Watch the Oprah Winfrey Show on Wednesday, October 17th, or read the transcripts found on the website:
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200710/tows_past_20071017.jhtml
After the show, discuss your reactions to Bill Cosby's message. Is it fair? What are his assumptions, biases, logical fallacies? Will his message be effective? How does the context of talking on the Oprah show to Oprah affect his message? What kind of evidence does he use?
Then, relate Cosby or Oprah's message to any of the essays we have or will read for Chapter two on freedom of speech and/or racist language.
Have fun!!!
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7 comments:
Bill Cosby's message is fair. A bit overreacted but fair. Students and children are being killed, and some sort of action needs to be taken. He assumes that his message applies to every town and that every person needs to hear it. He is biased to the "fact" that this is happening in only black families. Only when Blair's mother says that it is not just blacks and hispanics does Dr. Cosby agree to that. All of the statistics they use have no evidence to back them up. They are making generalizations that all black males need to hear this message and that it is all the parents fault. It is not. It is normally the childs. Talking to Oprah on her show effects his message because she is black, and the entire show both Cosby and Oprah said "MY people" and "OUR people" when this message does not ONLY apply to them. He uses (or tries to use) factual evidence although he shows no support in backing his evidence. I think his actual apperance on the show and his speech are about freedom of speech but the choices that people make to respond to his message have nothing to do with it. It is entirely up to the people (both black and others) to decide (AND ACT) on what needs to be done to stop the killings and the drugs and the sex and the *pudding pops*.
I FORGOT TO SPELL CHECK!!
hispanics becomes Hispanics
childs becomes child's
apperance becomes appearance
(sorry about that)
I think it's cool that Aggy says that it is not only African American males who need to hear this message, but I'd hope that she was a bit more clear about which message is universal. Cosby says many things. When he talks about the role of the father in African American family, he's talking directly to black men. He also had a very interesting point at the beginning where he admits that the controversial speech he gave was received by an audience different than he intended (think Aristotle, people). I challenge her assertion that some of the "facts" were generalized. At the beginning of the show, there was a listing of statistics, "homicide is the leading cause of death among black males aged 15-29", "70% of african american babies are born without a named father", etc.
But, his message about Brown v. Board of Education ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education ) is essential to Black America today, and to the rest of America as well. Do we still see education as the ticket out of poverty? Why not? What has happened? What do you think about our school? Do students (white and black) see education as their ticket? Do they care? What's happened? Why are there only 6 students (all female, all white) in this AP class? Why does Ms. Z only have 7 white females in her AP 12 class, when two years ago there was a diverse mixture of 23?
When Bill Cosby establishes his message, hestates it with confidence. His message is fair and although it is fair, he exaggerates to make his point. Many assumptions, such as, only black families are going through this or the education provided is a ticket out of poverty. These are not logical assumptions. Especially when white families have similar problems and a certain percentage of kids in school are still involved in gang activity. His message is not as effective as it could be, because many of his statistics are not supported or quoted on any particular source. By being on the Oprah show, many of his arguments are recieved widely on Oprah's reaction and it's based somewhat on Oprah's body language.
Cosby has a very accurate argument that something needs to be done, but cover the main points in this topic. It has many ill-backed statistics, but at the same time he is a doctor and that proves his points more trustworthy.
After reading Aggy's and Mr. Holt's responses, Aggy has a good point about them catagorizing it as 'their people' and Mr. Holt brought out a good point about how many children are in the classrooms.
*I forgot to spellcheck my other one too. I'm sorry.
I really like Sara's point about how education does not guarantee you a ticket out of poverty, kudos to her.
In response to Mr. Holt..
The universal message is the fact that it does need to be heard by both black people and white people. But Sara is right in saying that things like this are not only happening in black homes. Many white families experience the same thing, even though it is more abundant in black homes.
MR HOLT!
Sorry I possted this a day late but I was working last night and didn't get home until 11ish. Thanks!
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