According to a Washington Post transcript, here are some of the remarks made by actor-comedian-philanthropist Bill Cosby on May 17, 2004 in Washington, D.C., during the gala commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education: "People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now 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?"

Copyright Family Guardian Fellowship