Cosby has been playing this riff for years...

Best moment from "The Cosby Show"(courtesy IMDB.com)

[Theo has received a "D" and is explaining why he should not be punished]
Theo: I mean, you're a doctor, Dad. And Mom is a lawyer. But I don't love you any more because of that! So if I just want to do something normal with my life, then maybe you should accept it and love me because I'm your son.

Cliff: Theo... that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life! No wonder you get D's in everything! You're afraid to try because you're afraid your brain is going to explode and it's going to ooze out of your ears. Now I'm telling you, you are going to try as hard as you can. And you're going to do it because I said so. I am your father. I brought you into this world, and I'll take you out!

I'm white, grew up in a white town, all that jazz. My favorite musicians tend to be black, but that's not the matter at hand. I don't know what the black experience is like in America, but I do understand it sucks ass to be poor and hungry. So on that tip, I'm going along with Bill Cosby and a line of other VERY important black men and women who'd say the same damn thing as him. Every successful black person I read about says the same thing: damn the torpedos and make it on your own merit.

Many of the Sergeants at basic were black, and a lot of them were the most driven people I'd ever met. If you knew the daily schedule of a basic training instructor, you'd be amazed how they kept it together and got so much done. I had mad, mad respect for those men. I looked up to them more than anyone else there. I came to understand that they worked as hard as they did because of factors like being black in America, and coming from rough backgrounds.

"It's this, or nothing. Glory or death." That's what I picked up from them. It affected my own career goals in the military a lot - and I'm a white dude from the suburbs. I know for a fact I could've coasted my whole life. My childhood wasn't hard. I had every opportunity to set cruise control, work in a cubicle until I was 65 and plan my retirement in a tract house with a 2-car garage. It would've been easy to not do sh*t with my life. But who were the role models, besides my family, to want more and go after it? Black men. I'd have to say the most influential figures I've read about or met have been black men.

Before I go, take one example. This man named Gil. I met him 2 years ago, after I graduated college. I only met him once, but I spent a couple hours with him. He was laid up in the house, and had to use an O2 tank to help his breathing. So he set up his basement to be a den for all his entertainment. He was pretty computer savvy, and was constantly getting movies, music and such from wherever. Anyway, I talked with him about 2 specific things: his tour in Vietnam, and the beginnings of his career. Gil served in 'nam, as I said. While he was there, his platoon got sacked, and he was separated from his unit. Alone, and in the jungle, he made his way back to post. Stayed in the forest for about 3-4 days, eating nothing but onions for food. When he got back, what happened got reported, and eventually he was commended for his survival. As he should've. He did what he was trained to do, and succeeded.

War stories aside, he talked about what he did to open the door after graduating college. He told me how he went to each "door," and banged hard as he could on each one until one opened. Gil was driven, every bit as driven to have a good job and make a nice home for his family as he was to survive the jungles of Vietnam and return to his unit. I only met him once that day, but it had an impact.

Ah well, I'm rambling and most of you would prefer an old fashioned left v. right flamewar, so I'll let you get to it. I was just saying Cosby's words are true and I know people just like him from my own experience.

One love.

I'm a black man (actually a halfie) from outside the US. I'm from the Caribbean and live in a very Americanized society. Though where I am is a British colony, proximity to the US kind of dictates where we import things from.

I can't speak for the rest of the Caribbean, but in my country it's roughly 85-90% Black or mixed population and I have to say that the majority of us do not understand Black americans.

I lived in the US for a few years and I've traveled in that country quite extensively and most of the black people I've met there I feel nothing but annoyance with. How can people with the opportunities that abound in the US so utterly and completely waste them? How do they perpetuate the same cycles generation by generation, destroying their own communities and turning their children in to brainless killers or victims?

The first thing Black people have to do is tear down their projects and build real communities. The ghetto mentality is poison. We have it here too and *unfortunately* it's growing. It inspires laziness and greedy, backstabbing, entitlist behavior. It's a road that leads nowhere but down.

Take it from a black with a perspective of being outside with the ability to look in: You're going nowhere, Blacks in the US. Until you start to respect and encourage *real* ambition, you never will.

I think it was Spike Lee who said once that when he was a kid, speaking well, dressing well, having a good job and a good education was something people aspired to and admired. He thought it was sad that those same things are now considered 'selling out'.