MSNBC To Air Bill Cosby Town Hall
Howard University panel to explore poverty in America
By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/8/2009 12:03:20 PM
MSNBC will team with the Independent Women's Forum on a town hall featuring Bill Cosby.The event will be held Sept. 20 at Howard University and will be broadcast live on MSNBC from 7 to 9 p.m.
The town hall, dubbed About Our Children... will be moderated by Michelle Bernard, Women's Forum president and CEO and an MSNBC political analyst. The Women's Forum organized the event and brought it to MSNBC. Other panelists will include NAACP President Ben Jealous, author Terrie Williams, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Dr. Alvin Poussaint, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Cosby's co-author on the 2007 book Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors.
The town hall will explore poverty in America, a critical issue as the recession has sent unemployment rates perilously high. Specifically, the forum will focus on parenting, education and health issues facing the poor in America.
An actor and comedian, Cosby has become an outspoken critic of hip-hop culture, administering tough love on issues that have plagued the African-American community; crime, parenting, education.
Talkback
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Parenting 2009
I am very concerned about parents in 2009.
I’m African American female with three children who are now adults.
I have heard Mr. Cosby’s lectures on parenting, and I share many of his views.
I am not an advocate for spanking children. Nevertheless, as a child, when I or my siblings did something bad my mother, a single parent on welfare would spank us. Usually, with whatever she could find. Examples include belts, switches, and the occasional extension cord. Some examples of what we did to get a spanking was starting fires with matches in the backyard, bad grades/behavior in school, talking back or using bad language etc. I think it is important to mention that me and my siblings have never been in trouble with the law; never been to jail/prison; no drug/alcohol abuse; have never been involved with guns or violence; have never been overly abusive to our children; and we respect our elders and peers. Yes, we were scared of what our mother, step-father, grandmother, aunt and uncle would do to us if we did something wrong. Examples include stealing, cursing, fighting, being disrespectful, staying out to late, ditching school, and lying. And participating in a gang or drive-by was definitely out of the question.
However, today things are different. When I was a child the problem was too much television. Today, the problem is television, cell phones, video games, musical lyrics, and no parents at home. Today’s parents are either working 8-10 hour days including commute. Some parents or home with the child but have know idea of how to raise a child because they were the infamous Latch Key Kids. These kids are now young parents and they have no clue on how to raise a child other than feeding them, clothing them, and providing some type of housing. Today’s young parents truly need to take parenting classes to help them understand their child’s development both physically, and mentally, and how to deal with their children.
Today we have a very different legal system regarding child abuse. As a parenting instructor, I have been very concerned about child protective services removing children from the only parent(s) they know and placing them in protective custody for several weeks, months, even years and in some cases taking the parents legal rights. The courts have been taking children out of the homes of Americans. These abductions are mostly in the homes of African and Hispanic Americans. Our courts are allowing Child Protective Services to remove children from the home for things like domestic violence, drug use, physical abuse of spouse/partner or child.
I truly believe in protecting children from harm. But let’s be honest, many of us have seen our parent’s argue, fuss, and fight and we turned out okay. My mother was an alcoholic and things could have been better, yet we turned out okay. Many parents today got spankings when they were children, and we’ve turned out alright. My point is, it may not always be necessary, or in the best interest of a child to be remove from their parents/family.
So you might ask what can be done. There should be a mass effort from all of us to help these parents succeed. I strongly encourage America to support drug counseling, marriage/partner and family counseling, domestic violence classes, and court approved parenting classes for today’s parents. We as a people/government need to fund non-profit organizations so they can provide these services free of charge to parents. Finally, today many grandparents are raising their grandchildren and they need to take parenting classes to help them understand today’s legal system regarding child abuse.
Romona Watts-Ring - 9/17/2009 9:50:14 AM EDT -
It kills me on how we always have scholars talking about poverty in America when they have not been poor for years. I respect Mr. Cosby and the other panel members, but do they really know what it is like to be poor, black and struggling in America. Does anyone really know what the black male goes through weather he is poor or so called middle class? There are two classes of black people rich and poor. I have heard some of the things Mr. Cosby has said and it is easy for him to say that because of his position. Tell some young black brother about doing the right thing. All of his young life he has been doing the right thing only to have doors shut in his face everyday. They sell us on the American dream like collage a dept of $100,000 graduating to only witness the American nightmare. Whatever you so called voice of black America has to say choose your words wisely because I know for a fact what you will say. You will be like the four tops singing that same old song. The next time you have one of them meeting please invite me to be a panelist. The odds are against us.
Court…….plea bargain
Court….plea bargain
Court…….plea bargain
larry Wright - 9/15/2009 12:14:50 AM EDT
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