Gamertell

Bill Cosby almost had it.

In an article mentioned in Greenwood Commonwealth (by Charlie Smith), Cosby used a speech that was made by a Greenwood High School student at the United Methodist Church on Thursday (November 20, 2008) as a platform to emphatically illustrate his own concerns about the state of black culture. Throughout his speech, he expressed concern that black culture was not doing enough to uplift themselves during these challenging times.

However, while Cosby may have been making sense in that he encouraged the black community to take more responsibility for their actions, there were some parts of this speech that sadly highlighted his disconnection with the trends of today’s youth.

One such aspect was when he labeled children who play Grand Theft Auto as participating in an “entrance exam” to attend prison.

Cosby’s specific words, as mentioned in the article, state that the game “cost your mother $250 to buy that for you so you can practice your entrance exam (to prison).”

Looking past the obvious fallacies of that comment, such as where he mistakenly says that Grand Theft Auto costs $250 (it doesn’t), statements like these are extremely troubling because they portray Cosby as an individual who is stuck in the past and unwilling to embrace the present and look forward to the future. Compare his method of thinking to that of Barack Obama; while his comments can be interpreted to mean that he views video games as a means of underachievement, he at least appreciates and embraces the advances made by modern technology

Cosby’s speech really should have called for greater responsibility of what children watch, as well as what they listen to.

For instance, if Johnny spent an hour playing Grand Theft Auto, the ideal solution would be to arrange for a sit-down session equal to that time to explain to him sternly that his actions would NEVER pass muster in the real world.

Cosby would never do that though. It’s too much work. It is far easier to blame video games for society’s ills.

Read [Gamepolitics] Via [Greenwood Commonwealth]

Image from Greenwood Commonwealth.