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You don’t deserve Bill Cosby

Yesterday America’s dad was taken to court. Bill Cosby, or Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable as he’s fictionally known to millions, made a court appearance to face “aggravated indecent assault charges stemming from an alleged 2004 incident in Pennsylvania.”

Cosby was booked and released on a bail of $1 million.

While the charges against Cosby are old (12 years), they fall within the statute of limitations, which were set to expire in early 2016. Pennsylvania First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said that the charges were filed “after new information came to light this July.”

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel

Photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel

That new information is Cosby’s deposition from a civil suit against him was unsealed by a judge. Per Cosby’s words, he “admitted to giving Quaaludes to a woman with whom he wanted to have sex.”Since then, Cosby’s reputation as a family man committed to morality has been shredded.

More than 55 women have accused the comedian of drugging them and assaulting them sexually.

Now we’re here.

The country’s favorite TV dad taxed with providing levity tinged with principle is no more.

Bill Cosby’s theatre
Some years back, Cosby tossed his robe of comedy aside and slid into a cape of righteousness. Cosby always operated in the arena of respectability and believed in the idea of personal responsibility. It was laced through his comedy and a common theme on his popular TV show, The Cosby Show.

In 2004 Cosby assailed some in the black community for no longer feeling embarrassment “because they’re pregnant without a husband” and admonishing bad mothers because they were forced to raise latchkey kids.

In his now infamous “Pound Cake” speech, Cosby’s tongue was as sharp as the teeth of a shark.

People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake! Then we all run out and are outraged, “The cops shouldn’t have shot him” What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?”

He continues his diatribe…

Are you not paying attention, people with their hat on backwards, pants down around the crack. Isn’t that a sign of something, or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up. Isn’t it a sign of something when she’s got her dress all the way up to the crack…and got all kinds of needles and things going through her body. What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans, they don’t know a damned thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Shaligua, Mohammed and all that crap and all of them are in jail.”

Cosby took out his anger on black motherhood and its supposed failures.

It’s where the Cosby train derailed into a ditch. In his eyes, he was having a hard talk with the black community and telling each member that most problems are self-inflicted. Straighten your back, fix your pants, and be a man.

A simple antecedent for success that worked for him and those around him. It’s how he purported to raise America’s kids through the television screen each week.

Yet Cosby’s anger seemed misguided and pointed in the wrong direction. His brand of help was more harmful than good. The very people he claimed to love no longer felt his care.

The antithesis of curing what ails the black community is conformity or a more stringent form of social decency.

But this is where we received a wide ranging glimpse of Cosby’s personal brand of politics, his patriarchy, and the ignorant and jumbled thoughts of how little he knew of the problems that truly faced Black America.

Cosby’s assaults

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Clik here to view.
Photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel.

Photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel.

Through charges and accusations, we have an idea of Cosby’s relationship with women. They were fine to fancy and worthy of entertainment. Step outside of his myopic view of where women should be placed and problems would surface.

It’s also where many black men find themselves without consciously knowing it.

When the allegations on Cosby were first announced, many immediately defended him on the basis of his celebrity and philanthropy. He was an honest and generous donor to many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) including the colleges that he attended.

Serving as a mentor and friend to many black entertainers, not to mention the comedic legacy he would leave, Cosby’s innocence was tied to this living estate.

Why would a man with so much success, wealth, and social value jeopardize his position by committing an act as heinous as sexual assault?

The answer may be as clear as Cosby’s view on degenerate black people. According to rainn.org, nearly 70% of sexual assaults are never reported to the police. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center notes that “eight of out 10 cases of rape” involve a person of close confidence to the victim.

Taking that a little further, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) states that just “26 percent of sexual assaults” were reported in the United States between 1992 and 2000 due to a myriad of reasons. NIJ reports that many have a “lack of trust in the criminal justice system” or have a striking “fear of not being believed or of being accused of playing a role in the crime.”

From victim blaming to being shamed for exercising some form of sexuality, women aren’t looked upon as bastions of purity.

Cosby likely knew that his celebrity would cloak him in virtue. Not many would believe the stories of the women accusing him of something so heinous that it would make the fictional TV dad he played blush.

He knew how to properly wield his power and when to utilize it.

Cosby’s antipathy
Cosby’s speech about pound cake heralded the antipathy he has for some in the black community. The degenerates; the ones who drain society’s resources due to impurities represent the worst of who we may be.

His morality on full display, Cosby used his hoisted pedestal to ensure his position as being superior to those who may look like him, but behave in a different manner.

It’s why the continued admiration for Cosby has been slightly perplexing. For the ones who need, and deserve saving, Cosby didn’t hold back his hate for them. Likely still hanging on to Cosby’s fixture as saintly father on TV, many of the comedian’s admirers have failed to differentiate his art from his person.

Of the over 55 women who have accused Cosby of assault, the majority have been pegged as liars and opportunists attempting to ruin Cosby’s legacy.

We, or at least my generation, grew up on The Cosby Show. It came to be the fanciful structure of how families should be. The Cosby Show and Mr. Cosby have become fetishized, which leads to an unhealthy attachment to the idea of Bill Cosby or Heathcliff Huxtable.

Additionally, Cosby is perched upon the mountain of black male entertainers who have elevated what black people are capable of doing in Hollywood. Tearing away that heritage falls in line with how quickly black men are torn down in this country. Attaching rape charges to Cosby would continue to erode his foundation.

Some are also decrying that it was easy for Cosby to face rape charges while black victims of state violence haven’t faced the same vigor of America’s justice system.

It is in that lazy attempt at drawing upon the unfairness of this country’s legal structure where we find the crux of Cosby’s affirmers. Patriarchy plays a major role in how we view Cosby, rape victims, and those who have fell at the knees of state sanctioned violence and murder.

Bill Cosby’s link to black men is his role as their fictional TV father. How he navigated his marriage and showed affection and love for his children was at the least admirable.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel.

Photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel.

He was what most black men desired to become. Head of household, protector, breadwinner, and authoritarian who keenly understood his position in the world.

But Cosby’s TV character had flaws. Never broached the topic of race and certainly didn’t swim in the waters of abuse or sexual assault. He was smart but not terribly creative.

Without reproach, he was the leader and decision maker.

His canonization in the face of depravity is troubling due to the nature of what he’s facing.

Men, specifically black men, are unknowingly calcitrating women by lionizing Cosby. The same innocence that black men want for black people who are victims of state violence isn’t being afforded to the ones they are supposed to protect: women.

Women fail to report rape and sexual abuse due to a lack of trust in law enforcement. Black men are more likely to run from the police due to a lack of trust in in law enforcement. We sometimes have more in common than we pretend to believe.

It’s there where the failure occurs. It’s why we don’t deserve a man like Bill Cosby, we deserve better. It’s why his criticisms of black people should ring hollow and why he doesn’t deserve an ounce of our admiration.

It’s why his legacy shouldn’t matter, and if convicted, should be burned as quickly as he churned through judgements of the black community.

Bill Cosby isn’t your father and you deserve better than what he gave you.

-JH

The post You don’t deserve Bill Cosby appeared first on Jason Henry Project.


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