Bill Cosby, Part 2- My reaction

My reaction to a post of a Facebook Friend in April shortly after Mr. Cosby’s trial:

Is this show now Tainted?
Copywrited 1995 NBC
Universal 

” As I said in another post. No one says anything for YEARS, and as soon as he writes a book (and mind you, he has written a couple), but this is about his life, all of a sudden, these women come out of the woodwork. What happen? Got a little greedy? I am not saying that he may or may not have done it. I have said that the whole time from when the first woman said that Bill Cosby raped her. This was long before the #MeToo campaign. I am not making light of the whole thing. If he did it, when will answer to the charges one way or another, either here on Earth, or when he dies, I am still on the fence with this. The reason I am on the fence is he built a reputation of #1 dad in a family-oriented show that crossed racial lines because everyone had a Cliff, a Clair, and children like Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. They may not have made as much as the Huxtables, and what dad had not tried the parental tricks of these parents. Given that they were characters in a show, but even kids of abusive parents have wanted parents like Cliff and Clair. It is hard to believe that this same man, who told young men to "Pull up your pants" and talked about education, while managed to give a funny laugh or two with how he raised his own kids, could do this behind the scenes, away from the spotlight. all I can say is "Dishearten". I also believe what another friend wrote, which was that he was also a victim of not being black enough according to the standards of the White Supremacy.”

I still think there is some conspiracy behind this case.  Sorry, let the trolls come, I do not care.  This is my post and my opinion.  Please do not shoot.  Do I believe that there were victims in this besides Bill Cosby?  Sure, there were.  No one knows the whole truth but Bill Cosby and God. Either way, his reputation was ruined the moment the first woman can forward.  Again, the was before the Me Too campaign.  This was before anyone born thought of the Me Too movement. 

The funny thing about this, and I am not talking in a comedian-type of funny, no woman on The Cosby Show, A Different World, or even in his previous shows, or his short-lived show, Cosby, said that he did anything inappropriate.  I had heard that he was a regular at the Playboy Mansion, so should those Playboy Bunnies come forward too?  What about #45 (Donald Trump), does he get a pass?  Bill Clinton didn’t.  He was impeached on paper if that means anything.

Another funny thing is that Bill Cosby is 80 years-old.  He was convicted on three charges, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years each.  This means he will get out in 30 years.  Do you know how old he will be in 30 years? No doubt that his legal team will contest that.  The man is too old to be sentenced, and where is he going to stay for 30 years, some cushy celeb-jail, with all the creature comforts of home?   

Let’s Address the Elephant in the Room…

One woman was not going to let it rest until she gets her due justice.  All the others backed off because they knew that the statute of limitations was up for them.  They were counting on her to deliver the blow that was “the man that American homes built up to be #1 TV Dad”.  But why now? Was he getting too comfortable?  Speaking engagements, suppositums, college campuses, teacher events, and a tell-all book to top it off. Someone must have said, “this black man has gotten too big in his old age, someone needs to shut him up.”    Some people got tired of hearing what Bill Cosby had to say on today’s youth and education.  I think the last time he was in Columbus was it was right before he was indicated the first time.  He was greeted like royalty.  Bill Cosby spoke and told jokes at the Ohio Theatre on State Street.  He loved hot dogs, so, a place up the street named one after him. I forgot the name of the hot dog, but the place is called Dirty Franks.  I am sure they removed the hot dog or changed the name of it. Maybe someone did not see Bill Cosby’s name in lights or in the news.  Again, this just my opinion on trying to understand it all. 

When he was first indicted, they removed The Cosby Show from Netflix, Nick at Night, and any television channel that could show it.  They even stopped showing A Different World because he produced and created the show.  About a year ago, TV One started showing The Cosby Show, and I could have been any happier.  Not just because of the man who played Dr. Heathcliff  Huxtable, obstetrician, husband to Clair, a lawyer, parent of five: Sondra, Denise, Theodore, Vanessa, and Rudith (in an earlier episode, her full name was announced as Rudith Lillian Huxtable). It was not just because Cliff was funny, but the whole family was very entertaining, and besides my own family, I saw someone who was family-oriented, did not curse at the wife and kids, and whose parenting tactics resembled my own parents.  They did not live in the ghetto, like The Evans from Good Times.  Clair was not a single mother, trying to make ends meet while trying to hold down two or three jobs.  They ate well, but they did not throw their wealth around like The Jefferson’s, a couple by the same show name, who had one child, in college by the name of Lionel.  I would say that the Huxtables were an average family with their own home, making it on their without the stereotypes of typical African Americans in a sitcom. In fact, the only other African American family I had seen on television (husband, wife, kids) were the Evans (Good Times).  Not even in a dramatic type of show.  The only difference between the two families was one was poor with the wife working as a maid, and the other was middle class with the wife working as a lawyer.  Hum, I may explore this some more for my Mother’s Day piece.  That is a good starting off point. For now, let’s get back to Bill Cosby, the man.

One of the reasons Lisa Bonet, who played Denise Huxtable was let go from the show for a while, as she started in a movie called Angel Heart.  In some of the scenes, she was to get naked and perform a sex act, which disheartened Bill Cosby.  He advised her not to take the role.  She did it anyway, and he let her go for a while.  Denise’s absence was explained in one of the shows.  This was how she met and married Martin Kendall, and became stepmother to Olivia when Lisa was rehired.  To me, on the surface, does not sound like a perverted man, who would drug women and have sex with them while they were under.  Now, I am not sure what to believe.

This also leads to the second half of my question: why didn’t he make his advances on Phylicia Rashad, Sabrina LeBouf, Lisa Bonet, Tempest Bledsoe, Keisha Knight Pullum, Raven Symone, or even the countless women and girls who played the television daughters friends, extras, or even the two little girls who played Winnie, Sondra and Elvin’s daughter, as well as the female staff working on the show, no complaints from any women on the sets of I Spy, Cosby, or any of the movies he has been in, at least not yet.

I am sure that this only the beginning.  After all, look at Harvey Weinstein.  He was a producer and had his own production company.

Some truths in all of this…

I guess I am the victim of putting in a successful African American man.  Besides his success on the Cosby Show and other television shows, including the show that dragged me to like him in the first place, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. He was also a regular on the first Electric Company, a PBS Show.  (Where Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman was on as well). He is a philanthropist, gives back to the community, talks about education, and a whole host of things that I did not fit into this post.  It is hard on any person who has followed this man for so long to see the “elephant in the room”,  it is the fault of the actor as well as the fault of the fan.  Yes, like countless others, I am a fan, but how can I be a fan of a rapist? His beliefs do not line up with mine. Now, it makes perfect sense when the Bible tells you not to follow man, but God. 

It is also true when a rapist will not go after members of his own family.  He could have easily did the same to his daughters.

We will never know the full story behind Bill Cosby the man.  If he does not get to spend time in jail, my suggestion is what I read in Joseph C. Phillips, who played Cliff’s son-in-law Martin Kendall said in a post he wrote in 2015;” Retired to the countryside, live out your days, and make no contact with anyone.” That is the best he can do for him and Camille Cosby, his wife, and his remaining children (one daughter died earlier this year, and he lost his only son in 1997). That is the best I can say to a man who played Dr. Huxtable.  Dr. Huxtable was a good man, husband, father, and grandfather, but he was only a character sent to entertain me once a week on Thursdays at 8 pm from 1984-1992.  I had fun, I had laughs, and it was a good time in my television life.  I still enjoy it, binge-watching on TV One from 2 pm to 7 pm on Saturdays.  I also catch a glimpse of it on YouTube.  Has Bill Cosby tainted me from viewing it?  No, but I think I better take a hiatus from it for a few months.