Pardon me for the (‘ahem’)
pun, “The proof is in the pudding” as Bill Cosby, the voice behind Jell-O and
several other popular consumer product brands of the 1970’s, faces an
increasing number of women who have come out from behind a decades-old curtain
of shame and pain to accuse the celebrity comedian, entertainer, actor, moralist
and Black “Father Knows Best” from the Baby Boomer Generation of being a serial
rapist. In Mr. Cosby’s case, silence is not golden and statements by his
attorney that he hasn’t been prosecuted or found guilty of these heinous
accusations does not necessarily exonerate him of having done something
criminal or improper of a sexual nature. Even Mr. Cosby issuing a brief
statement like he refuses to dignify these [absurd] allegations by not
answering them or telling people to do some fact-checking does not help his
cause. It’s like one of the classic
oaters [Westerns] called “Shane” where the hero (Shane) played by Alan Ladd
tells his protagonist, the gunslinger dressed in black (Jack Palance), “You’re
a lowdown, yellow-bellied Yankee liar” to which his adversary (Palance) said,
“Prove it!” So, isn’t this basically what Bill Cosby is saying, “Prove it?”
Tacoma, WA 98402
November 25, 2014
robertrandle51@yahoo.com
The ‘Coz’ knows
that the statute of limitations has expired for the crime of rape and there was
no forensic testing done forty years ago for fibers from clothing, or DNA
samples collected from a rape kit after his accuser contacted the EMT or police
and went to the hospital where an invasive exam could be performed to collect
the evidence resulting from an exchange of bodily fluids or indication of
vaginal penetration that would be used in a criminal proceeding. The only thing
is that for women making such a charge means that their past sexual history
could be introduced as evidence in court, whereas for the defendant [male] it
is not required; and this is exactly what happened in the rape case against
Kobe Bryant, so this is what keeps many female rape victims from not coming
forward because they don’t want to go through such an ordeal and have their
private and intimate sexual history exposed to the public
What is strange and
weirder is that Bill Cosby used to have a comedy routine where he talks about
drugging women and then having sex with them, but something like that could not
have evoked much laughter from the audiences back then and it sure isn’t funny
now. Come to think of it, was it life imitating art and these performances were
just his way of bragging about or celebrating his criminal misdeeds and getting
away with it right under peoples’ noses? As Arnold (Gary Coleman) from
“Different Strokes” would say, “What you talking about Willis (Todd Bridges)”?
Is it possible that the clean cut, respectable All-American dad, Dr. Cliff
Huxtable was in fact a Gemini personality like Dr. Jekyll masquerading before
the public, while at the same time keeping his Mr. Hyde inner psychopath or
sociopath nature from being discovered
and exposed; until now? “Say it ain’t so” or is it so, really and truly? Bill
Cosby is a role model and represented the example of what a good dad could be and a
responsible husband should be for legions of his fans; probably more Whites
than Blacks because Blacks know better than that because it was unrealistic, at
least the Dr. Huxtable portrayed on television. In fact the entire show was the
White ideal that for all intents and purposes, very few educated, White upper
middle-class families could live up to such high standards. Maybe there is an
object lesson in all of this because after all, Hannah Montana is definitely
not and was not Miley Cyrus, but at least in her case one can attribute her
recent outrageous behavior to coming of age, growing up into early adulthood,
and raging, post-adolescent age hormones.
As far as the
African-American community is concerned there are so few moral authorities,
especially among Black men and although comments that Bill Cosby has made about
young Black males clothing, rap music, and other adverse stereotypical
behaviors which delighted the ears of religious and political Conservatives,
this fiasco may undue whatever credibility and respectability that he has left.
I mean, this is way more serious than how many women Tiger Woods had sex with
or indecent sexual behavior and innuendo by former Republican presidential
candidate Herman Cain’s female accusers, or even Anita’s Hill’s testimony
before the Senate Judiciary Committee at Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court
nomination hearing about his indulgence in reading or watching pornographic
material and other sexually explicit and lewd descriptions of genitalia as well
as other interests of a prurient nature. Pertaining to Mr. Cosby’s troubles, this
is one skit that “SNL” will never perform, even if writers are chomping at the
bit to use their creative imagination and genius to come up with a racially and
gender provocative routine because this is not something that can be
trivialized into a comedy format, and it would be professionally irresponsible
as well as grossly insensitive to the female victims, of whom all of them can’t
be lying, nor even to Bill Cosby because, until proven guilty he has to be
given the benefit of the doubt; even if that doubt of innocence increases with
each passing day.
In America there
are at least two crimes that you cannot expect to apologize for and receive
forgiveness: one of them is rape and the other is being a pedophile. So, while
we may never know exactly what happened between these women and Bill Cosby, one
thing is for sure, something did occur and the bigger question that seems to
get lost in the debate is whether Camille will, like Hillary Rodham-Clinton,
“Stand by her Man” because at this point, his career comeback and social as
well as moral legacy just might be going up in flames.
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St.
#B-11Tacoma, WA 98402
November 25, 2014
robertrandle51@yahoo.com
