labels all this cultural sickness.
Extreme? Yes. And painfully accurate.