Actor/comedian/philosopher Bill Cosby returned yesterday to Milwaukee to learn why, 10 months after his plea to Milwaukeeans to put away their guns, this has been one of the deadliest summers in the city, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Milwaukee’s homicide count is at 84, compared with 55 last year. “The day to do something about it starts now,” said Cosby.
Cosby, 68, who has been traveling across the country urging an end to violence, hosted three sessions yesterday. Cosby urged the audience to quit letting society make excuses for them. “We bought into something. ‘We are disadvantaged. We are at risk.’ And so we accepted it because we can get a check and think we are fooling people,” Cosby said. Kenneth Cole, a clinical psychologist from California, said African-American young men have been misunderstood to be angry, when really, they are sad. “It’s sad to see your boy get shot,” Cole said. “It’s sad when you don’t live with your parents anymore and you’re sent from foster home to foster home and you are flunking out of school. It’s not about anger. It’s about sadness. It’s about a loss of belief in yourself.”