The Cos has a new cause, and we aren't talking Jell-O Pudding Pops.
Just a few months after he made headlines for lambasting the black community, Bill Cosby has spoken out again, this time sounding off on poorly educated children, deadbeat dads and more during a Thursday appearance at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference in Chicago.
Cosby had piped up in May during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, saying that many members of the African-American community were not taking advantage of the opportunities that were fought for by civil rights activists. The remarks were polarizing, drawing both attacks and praise from African-American groups.
During Thursday's speech, Cosby said his detractors were not facing the facts about poor black communities and were just trying to cover up what he called their "dirty laundry."
"Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other n----r as they're walking up and down the street," he said.
Cosby continued railing about the state of black youth in America. "They think they're hip," he said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."
To African-American men, Cosby ranted, "Stop beating up your women because you can't find a job."
He complained about rap music: "When you put on a record, and that record is yelling 'n----r this' and 'n----r that' and cursing all over the thing and you got your little six-year-old and seven-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car--those children hear that. And I am telling you when you put the CD on and then you get up and dance to it, what are you saying to your children?"
And he also ripped into sitcoms targeting African-American audiences: "Comedians coming on TV [saying,] 'I am so ugly, you are ugly, yuck, yuck.' That's all minstrel show stuff. I am tired of it."
In May, Cosby got in hot water with several civil rights activists when he criticized the lifestyle, education and speech patterns of his fellow African Americans, saying there is no excuse for ignorant behavior.
"I can't even talk the way these people talk, 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is'...and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk," Cosby said in May. "And then I heard the father talk...Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."
On Thursday, Cosby further elaborated his thoughts on the subject, saying once again that white people aren't to blame for teen pregnancy and high-school dropout rates.
"For me there is a time...when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."
Cosby, who received a loud ovation for his comments Thursday, was joined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the fund. Jackson stood behind his buddy, saying, "Bill is saying, 'Let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field.' Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that."