"A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice."

A Loving Tribute to Bill Cosby


I will say that I love this man. It all started with his stand up comedy DVD called, "Bill Cosby, Himself" If you haven't seen this remarkable piece of comedy, you must. I have a distinct memory of my husband laying on the floor with his legs stuck up in the air, laughing so hard that the only sound coming out of him was a hilarious clicking noise. And I remember being struck at the anomaly. Here, we had a comedian who was so funny without being perverse or shocking. I immediately started the practice of buying the DVD for everyone I loved when their birthdays came around.

I also found much refreshing about his determination to push the black population away from blaming "the man" and claiming victim status. It is a message everyone, of every race and ethnicity, could benefit from. He has been a voice for personal responsibility in his activism and I respect him more than I can express. That being said, there are obviously matters on which we disagree. He spoke of what a great experience it was to vote for president Obama. He made the point that the president was a man who was educated, well spoken, and took care of his beautiful family. Certainly, I cannot argue with that. It is the fact that his policies enable people who are claiming victim status that bothers me. Still, whether or not our opinions differ, Mr. Cosby is one of the endangered species of educated entertainers and I love the man. So, today I want to share a few of my favorite Bill Cosby quotes:

On Victimhood:

“As you probably know, certain people tell us that we are picking on the poor. Many of those who accuse us are scholars and intellectuals, upset that we are not blaming everything on white people as they do. Well, blaming only the system keeps certain black people in the limelight, but it also keeps the black poor wallowing in victimhood.” (Cosby and Toussaint)

"It's not what they're doing to us. It's what we're not doing. 50 percent drop out. Look, we're raising our own ingrown immigrants. These people are fighting hard to be ignorant. There's no English being spoken, and they're walking and they're angry. Oh God, they're angry and they have pistols and they shoot and they do stupid things. And after they kill somebody, they don't have a plan. Just murder somebody. Boom. Over what? A pizza? And then run to the poor cousin's house."

On Parenting:

"I'm talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was two? Where were you when he was twelve? Where were you when he was eighteen, and how come you don't know he had a pistol?"

"50 percent drop out rate, I’m telling you, and people in jail, and women having children by five, six different men. Under what excuse, I want somebody to love me, and as soon as you have it, you forget to parent. Grandmother, mother, and great grandmother in the same room, raising children, and the child knows nothing about love or respect of any one of the three of them. All this child knows is “gimme, gimme, gimme.” These people want to buy the friendship of a child….and the child couldn’t care less. Those of us sitting out here who have gone on to some college or whatever we’ve done, we still fear our parents. And these people are not parenting. They’re buying things for the kid. $500 sneakers, for what? They won’t buy or spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic and lower middle economic people are not holding their end in this deal. In the neighborhood that most of us grew up in, parenting is not going on. In the old days, you couldn’t hooky school because every drawn shade was an eye. And before your mother got off the bus and to the house, she knew exactly where you had gone, who had gone into the house, and where you got on whatever you had one and where you got it from. Parents don’t know that today."

"Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry."

On Education:

"I’m looking at the junkiest room I’ve ever seen. It is a classroom in an American public school; it is public education in America today. A child did not make the room junky; generations of litterers – legislators, school board members, superintendents, principals, taxpayers, teachers and presidents did."

AND FINALLY...On Fatherhood:

"Only people as intelligent as we could fake such stupidity."


I love you, Bill. Thanks for being a great example of someone in the entertainment industry worth looking up to. And thank you for being a spokesperson for the freedom that comes with empowerment, education and a strong family.