ATLANTA Joseph Kellogg hasn't seen his father since he was 8 years old. When he was 15, he was shot. He has spent 20 of his 24 years living in housing projects. On Thursday night, the young Atlantan got a standing ovation on a stage next to comedian and TV star Bill Cosby.
"I could be out robbing, stealing and taking drugs because I didn't have a father," said Kellogg, who manages three convenience stores in Atlanta. "I could be out drinking and getting drunk because my mother was a drug addict. But it would be nobody's fault but mine."
Kellogg is the model Cosby wants young African-Americans to follow.
Dressed in a maroon University of Massachusetts sweatshirt, blue sweatpants and sandals, Cosby spoke bluntly about the way some single mothers bring men into their homes who are "worth nothing."
The child "hears you having sex in the room, he hears you arguing, he hears you cursing," Cosby said. "And then four days later, you bring another man into the house."
The audience of 2,500 packed into the Frederick Douglass High School gym gasped.
"People say, 'You're very blunt,' " Cosby said. "You're damn right."
