The horse ain't dead yet

Others said they were concerned not with the topic of Cosby's remarks but with his tone. "If he was going to make such a strong point, he should have chosen his words very carefully," said Wendy Williams, host of the afternoon show on WBLS-FM in New York City. She said callers to her show were split fairly evenly in their opinions on Cosby's comments. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons also questioned Cosby's tone. "Judgment of the people in the situation is not helpful. How can you help them is the question," he said. Izrael said he was appalled by Cosby's remarks about prisoners and police. "That's irresponsible," he said. "In this day and age he ought not be giving license to anyone to shoot our kids in the street for petty crime. It negates everything he had to say. He's coming from this really classist perspective." …Renee Jones, mother of three and grandmother of three, approved of Cosby speaking out. "If there's a problem, it needs to be addressed," said Jones, 51, while waiting for a friend in Harlem. "He was right on for making people understand and see this is a problem." But Otis Parker, 67, thought the need was for action, not talk. He questioned whether the speech patterns of black youth were really the concern. "I was raised to say, 'Yes, Ma'am,' that didn't stop me from going to penitentiary," the retired building superintendent said. He turned his life around after a prison term for armed robbery. Parker acknowledged that there are those who don't make good choices, but said criticizing instead of reaching out to encourage and help them isn't the way to go. "You've got to help them all," he said. "You've got to step in."