By Berenise Hernandez

* Bill Cosby was born as William Henry Cosby on July 12, * He dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy and later on he dropped out of college to be a comedian. * Most successful work is the Cosby Show on NBC * He has also been an actor, writer and producer in various movies.

* He is married to Camille O. Cosby. He has four daughters (Erika, Erin, Evin, and Ensa) and a son (Ennis) * His son Ennis was murdered in 1997 and ever since then Bill Cosby has taken a more conscious tone on society. He tries to emphasize family values to the public.

* Speaker – Dr. Bill Cosby * Occasion – May 2004 during an NAACP awards ceremony in Washington D.C. to commemorate the 50 th anniversary of the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education court decision. The issues of the modern black culture inspired Bill Cosby to write the speech. * Audience – American public, but the speech is targeting the African American population

* Purpose – to criticize the African American population and all its flaws. Dr. Bill Cosby is upset when he delivers the speech and the effect is that he sparks a reaction in the audience. He uses real life examples and humor to gain support from his audience. His speech opens the eyes of many and inspires them to change and live up to the civil rights activist of the past. * Subject – education and the black community culture * Tone – serious, humorous, ironic, sarcastic, and criticizing

* Dr. Bill Cosby has a famous reputation and that immediately makes him a credible figure to listen to. * He mentions God and Jesus in his speech which emphasizes his shared values with the public. * His age gives him authority to talk about the issue because he’s lived through the changes.

* ‘’ The church is only open on Sunday. And you can’t keep asking Jesus to do things for you. God was there when they won all those cases. 50 in a row. That’s where God was because these people were doing something. * Brown vs. Board of Education, these people who marched and were hit in the face with rocks and punched in the face to get in education and we got these knuckleheads walking around who don’t want to learn English.’’ This quote refers to the way black people talk nowadays. ‘’Why you ain’t’’.

* Dr. Bill Cosby is able to provoke the audience’s emotions by using real life examples that give clear images in the minds of the people. Through the use of these anecdotes he is able to get his audience to think like he does and notice that Bill Cosby is right. * He also uses humor a lot to get his audience to laugh and clap at his jokes.

* Are you not paying attention, people with their hat on backwards, pants down around the crack. Isn’t that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up. (laughing) * I’m talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was two?... And how come you don’t know he had a pistol? (clapping) … And then they stand there in an orange suit and you drop to your knees. He didn’t do anything. ‘’ Yes he did do it. And you need to have an orange suit on too. (laughing and clapping) * Bill Cosby critiques parenting in the second quote. He says parents are just as guilty as the kids are.

* Dr. Bill Cosby uses many main ideas and examples to back up his reasoning. * The use of statistics also establishes logos in his speech. * ‘’Ladies and gentlemen, these people set, they opened the doors, they gave us the right, and today, ladies and gentlemen, in our cities and public schools we have fifty percent drop out.

* 50 percent drop out rate, and people in jail, and women having children by five, six different men... These people want to buy the friendship of a child… and these people are not parenting. They’re buying things for the kid. $500 sneakers, for what? They wont buy or spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics. * ‘’ No longer is a person embarrassed because they’re pregnant without a husband. No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child.

* Bill Cosby uses a lot of anaphora, imagery, allusion and homily. * Let’s try to do something. Let’s try to make Jesus smile. Let’s start parenting,… * …please Dorothy Height, where ever shes sitting, she didn’t do all that stuff so she could hear somebody say “I cant stand algebra… * Throughout the whole speech is a sermon about many issues.

* Bill Cosby criticizes the African American’s use of English, parenting, lack of responsibility, crime issues and much more. * He is saying that African Americans should no longer blame discrimination, segregation, the government or other things for high unemployment rates or the racial success gap. Their own culture of poverty is to blame. * African Americans need to start owing up to what civil rights activists did for them.

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