With the sponsorship of the Chicago school board, the actor and comedian Bill Cosby brought his sometimes-controversial message about parental responsibility to nearly 10,000 parents here on Dec. 6, urging them to take charge of their households.
鈥淭his is what we need to do at home,鈥� said Mr. Cosby, one of America鈥檚 best-known celebrities. 鈥淔irst, we need to teach love. Love is not buying the child whatever the child wants.鈥�
Mr. Cosby also said: 鈥淎s a parent, you have to understand, I know what I鈥檓 doing and I鈥檓 in charge. You don鈥檛 have to smack the kid. You don鈥檛 have to punch the child.鈥�
The overwhelmingly African-American audience attending the district鈥檚 fourth annual 鈥淧ower of Parents鈥� conference was responsive to Mr. Cosby, often applauding his remarks or nodding their heads. About 49 percent of Chicago鈥檚 421,000 public school students are African-American, and 38 percent are Latino. Eighty-six percent of the district鈥檚 students come from low-income families.
Mr. Cosby cracked jokes a couple of times, but the tone of his speech was mostly serious. He seemed to address the African-American community in particular, relaying how in the past, illiterate parents 鈥渨ho chopped cotton鈥� were able to inspire their children to go to college because they knew how important an education was.
鈥楤uild Confidence鈥�
There鈥檚 no excuse for today鈥檚 parents not to instill a similar confidence in their children, he argued. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to build the confidence in your child in your home. If it鈥檚 possible to teach a child that he can take six bullets,鈥� he said, 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 possible to teach him to take algebra.鈥�
Mr. Cosby has been giving talks in cities across the nation telling African-Americans why he believes they need to improve their parenting, and otherwise take greater responsibility for the problems he sees afflicting too many black youths. He began with a speech on May 17, 2004鈥攇iven in Washington to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 school desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education鈥攖hat startled and upset some observers with its blunt language.
In that address, Mr. Cosby criticized black youths who failed to use standard English and whose indifference to education, he said, had consequences for the rest of society.
鈥�Brown v. Board of Education鈥攖hese people who marched and were hit in the face with rocks and punched in the face to get an education, and we got these knuckleheads walking around who don鈥檛 want to learn English,鈥� he said in 2004, according to a transcript of the speech. 鈥淭hese people are not funny anymore. 鈥� They鈥檙e faking, and they鈥檙e dragging me way down because the state, the city, and all these people have to pick up the tab on them because they don鈥檛 want to accept that they have to study to get an education.鈥�
Such comments drew criticism and touched off a fresh round of debate on long-standing issues concerning race and social ills. Michael Eric Dyson, a professor in the humanities at the University of Pennsylvania and a prominent black intellectual, published a book in 2005 critiquing Mr. Cosby鈥檚 May 2004 speech.
In the book, Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?, Mr. Dyson criticizes Mr. Cosby as downplaying economic, social, political, and other structural issues that affect low-income black parents, such as welfare reform, the export of jobs to other countries, and an ongoing racial stigma.
Listen to Teacher Magazine鈥榮 November in which he defends comments he made at a speech in California. Cosby鈥檚 comments were criticized by some media outlets as an affront to teachers and parents.
Mr. Cosby鈥檚 beliefs, he writes, are typically espoused by the 鈥淎fristocracy,鈥� who Mr. Dyson says are 鈥渦pper-middle-class blacks and the black elite who rain down fire and brimstone upon poor blacks for their deviance and pathology.鈥� Mr. Dyson contends that such black people ignore a lack of personal responsibility that pervades their own social and economic class as well.
Mr. Cosby seemed to address such critics in his speech to Chicago parents.
Some people, he told them, say 鈥淏ill Cosby is picking on the poor.鈥� But he added: 鈥淚n order to tell you how to get out of poverty, I have to tell you what you鈥檙e doing wrong.鈥�
