An excerpt from the Washington Post:

Cosby, Saying the Darndest Things

Bill Cosby was anything but politically correct in his remarks Monday night at a Constitution Hall bash commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. To astonishment, laughter and applause, Cosby mocked everything from urban fashion to black spending and speaking habits.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal," he declared. "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.' . . .

"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English," he exclaimed. "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. 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!"

The Post's Hamil Harris reports that Cosby also turned his wrath to "the incarcerated," saying: "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?"

When Cosby finally concluded, Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and NAACP legal defense fund head Theodore Shaw came to the podium looking stone-faced. Shaw told the crowd that most people on welfare are not African American, and many of the problems his organization has addressed in the black community were not self-inflicted.

What is Bill *talking* about?

The "No Child Left Behind" bill took care of all of that!

Cindy -- whose father wouldn't reply to her if she spoke with a whiff of a southern accent or poor grammar because he couldn't abide any form of speech other than perfect northern English

Hey.... there's no such thing as a Southern accent. We speak properly - it's you yankees who talk funny.

And my Dad is from south Texas, and Mom is from SC! Yet they have no accent and don't like them. Go figure.

Proving Larry's point.

Bill Cosby has a PhD in Education, if I remember correctly, and I suspect that gives a framework for his thinking.

Yes, it is Dr. Cosby, and the degree was earned, not honorary.

I think what he has touched on is a travesty within America. To get ahead, to achieve success in our economy, it is incumbent upon a person to at least be able to communicate effectively, and to project a certain image.

At one time we knew that, in this country.

"Hey.... there's no such thing as a Southern accent. We speak properly - it's you yankees who talk funny."

My friends in Fairhope actually spell "ya'll" in their letters and postcards. I protest... shouldn't it be "y'all"?