RUSH: I don’t know what that means, but I’ll tell you, we’ve got some response here from the REVrend Jacks’nnn, but first, ladies and gentlemen, an observation. There were lots of applause. There was lots of applause in this speech. We edited that out for continuity and brevity, brevity being “the soul of wit,” quote, saith Shakespeare. The point is that all of these things that Cosby said today have been said before, but not by him. They’ve been said by people who have been castigated when they say it, who have been called names when they say it. There have been people all over the country — I’m one — who has questioned the destructive technique and characteristics of rap music. I have wondered what it’s doing to black culture. I have not myself understood how it is that two black guys could walk around on a movie or on a record or just down the street and call each other the N-word, and if somebody else does, it’s a crime and we stop the presses and the news cameras show up and look what happens here, and yet they call themselves this and they laugh about it.
What Cosby is saying here is, he says (paraphrasing): “You do that and you’re telling people what you think of yourself, and yet when other people react to you the way you think of yourself you get all offended. If you’re going to think that little of yourself to call yourself that name, and you’re going to get all upset when somebody else calls you that name you ought not call yourself the name in the first place. You’re only demeaning yourself.” That’s what he means really here by “cursing,” although he included other words in it. Now, listen to the uh, REVerend Jacks’nnn, uh in his first remarks here, because the uh, REVerend Jacks’nnn, uh says that this message is not new to black people. In certain areas, yeah, that’s probably true, but not from the Reverend Jackson. I mean, he’s had his day.
We’ve had clips of him on my TV show where he said the right things about growth and self-respect and this sort of thing, but it’s never part of his political message. His political message is that these people are all victims. They’re all victims of an evil white majority, and this is what Cosby is speaking against because he doesn’t believe it’s true. He thinks that, you know, the hip-hop culture and other elements of black culture are doing enough damage on their own. He says, “It’s time to stop it,” but here’s the uh, REVerend Jacks’nnn, uh who says, “Well, this is not a new message” tries to spin Cosby’s comments as this is going to be intriguing to the white media. Here’s the first of some.
JACKSON: Well, Bill Cosby’s message was not new to black people. It’s a common message. It was intriguing, it seems, to whites in the media. His essential point is that we were behind on equal opportunity and superior effort. And if you are down, no matter who knocks you down, it’s your responsibility to get up. Responsibility is a weapon and Bill was essentially saying we must stop recycling, self-degrading, self-destructive behavior en route to achieving basic civil rights goals of equal opportunity.
RUSH: If I may be so bold. If that’s what he was saying, Reverend Jackson, if that’s what you heard him saying, then I think it’s time for you to change your whole approach to the “Monochrome” Coalition. Because your approach to the “Monochrome” Coalition, whenever there is any kind of an incident, you immediately make whoever it happened to a victim of something. There’s no responsibility on the part of that person who is in trouble for doing anything that might have led to what happened to them, and you immediately start charging the same, old, time-honored, worn-out charges and recycle them — all for the express purpose of keeping the racial business alive. Because the race business is a profit center. This is not what Bill Cosby said. Bill Cosby said did not say, “Keep the race business alive.”
Bill Cosby said, “It’s time, hey, to forget it for the most part and have a little self-respect,” and this sort of thing. Here’s more from the uh, REVerend Jacks’nnn. He was on American Morning today on CNN. Soledad O’Brien — even she could see that this is BS. She asks Jesse Jackson why more black leaders don’t say these things, and Jesse Jackson claims that they do. Her actually question is: “Why do you think, or maybe correct me if I’m wrong, black leaders haven’t really been saying the Cosby message in such a mainstream, widespread way. Why? Because truly some of the things Cosby is talking about are several decades old.”
JACKSON: I think if you go to almost any black church, you’ll hear this same message over and over again. If you listen to [Kweisi “Frizzell Gray”] <a target=new href=”http://www.naacp.org/leadership/presimessage.shtml”>Mfume</a> of the NAACP speak, <a target=new href=”http://www.naacp.org/leadership/bond.shtml”>Julian Bond</a> or go hear the president of Morehouse College North Carolina (garbled). This is a rather common message and Bill’s point was on the other hand we find people of opportunity and we do not have adequate counsel. He said, for example, he derided the fact that a tax base gives us inferior schools but against these odds, how you buck the odds? You must be more determined, and more willing to work, and you must not surrender to low inspections and low standards. Why are we the best in the world at football, basketball, baseball, track, golf, tennis? Because of superior effort. So if you’re behind you fight for equal opportunity, but you must do so with a superior effort.
RUSH: I wish it were true, wish what he said were true but it’s not. You’ve got the Congressional Black Caucus. Well, members of the Congressional Black Caucus today in Congress asking the UN to come monitor United States elections. You have members of the Congressional Black Caucus supporting people like Fidel Castro and in opposing the United States in its mission to spread freedom and liberate the oppressed around the world. Julian Bond? The uh, REVerend Jacks’nnn says that you can hear Julian Bond speak this way? Julian Bond is saying some of the most racially charged insults about President Bush that’s being said by anybody out there. If this message is out there, I’m glad. I hope he’s right, but he is wrong when he says it’s as predominant as when Bill Cosby says it.
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