Bill Cosby Is Using America's Racial Tension To Disguise His Disgusting Crimes
Cosby’s crimes have nothing to do with race, and everything to do with abusing women.
by Ben Cohen
I have made it a policy over the past few years not to weigh in on debates within the African American community. I prefer to do more listening than speaking and think that Black issues are just that — Black issues.
When it comes to Bill Cosby and his cynical use of America’s racial tension to disguise his appalling crimes against a total of 60 women though, I feel compelled to weigh in. Why? Because Cosby’s crimes have nothing to do with race, and everything to do with abusing women.
Exonerated? No, not at all
Bill Cosby is now a free man, having won his early release for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand on a legal technicality. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his 2018 conviction and ruled that a “non-prosecution agreement” with a previous prosecutor meant that he should never have been charged in the first place. It is important to not that this was not an exoneration.
Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt however, described his release as a victory for Black America, and apparently Black women too. According to Wyatt, Cosby will now dedicate what time he has left to ‘rehabilitating’ his legacy. Reported the New York Times:
Mr. Wyatt said Mr. Cosby plans to write a book in collaboration with him, and that Mr. Cosby is working with a production company on a five-part documentary about his life and legacy. He said Mr. Cosby, 83, also intends to return to the stage at some point and that he had been fielding calls from promoters.
“People want to hear and see this guy,” Mr. Wyatt said. “He can sell out shows. People want to hear Mr. Cosby. He is loved by millions.”
Wyatt’s assertion that Cosby is loved by millions is certainly true — a cursory glance on social media commentary validates this to an almost shocking extent. Cosby not only has fanatical support from fans who believe he is the victim of a huge conspiracy, but prominent actors and celebrities too. His co-star on The Cosby Show Phylicia Rashad for example, came out swinging in his defense. “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” she said in a now deleted tweet.
This shouldn’t need to be repeated, but Bill Cosby is guilty and should be viewed as a dangerous sexual predator. Not ‘allegedly’, not ‘maybe’, and not even ‘probably’. Cosby was found guilty on all three counts of indecent assault by a court in Philadelphia back in 2018. He literally admitted to giving quaaludes, a powerful sedative, to women with the explicit purpose of having sex with them. 13 more women came forward during the Constand case sworn statements to support her. Dozens of other women came forward publicly to accuse Cosby of drugging and assaulting them.
When you have that many women conveying eerily similar accounts of assault, rape, and drugging, it is impossible to believe Cosby’s version of events. The fact that he has been released from jail on a legal technicality means nothing. Bill Cosby is a sexual predator, period.
Playing the victim
Fortunately for Cosby he is being released from jail in the wake of some of the worst racial tension the US has seen in decades. In post George Floyd America, sensitivity to the plight of African Americans has captured the attention of the public in a momentous way. The country is going through an extraordinarily difficult reckoning and is being forced to come to terms with the appalling treatment Black people still endure in every day life. Cosby’s PR team have cynically latched onto this, knowing it provides him cover for his crimes that have nothing to do with race at all. Using Black Power imagery and quotes from historical Black figures, Cosby’s team believe they can make Cosby the victim:
It is worth noting that many of Cosby’s accusers are Black women, making this already revolting tactic even more appalling.
Dishonoring the victims by using race
Bill Cosby’s long and storied history of sexually assaulting women has nothing to do with his ethnicity. He was a powerful, wealthy man who used his position in society to destroy the lives of women he wanted to have sex with. While committing horrendous crimes against women, Cosby went to great lengths to scold other African American celebrities for what he believed to be immoral behavior — a testament to his extraordinary ego and sense of invulnerability.
Cosby, like his fellow powerful abuser Harvey Weinstein, is the definition of a monster. He is only walking away from jail because he had enough money to manipulate the legal system. His release is not an exoneration, not an example of the legal system working as it should, and certainly not a ‘victory’ for Black America and Black women. Cosby abused women because he was powerful. He got away with abusing women for years because he was powerful, and he got out of jail for abusing women because he was powerful. As the late Chez Pazienza wrote:
It's a tragic fact of our culture of personality, but rich and famous people can often get away with murder -- or, potentially in this case, rape….Cosby has used his vast wealth and influence to intimidate and silence his victims and, worse, to create new ones. He's gotten away with this for so long because he knew that he could both talk and buy his way out of any repercussions.
If there is one aspect of American culture that transcends race, social class and gender, it is money. If Bill Cosby didn’t have a vast fortune to pay his legal bills, he would no doubt still be in prison. But he has, and can now pay PR flaks to work on rehabilitating his image and changing the narrative around his crimes. Just as Cosby cynically used his power and wealth to abuse his victims, he is using it to demean the struggle for racial justice in America. Those supporting Cosby are likewise demeaning this cause, and more importantly the women he abused.
The only victory Cosby’s victims now have is his age and battered reputation. He is 83 and damaged goods, so talk of a comeback is just that — talk. Cosby is an irrelevant force in American culture and his legacy has been ruined forever. He can no longer abuse women and he will live out the rest of his days as a social pariah.
This isn’t justice though, and everyone — regardless of race — should be outraged by it.
Read an excerpt from the latest essay for Banter Members:
The MAGA Delusion Is Escalating Dangerously
It is extremely important to grasp how dangerous the moment we are in actually is.
Image: Edward Jeremy Dawson, a Patriot Prayer associate who went to Washington DC to threaten a reporter
by Justin Rosario
As the Republican Party continues to spread the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, they’re also continuing to spread terrorism in their wake. But while Republicans seem to be free to wreak havoc at will, their MAGA foot soldiers/useful idiots, convinced they are going to “take back America”, are paying the price for this war against democracy, decency, and the rule of law. You’ll be shocked to know these fine, upstanding “patriots” are appalled they are being held accountable and find it extremely unfair there are consequences for their actions.
It’s tempting to simply indulge in schadenfreude as MAGA moron after MAGA moron flushes their life down the toilet, but there’s more to it than that. It’s important to understand the mindset underpinning their behavior because without that understanding, you cannot grasp how dangerous the moment we are in actually is.
Citizen Accountability
Right now, the federal government is gearing up to tackle right-wing extremism. This has come as quite the shock to MAGAs who were smugly enjoying the prospect of a second Trump term during which the Department of Justice would go after Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Tucker Carlson’s audience of fascists were drooling at the idea of the federal government destroying the people they hate.
Now that the government is, instead, going to target the domestic terrorism that MAGAland thinks is their birthright as White Americans, it’s all “tyranny” and “political persecution.” But this effort is going to take time and until then, the work of doxxing Nazis continues.
I’ve been writing since the inception of the Trump administration that being a racist asshole still has consequences. The revolting racist march at Charlottesville for example, saw doxxing used systematically to out dozens of Nazis and ruin their lives.
The First Amendment protects hateful people from the government. It does not protect them from us.
Not having learned anything from the past four years, MAGAs have been steadily escalating from verbal harassment to regularly assaulting journalists and protesters. The Big Lie has only emboldened them. Reports the Washington Post:
In a flash, Laura Jedeed was surrounded by screaming men. The freelance journalist was filming a group of Trump supporters walking the streets of the District after the “Million MAGA March” on Nov. 14 when a man wearing an American flag gaiter mask approached her, stepped on her toes and began yelling.
“What’s up, you stupid b----?” the man shouted, his mask slipping down his face.
Jedeed uploaded the video and the man, Edward Jeremy Dawson, was quickly identified. His name and publicly available information were blasted all over the internet and reported to his employer, who fired him two days later. C’est la vie.
It is 100% legal to be a white nationalist. It is also legal to inform all of your friends, neighbors, and coworkers that is who you are. No company wants a Nazi employee. It’s bad for business. MAGAs, though, labor under the fantasy that they have the “right” to be awful people with zero consequences. This right wing delusion was bad enough. Now it is getting worse….
To continue reading this piece, please go here.
Like Jeffrey Toobin--back on CNN after a brief downtime after his masturbation fiasco--Cosby will be back on tour soon. Look for the woke left's panties to be in a bunch over it.