Something to Talk About: Bill Cosby on the Oprah Show

Did any of you catch the show yesterday?

Here's an excerpt:


Link: sevenload.com

According to Bill, the desperate situation of many minorities has resulted in some of these shocking statistics:

• At least a third of all homeless men are African-American.
• African-Americans make up 12 percent of the general population, but they account for almost half of the prison population.
• According to the U.S. Justice Department, 28 percent of black men born today will go to prison in their lifetimes.
• Black youth are six times more likely to die of homicide than white youth and seven times more likely to commit a homicide.
• Homicide is the leading cause of death among African-American males ages 15 to 29

Read more about the show here

Here's an excerpt from his new book "Come On People: On The Path From Victims to Victors" (co-written by civil rights veteran and renowned Harvard psychiatry professor) Dr. Alvin Passant).

Children who are given choices feel respected. They are also learning independence, which becomes especially important during adolescence. Children who are allowed to make small choices at young ages are better prepared to deal with the larger choices when not so young.

With proper discipline at home, kids behave well when they are away from home and out of sight of their parents or caregivers. Disciplined kids are less likely to disrupt the classroom or bully and intimidate other kids. Your self-disciplined child is someone you can count on to take responsibility for what he does and is less likely to do what others want him to. Disciplined children know the difference between right and wrong and are less likely to go wrong, and today there are a whole lot of ways to get there—illicit drug and alcohol abuse, premature sexuality, violence. You name it, someone is doing it. But it doesn't have to be your kid.

Read more on how Cosby advises parents to use other methods of discipline besides spanking

Bill on "airing our dirty laundry":

Bill doesn't deny that he was airing some dirty laundry—but that was the point. "Have you ever seen dirty laundry? We have to clean it, don't we?" he says. "These people who talked about the dirty laundry somehow only cared about the laundry. They didn't care about the children. I said in my speech, 'Our children are trying to tell us something and we're not listening.'"

An audience member had this to say:

Trudy, who is white and says she lives in a predominantly white community, asks about the use of the n-word in music her children listen to.

"It's not used in my home, I've never heard people in the community use it, but yet all of the kids know it," she says. "All of the white kids know it because of music and movies and they think it's like no big deal." So what can Trudy tell them about using that word?

Seriously??? Not to say that rap music doesn't have influence on today's youth, she's acting like YT people of today NEVER use that word...meanwhile we are finding nooses being hung around everwhere....i bet that was rap music too.

What are YOUR thoughts?