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Title: Cosby's Message - Look In The Mirror
Source:
Philly Enquirer
URL Source: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opin ... ditorial___Cosbys_Message.html
Published: Jun 10, 2007
Author: staff
Post Date: 2007-06-10 13:02:11 by mirage
Keywords: None
Views: 286
Comments: 26
Bill Cosby's popularity in the African American community hasn't been the same since he started speaking his mind about it. He has told parents to start parenting. Told the community it was complicit in the misogyny, vulgarity, violence and racism in black culture. Many take offense. Why blame a people still struggling with racism, inequality, poverty and crime? Their complaints can't be dismissed. But neither should Cosby. Everyone - black, white, whatever - needs to hear what he's saying - and act. Monday, Cosby joined Men United for a Better Philadelphia on an 11-block antiviolence march through West Philadelphia. Then came a frightening FBI study in which, among U.S. cities of one million or more, Philadelphia leads in the rates of murder and violent crime per 10,000 inhabitants. Monday's march, Cosby's words, and these searing statistics suggest that much work remains for this city, on several levels. Individual. How about this for an unusual statement?: The killers are wrong. Many may be teenagers, on drugs or poor. They may have suffered disrespect, violence or crime. They may belong to an oppressed class or race, trapped in a hopeless system in which every roll of the dice is a loser. No matter: If they kill, they're wrong. They are always wrong. Cosby's message to young men: Stand up and accept yourselves as responsible agents. Step away from the annihilations of backward rage. Accept that murder makes you less of a man. Family. Be closer to your children, Cosby said. Parents should "love and hug" - create a home environment of acceptance and closeness, to counter the fear and brutality outside. And fathers can't teach if they don't stick around. "We've got to teach our children to think of other ways to settle ill feelings" - one of Cosby's best lines on Monday. Which leads to: Community. As Penn professor Elijah Anderson has shown, the "code of the street" has undermined older codes of right and wrong in the black community. Individuals can help change such malignant codes - but scuttling them will take the effort of many villages. Better, more watchful neighbors. Friends being better friends. People unafraid to say, "That's wrong." "Stop waiting for Christ to come," Cosby told the crowds, a shocking line - but also Christ's own teaching (Luke 17:21, "The kingdom of God is among you"): That the future rests with us and our work. This can become the city of brotherly and sisterly correction if the neighborhoods will shoulder the task. More marches. More speaking out. More teamwork. More work. City. Mayor Street and mayor-presumptive Michael Nutter should build consensus now for a citywide antiviolence program. This isn't politics; it's survival, for hundreds of citizens a year, and for the city itself. More policemen on the streets? More support for groups such as Men United? Decide now and make it happen. State. Gov. Rendell has the city's interests at heart, but can he rouse Harrisburg to allow the city to enact tougher gun-buying rules? National. As the FBI report shows, this country's inner cities suffer some of the same problems they've had since the 1960s. Few in power want to talk about that. Barack Obama did in a speech Tuesday, decrying the "sense of disconnect" that leads to a "quiet riot" of despair. If anyone thinks the federal government is doing enough for America's inner cities . . . the writing is on the wall, in blood. Big gov can't do everything. But could George W. Bush leave a better domestic legacy than a bipartisan program that backs the efforts of states and cities? The hardest work - to accept - goes back to the individual. To accept is to care, and to care is to act. Denial and waiting don't make a revolution. As Cosby memorably said: "The revolution is in your neighborhood . . . in your streets . . . in your apartment . . . in your mind."
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#1. To: mirage (#0)
This is a shame, but I want everyone who views this to note something; despite all of the media hype about the massive crime wave rolling out of Mèxico into the United States, I do not think it applies here. Nor in most large cities. I would expect that, just as in Los Angelas, it is the Cripes and the Bloods (which were closely linked with the CIA in the posts I did about the CIA and drugs into the SW) that are foremost in these problem areas.
The Crips and the Bloods are not the major gang influence in Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle these days. Its the 10th Street and 18th Street Gangs(Hispanic from LA) and MS-13. The majority of "gang" students in our local high schools here in Oregon are ALL Hispanic. What have the Crips and Bloods been doing lately? Not much. They're being targeted for ethnic cleansing in LA. Here is a list of Hispanic Gangs just in Compton: The apologetics wear a little thin when Other Resources are available. Truth might be a better tactic.
Ain't no apologetics about it; it is called reality. I think all gang members should be arrested, tried, and if found to be a member of one of the gangs, executed on the spot. But I refuse to let people accept the non-sense that comes out of the main-stream press. Simple as that. Asian Gangs in Los Angeles County; The fastest growing street gangs in LA County with about 20,000 members. http://www.streetgangs.com/asian/ There are approximately 20,000 Asian gang members in Los Angeles County and represent a diversre array of backgrounds and affiliations. There are Asian gangs that down with the Surenos, some affiliated with Bloods and Crips and several independent entities such as the Chinese Wah Chings, Philipino, Cambodian and Vietnamese gangs/ All Blood Gangs in Los Angeles County http://www.streetgangs.com/bloods/ There are 88 incorporated cities and dozens of other unincorporated places in Los Angeles County (LAC). In doing this research on the proliferation of gangs within Los Angeles, each of these places were visited in an attempt to not just identify gangs active in Los Angeles, but to determine their territories too. Through several weeks of field work and research there were a total of 274 Black gangs in 17 cities and five unincorporated areas in Los Angeles County. In this research, both the cities and unincorporated areas are identified as "places," a term that the U.S. Census uses. Go to the site and see a VERY impressive list of gangs. A Brief History of the Los Angeles based Crips http://www.streetgangs.com/crips/ ... In Los Angeles County today, there are 88 incorporated cities and dozens of other unincorporated places in Los Angeles County (LAC) with Crips firmly established in 24 cities and areas in the County. In 1972 the eight Crip gangs grew to 45 in 1978. By 1982 there were 109 Crips in LA County and by the late 1990s there were 199 individual Crip gangs active in LA County. Crip growth in Los Angeles has stablized and even declined in areas that are undergoing demographic change, but in other parts of California, the United States and abroad, many places have started copy cat gangs. ... 18th Street Gang in Los Angeles County http://www.streetgangs.com/18t hstreet.html In Los Angeles the 18th Street gang is considered the largest gang in Los Angeles County. It is estimated that there are close to 20,000 members in Los Angeles County. Most of them are Mexican and Chicano with some Salvadorean membership and a few Blacks. Some estimates of the 18th are as low as 8,000, but this low estimate still makes them the largest gang in the county if you include all their barrios as one. The 18th Street Gang is actually a collection of several smaller gangs, making them the most fragmented gang in the County also. ... To say that the 18th Street is the largest gang in LA is a bit misleading, because what makes them so big is a collection of about 20 different gangs. The largest single Hispanic gang interms of turf size and membership would be one of 18th Street's main rivals, the Florencia 13 gang ... How odd.... does not sound like a turf war with the Hispanics..... Hispanic Gangs in Los Angeles County http://www.streetgangs.com/hispanic/ There are about 500 Sureño Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles County representing over 50% of the gang memberbership. They are more geographically distributed throughout the region and are found in significant numbers in the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, the Beach commmunities, Long Beach, Compton and South Los Angeles. What is the difference? The size of the gangs, which in the case of the Hispanic, are generally small, as compared to the Bloods and the Cripes. So I understand that I know nothing about this subject, and, it took all of 3 minutes to find the info...... that being said, why is it that nothing is being said about the Cripes and the Bloods now.... Could it be that they are under the protection of the CIA? If you had bothered to read the posts about the CIA and their distribution of drugs into the SW, and if you had read any of the books that have been written about the CIA and how they control a lot of the media, why, some of this might just have occured to you.
#7. To: richard9151 (#3)
Then perhaps you can explain to me why there are 18th Streeters in *Portland Oregon* and *Spokane Washington* if they are unorganized and of no consequence?
And nobody gets to scream "discrimination!" when 90% of all those killed as gang members are non-whites. Did you know the largest percentage of homeless are white? Let not the "minority" scream "We have an excuse. We are poor and discriminated against!"
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestMonday, Cosby joined Men United for a Better Philadelphia on an 11-block antiviolence march through West Philadelphia. Then came a frightening FBI study in which, among U.S. cities of one million or more, Philadelphia leads in the rates of murder and violent crime per 10,000 inhabitants.
#2. To: richard9151 (#1)
1. Compton Varrio 117
2. Compton Varrio 118
3. Compton Varrio 119
4. Compton Varrio 124
5. Compton Varrio 125
6. Compton Varrio Alondra
7. Compton Varrio Best Known Mexicans
8. Compton Varrio Chicano Gang
9. Compton Varrio KAM
10. Compton Varrio La Cinco, 155
11. Compton Varrio Largo, 36
12. Compton Varrio Las Tres, 133
13. Compton Varrio Locos 13
14. Compton Varrio Mobbin 4 Life
15. Compton Varrio OFA
16. Compton Varrio Segundo
17. Compton Varrio Setentas, 70
18. Compton Varrio Tiny Gangster
19. Compton Varrio Tokers
20. Compton Varrio Tortilla Flats
21. Compton Varrio Vatos Locos
22. Compton Varrio Willow Street
#3. To: mirage (#2)
The apologetics wear a little thin
Replies to Comment # 3.
#11. To: richard9151, tauzero (#3)
GANG MEMBER? ANY GANG MEMBER REGARDLESS OF RACE? THEN -->
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