WHAT COSBY ACTUALLY SAID

There seems to be no complete transcript of what Bill Cosby said in his famous speech about black responsibility for black failure so I reproduce below the two sets of excerpts that seem to be the most extensive

"We've got these knuckleheads walking around. . . The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting." "I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. 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?" "People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong? . . . People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up . . . and got all type of needles (piercing) going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a . . . thing about Africa." "With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail. Brown versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. . . . They are standing on the corner and they can't speak English." "People used to be ashamed. . . . Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands,' or men or whatever you call them now." "The idea is to one day get out of the projects. You don't just stay there." "We have millionaire football players who can't read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs." "We as black folks have to do a better job. . . . Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard." ". . . We cannot blame white people. . . . ." "The incarcerated? These are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake and then we run out and we are outraged, saying, 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"

Source



"I can't even talk the way these people talk: `Why you ain't, where you is'.I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. It's all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and when you got in the house you switched to English. Everybody knows that at some point you switch to English, except these knuckleheads."

"We're raising our own home-grown immigrants."

"I'm talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange (prison jump) suit. Where were you when he was two? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you don't know he had a pistol?"

"Looking at the incarcerated, these people are not political prisoners. These people are going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake. Then we're all outraged. Ah, the cops shouldn't have shot him. What the hell was he doing with the piece of pound cake in his hands? I wanted a piece of pound cake just as bad as anybody else. I looked at it and I had no money, and something called parenting said `if you get caught with it you're going to embarrass your mother; plus you're gonna to get your butt kicked.'"

"Grandmother, mother and great-grandmother in the same place raising children and the child knows nothing about love or respect from any one of the three of them. All the child knows is give me, give me, give me."

"We're not parenting ladies and gentlemen. Listen to these people. They are showing you what's wrong. People putting their clothes on backward; isn't that a sign of something going on wrong? Are you not paying attention? People with the hat on backwards and pants down around their crack. Isn't that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up?"

"Isn't it a sign of something when she's got a dress on all the way up to her crack?"

Source