Bill Cosby Lectures New Orleans Blacks

Humorist Bill Cosby lectured black residents of New Orleans over the weekend, saying their community was "wounded" by crime even before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city and killed their neighbors.

"It's painful, but we can't cleanse ourselves unless we look at the wound," Cosby told the rally of about 2,000 people at the city's convention center, where thousands of Katrina evacuees had gathered seven months earlier.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you had the highest murder rate, unto each other. You were dealing drugs to each other. You were impregnating our 13-, 12-, 11-year-old children," he said, in quotes picked up by Reuters.

"What kind of a village is that?"

Meanwhile, Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who were also on hand for the rally, seemed to contradict Cosby's message of self reliance.

Jackson focused instead on what he said were federal and state efforts to "disenfranchise" New Orleans voters for the upcoming Democratic primary.

He urged election officials to make satellite polling places available to ensure that still displaced Katrina evacuees would be able to vote in the April 22 contest.

"If we in fact can use this technology for Mexican-Americans and Mexico, then we ought to," Jackson said. "If we can use this technology for Iraqi-Americans in America to Baghdad, then we ought to. We can use the same technology for New Orleanians, wherever they are in America."
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who presided over the Katrina disaster, is expected to lose the primary to Lieutenant Gov. Mitch Landrieu - in part because so many of his constituents are now scattered throughout the nation.

This is the PERFECT story to illustrate the two different schools of thought.

You have Bill. The only way the inner city can EVER get better is to listen to Bill, and for there to be thousands more like him...period. That is the only solution. His conservative values can save the day. As some point these people need to see the message they have been swallowing whole has kept them poor for 50 years.

Then you have Jesse and Al...teaching the blame game. Where has that gotten the 90% of blacks that vote for Democrats.

Which message makes more sense to you?
Lets hope and pray Bill's message starts to take hold.