Our African-American Family in despair

Bill Cosby has always been criticized because of his views, ideas and straight to your face talk about the African-American family, but if you carefully listen and understand what he says and not just agree with others, you may discover truth in what he stands for.

Cosby talk to his audience about the rates of juvenile delinquency, its parenting, the coarse language of its youth. You can do better, he exhorts his audiences. Don’t let yourself be victims, and especially don’t let the poorest in the community let themselves be victims.

“This is about little children … and people not giving them better choices,” he told Paula Zahn in an interview for CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now.” “Talking. Talking. Parenting. Correctly parenting. That’s what it’s about. And you can’t blame other things. You got to — you got to straighten up your house. Straighten up your apartment. Straighten up your child.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of these young men and women idolizing these rappers and sports figure that stand for nothing whatsoever. We need to step up and make sure that we’re our kids hero and not some overpaid, no talking, can’t spell basketball or football player.

When are these young men and women going to realize that the clothes and shoes that they are paying and arm and a leg for only make the athlete or rapper even richer?

When are they going to realize that speaking properly is not speaking white? It’s just speaking correctly.

When are they going to realize that going to school is not a fashion show, but a way of life?

When are we as parents going to stop the trend of always saying yes to our kids?

 When are we going to teach our kids values, self worth and responsibilities.

Did we forget Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision that struck down school segregation? Did we forget people marched and were hit in the face with rocks and sprayed with water to get an education? Now that we have free education, parents are not doing what they should to make sure their kids are preparing for the future.

There will be no future if we don’t step in now.