Bill Cosby (1937- ), a Black American comedian and television actor, is best known for “The Cosby Show” (1984-1992), a Black family sitcom where he played the beloved father, Dr Cliff Huxtable. It was a huge hit with both Blacks and Whites, arguably one of the best American television shows ever. But in 2015 it is being pulled from television: dozens of women have come forward accusing him of rape and sexual assault, reporting cases that took place between 1965 and 2008.
In 1962, Cosby became a hit as a stand-up comedian at the Gaslight Cafe in New York. This was in the age of Dick Gregory, when Black comedians were expected to comment on race. Cosby did not. His White managers made sure his humour was colour-blind. They wanted him to “work white”.
In 1965, he became “TV’s Jackie Robinson”: the first Black person to star on a White American television show: “I Spy” (1965-1968). Not only that, his character did not sing or dance or widen his eyes in fear according to stereotype. He was just a spy who “happened to be Black”: accidental Blackness. He won three Emmy awards for his acting.
In 1965 Cosby said:
“Negroes like Martin Luther King and Dick Gregory; Negro groups like the Deacons and the Muslims – all are dedicated to the cause of civil rights, but they do their jobs in their own way. My way is to show white people that Negroes are human beings with the same aspirations and abilities that whites have.”
He did that in “I Spy” and his stand-up comedy and, best of all, on “The Cosby Show”. But he rarely if ever brought up White racism. That made him “safe” for Whites.
He was so trusted that he did ads for Jello, Kodak, Ford, Coca-Cola and E.F. Hutton.
Cosby was driven by respectability politics: White approval as the road to Black success. You saw that when he opposed Ebonics in the 1990s.
In 2004, he made his views on race crystal clear in the Pound Cake Speech. He gave it before the NAACP on the 50th anniversary of Brown v Board of Education, the landmark school desegregation case:
“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 went on and on like that, demonizing “lower economic and lower middle economic” Blacks, even calling them “it”, with never a bad word about Whites, not even about school resegregation. It was the Black pathology argument all the way, complete with its lies and exaggerations. He told Blacks:
“God is tired of you.”
In 2015, because of that speech and because Cosby in general poses as a “public moralist”, a judge said the public had a right to know the truth about him: that in a 2005 court case Cosby gave testimony that he intended to give Quaaludes to young women with whom he wanted to have sex.
– Abagond, 2015.
Update (July 19th): More testimony from the 2005 court case has been made public. Cosby had affairs with other women all the time and hid them from his wife. Yahoo! News: “He denied giving women the powerful sedatives without their knowledge. He said he used quaaludes ‘the same as a person would say, ‘Have a drink.””
Update (July 27th): New York magazine has printed the stories of 35 women who accuse Bill Cosby of assault (pictured above).
Update (October 17th): The November cover for Ebony magazine shows the Huxtables of “The Cosby Show” behind broken glass (pictured above).
Update (December 30th): Cosby, for the first time, is to be charged with a crime, for sexually assaulting a woman in 2004. The district attorney knew about it back then but did not press charges. He does so now, with the statute of limitations about to run out, “in light of new information.” The woman in question, Andrea Constand, took Cosby to court in 2005 on civil, not criminal, charges and settled with him in 2006. Presumably he paid her off. Some of his testimony from that trial was made public last summer (see above). More.
Update (September 25th 2018): Cosby has been sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison for sexual assault. The judge determined he is a “sexually violent predator”, so he will be put on the sex offender registry and be required to undergo counselling for life. He is 81.
Update (June 30th 2021): The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned Cosby’s 10-year prison sentence for a “process violation”. He is now a free man.
Sources: Mainly the Washington Post (2015) and “Is Bill Cosby Right?” (2005) by Michael Eric Dyson.
See also:
- YouTube: Pound Cake Speech performed by Nate Howard – 10 minutes (text)
- Know them by their tweets? – Cosby tweeted nothing about Michael Brown or Ferguson in the first two weeks.
- respectability politics
- colour-blind racism
- The Cosby Show
- Ebonics
- school resegregation
- Michael Eric Dyson
[…] Sourced through Scoop.it from: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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“The first and most distracting misconception is that sexual assault is about sex. Sexual assault is no more about sex than assault with a weapon is about the weapon. Experts, such as Stephen Homes, Larry Seigal and Gene Ragula, are among a range who have published writing clearly stating that sexual assault/abuse is not about sex. It’s about power, anger and violence.”
I’ve stayed away from commenting on-line about Cosby, but the above quote is very apropos given my reading of the situation.
Some years ago I went through a seminar on rape, what it is a what it isn’t that is summed up well by the above quote.
Also, my sense is that the public at large is having a difficult time separating Cosby the man from the characters he’s played whether as actor or pitchman.
An object lesson here which says never confuse the public and private persona of anyone in the public eye.
Additionally, his need to sexually assault and abuse women, as it now seems to be the case says much about his sense of “powerlessness,” his emasculation that he would have to resort to drugging women to exert a level control and dominance so that he could feel valued as a man.
Sad.
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YOU MUST BE DESPERATE FOR READERS. Because no one wants to see this Sick twisted thing
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Karma is a blade that is twice as sharp on the way back.
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I find it hard to believe that Mr.. Cosby turned to doing what every sick, twisted, couch caster does in Hollywood to this day. Figures they would make him the poster-boy.
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So when he was running poor black folks down and telling them what was wrong with them he was drugging women. What a hypocrite.
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I wonder what Lisa Bonet thinks of him?
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“…his need to sexually assault and abuse women, as it now seems to be the case says much about his sense of “powerlessness,” his emasculation that he would have to resort to drugging women to exert a level control and dominance so that he could feel valued as a man.”
@Yes. It’s weird, but what you said makes me think of the Mike Epps character in the Sparkle remake. He complained about “cooning” and putting on this persona and it made him feel devalued, I guess emasculated in a sense. He took it out on his wife, violently. Being forced to shelve your authenticity and tap dance to the tune of the powers that be, in this case white benefactors takes a toll. The pressure has to be released.
I can’t make excuses for or condone his behavior, obviously. I also don’t think of it as a reflection on black people in general. It’s a damn shame, that’s for sure that Bill Cosby is a filthy rapist. Not to mention, his moralizing stance and steadfast belief in respectability politics. I’m as disgusted by that as much as anything. I truly feel for his wife. God, what she must be going through!
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” I truly feel for his wife. God, what she must be going through!”
– I have a really hard time believing that his supposedly super smart wife didn’t know what was going on at some point long BEFORE the general public did.
After all, he did this more than a few times and had more than a few women-young women-teenagers over the years accuse him of violating them.
If his wife did know, what does that make her??
This gives new meaning to STANDING BY YOUR MAN..
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I know he disapproved of Lisa Bonet when she did the film Angelheart and when she got pregnant. Then her character disappeared from the show. Denise Huxtable was written off and sent to Hillman College.
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The ongoing saga surrounding Bill Cosby has created some interesting dialogue across America and the world; however, I will argue that the discussions and debates that should be sparked by this story are, for the most part, going unaddressed. While I believe that we need to discuss the veracity of the accusations that have been launched against Bill Cosby, and with the latest bit of information that has been released, there is definitely a dark shadow hovering over him; however, I believe a significant portion of the energy directed at this story will be better served engaging the enigmatic issues that are at the core of the story — rape, incest and molestation in the black community.
It is extremely difficult to decipher the statistics that are presented on these issues due to specific biases; however, on any level, we are dealing with an epidemic, and it is causing devastating effects. Based on academic studies and experiential observation, I would argue that no group of females on the face of the earth has been the more victimized when it comes to incest, molestation and family rape than the black woman. This is not to marginalize the struggles of any other group, but those who know me understand that my focus is always on improving the condition of my people, before engaging the needs and struggles of any other group.
Until we seriously engage the questions and challenges that are presented through the perpetuation of this type of behavior and the neglect in properly engaging these issues, we will continue to struggle as a collective group. Ignoring incest, rape and molestation, or marginalizing it does not eliminate or mitigate its nefarious impact on our culture. The massive gulf that exists between the black man and the black woman is, at least partially, the result of these unaddressed issues. Every time that a black female experiences this type of psychological, physical and emotional trauma, and it goes unaddressed, she becomes fractured and dysfunctional. She may be able to overcompensate in certain areas to develop an appearance of having it all together; however, a closer anatomization of her mental and emotional state will reveal that she has become her own worst enemy, and you will probably find a trail of failed relationships that have manifested the horrific results of what she once believed she had left behind her.
There are black women who are struggling to maintain any semblance of a normal life, especially when it comes to maintaining a romantic relationship with a man. Her issues not only impact her ability to engage a serious and committed relationship in a healthy manner, but it also impacts her ability to effectively parent her children, which she will almost certainly have. To exacerbate the matter, one or more of her children may be the progeny of her abuser.
This black woman will struggle to trust men, making any type of healthy relationship with a man virtually impossible. When the psychological and emotional dynamics associated with child molestation and incest are considered, it is no wonder why so many of our women are fighting just to stay afloat. First of all there is the element of introducing and child to sexual activity long before they are mature enough to handle the repercussions that are associated with it. There is a general consensus that having sex too early in life presents multitudinous dangers. Although there is a difference in opinion as far as what age constitutes too early, most would agree that the age at which most molestation within the family environment, incest, begins, is far too young for a child to appropriately process what is taking place. This is the first phase of trauma and devastation, but it is not the only thing that they will have to deal with. Another dynamic, which may be even more injurious than the damage caused by the early introduction to sexual activity, is the fact that the assault is being perpetrated by someone that the victim loves and trusts. In fact, the perpetrator is often the very one that should be protecting the child from such dangers. This betrayal of trust is highly pernicious and its destructive impact can literally damage a person for life.
It is also important to understand that this type of trauma is not exclusive to black women. Young black boys are assaulted at an alarming rate, primarily by men — putting to bed a common myth that pedophilia is a white issue. The postulation that black men are not pedophiles is due to the fact that this type of behavior is often covered up in the family, and the perpetrator is often protected from prosecution, further placing children in the family at risk. Almost all of us have the uncle or cousin, or maybe father or brother that everyone in the family keeps their kids from. There is a reason for that.
What is even more alarming is abused people who do not get treatment are likely to abuse others. While females will generally manifest their issues through verbal and physical abuse toward their children, young males are more likely to offend in the very same way that they were violated. The perversion of such a natural act can cause immeasurable damage.
While this entire issue with Bill Cosby has brought out the ugly side of many people, I see it as an opportunity to properly engage these issues in an in-depth manner. Not only do we need to discuss these issues through open dialogue, but we need to develop a strategy to attack the issues in a manner that will produce efficacious results. We can’t simply sit around and talk about it, and finger pointing will get us nowhere. We need to create programs for victims of child molestation and incest within the black community. We must also be willing to provide the help that is needed by those who perpetrate these crimes — keeping in mind that they were once victims themselves.
While the Bill Cosby Saga may be intriguing to some, and an opportunity to strike out for others, we should be focused on the bigger issue here — lifting, protecting and healing our women and young men who are the victims of these merciless crimes.
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..Although it is quite delicious, unless you were raised old skool in a house that made this dish back in the day-who da fuq barely even knows what Pound Cake is anymore? That was the first sign that ole’ Bill was outta touch with the new generation he was talkin’ down towards during that infamous “speech”. Lbvs What a douche and a creepy azz hypocrite for all the “respectability” nonsense he pushed so hard upon others, no pun intended (?)
“I know he disapproved of Lisa Bonet when she did the film Angelheart and when she got pregnant. Then her character disappeared from the show. Denise Huxtable was written off and sent to Hillman College. @Mary B. I remember that too, so given her free spirit persona which she always seemed to display during those days (and even now), my guess is that Lisa Bonet most likely saw through or at least felt something non-genuine about this clown in the first place. Kudos to her if she did.. P.S. SMH at his comment about how he feels God is tired of Black people, as if Everyone else (especially those who #1 in Hate, Genocide, Discrimination, etc.) should get a flippin’ gold star cuz their own proverbial shi# don’t stink-the Nerve!!!
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Kushite Prince,
It is indeed an epidemic. Most of the black women I know have been sexually assaulted as adults and as children. When it came to light that my uncle has molested several girls on our family most wanted to keep it quiet. I’m happy to say that my parents went against the family and reported him. He was required to register as a sex offender but nothing else was done. The unwillingness of the family and the black community in general to protect or stand with the victims of sexual abuse probably does more to destroy the victims and our community than the assault.
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It isn’t difficult to understand. It’s difficult to accept. Cosby’s moral center is a clash between what you can buy and what you can sell. As a child, I found a lot of truth in what he was selling. His success was a product of his push for educating black people.
He was an example of how to become a successful black American. And, even in the face of his now revealed demons, his example in that respect was correct. “Dr” Cosby’s personal demons and his crimes are also a cautionary tale and equally enlightening. I can deplore his crimes without abandoning his public contributions to a still relevant discussion of the uplifting power of education.
For me, there is no “cognitive dissonance” or clash between an ideal and human frailty. And, I find too many examples of the dark side of so-called “successful” people to be stunned by Cosby’s crimes or his ability to escape criminal justice because of his wealth.
In a very real sense Cosby is making an equally valuable contribution to society with regard to defining rape and the power of wealth to escape justice. So, other than the very public destruction of Cosby’s legacy, what will society do to curb the imbalance and injustice that extreme wealth brings to our society?
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Since in America you are still innocent until proven guilty, I’ll withhold my opinion with regard to these accusations.
However, I think it’s funny what has happened to Cosby since he’s spent the better part of the decade on a moral pedestal instructing blacks about everything including how to dress when he’s really nothing but a modern minstrel. If blacks really wanted to learn how to be good Negroes they can ask Michelle Obama, Ursula Burns, Charles Frank Bolden… or anyone except fat Albert.
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Black Sci-Fi, I think the main problem is his “moralizing” while raping. If you are raping women then at least disqualify yourself from writing books on love and marriage. If you are knocking out teens and having sex with them, then don’t talk about teenage pregnancy.
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Well said, King! On a sidenote: I just read the entire “speech” and it dawned on me (whilst trying not to vomit) that he kept saying the phrase “trying to buy [someone’s] friendship”, among other things that he felt the “low income” community was doing-makes me think he was projecting Much as he himself “offered” things to women he had chased over the years, was he too trying “buy their friendship” as well!?
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I don’t think any community is immune from the issues of rape, sexual assault and child abuse/exploitation.
In the UK we have had recent court cases where gangs of men from our British Pakistani communities have been convicted of grooming, exploiting and raping young girls. We have a huge, judge-led inquiry just starting into assault, exploitation and rape (mostly of children) allegedly carried out predominantly by rich and powerful white people, including TV stars, politicians, corporate execs etc etc. Some of this historical abuse seems to have been organised conspiracies. We have also had a number of white British men recently convicted of historical offences against children (some committed as early as the 1960s/1970s.
A simple rule of nature: Where inequality exists, where there are vulnerable people, there are exploiters in positions of power and privilege waiting to make victims out of them.
Wait… I don’t need to point that out here.
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@ Sango Kainde
Quit spamming my blog or I will ban you.
I have deleted five of your comments on five different threads, all the same, all off topic.
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What a hypocrite.
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@King
“I think the main problem is his “moralizing” while raping. If you are raping women then at least disqualify yourself from writing books on love and marriage. If you are knocking out teens and having sex with them, then don’t talk about teenage pregnancy.”
I disagree. While I do think hypocrisy can be problematic, I feel the “raping women” and the “knocking out teens and having sex with them” might be the MAIN problem.
Although I will give you that his particular brand of hypocrisy inflicted significant damage on race relations. Many in White America could look to his message, delivered from a perceived moral high ground, and delivered by a Black man no less, as being one of truth. A message that gave validity to their own internal racial bias and opinions. So, I suppose on THIS particular blog, the inherent racism of his hypocrisy may in fact be the main problem. But, at the end of the day, it is important to be clear that hypocrisy is bad but raping is worse. We wouldn’t want people getting the idea that raping is just something that people do but we draw the line at hypocrisy.
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Uncle Tom and rapist too.
Quite the trifecta.
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@ Origin “Uncle Tom and rapist too”. Well… I don’t have an opinion on the rapist part, but the “Uncle Tom” end of it is pretty strong. Bill Cosby portrayed the first black spy on TV. He was Alexander Scott, part of the team of Scott and Robinson, a tennis player and his trainer, who toured the world, tennis being their cover, because they were both agents for the US government. Scotty was a Rhodes scholar who did not shuffle, skin or grin. A very powerful statement for the times. I Spy was shot all over the globe in, for the times, exotic locations. Bill Cosby became a mega star and role model to black kids, plus he was giving money to black schools. Bill Cosby could do no wrong. All we as black people could see at the time was this black man breaking down barriers and slaying the step’n fetchit image. He was very much a part of the times. Bill Cosby rose pretty high, pretty fast, which makes his slow, rocky fall all that much more painful.
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@ Open Minded Observer
Yes, I stand corrected on my wording. The MAIN problem was doing it in the first place, naturally. But after the fact, I think the hypocrisy factor was enormous.
Honestly, it’s not even that everything that Cosby was saying about Black self-improvement was completely wrong or distorted. He had **some** valid points. But it now becomes hard for people to want to listen to anything he’s ever said because his own actions were just so foul!
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Sango Kainde is banned
for spamming this blog, making the same off-topic comment on nine threads – four of them after being warned.
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I’m thinking about —
Cosby’s a black man whose wealth (or whatever..) has managed to help him, amazingly, elude his crimes for years.
It makes me wonder if a plethora of more wealthy white men with power in very high places (law, politics, industry, religion…) will ever be brought to justice – publically – for similar and worse crimes against women and children?
Or will some people ALWAYS be above the law?
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In the first decade of the new millennium the White supremacists were quoting Bill Cosby’s pathological words like parrots. Cosby was their guy. From 2004 to 2009 Bill Cosby replaced Larry Elder as the number house-Negro. Cosby’s book, ‘Come on, People’, was a best-seller in 2008. Of course, mostly Whites and White supremacists bought his book. Right now, Cosby is the White supremacist’s number one target. What’s so hilarious is the White supremacists who quoted Cosby’s “Pound Cake” speech in 2004 and 2005 are the same White supremacists who have paced Cosby’s picture under the news caption ‘Beware of the Rapist’. Unfortunately, Bill Cosby made the bed he’s lying in.
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Interestingly, Bill Cosby produced and narrated a powerful documentary on Black people and Black Pride in 1970 or 1971. I saw it in high school (on students’ classroom free day) in the late 1980s. I must admit, I was blown away by Cosby’s expertise in the documentary. Back then (early 1970s) Cosby sported the in-style, medium-sized natural/Afro and leather jacket – an image that put fear in most White people’s head. I truly believe that after the powerful documentary that Cosby produced and narrated allowed the White supremacists to start planning on Cosby’s ruined future.
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Michael Cooper,
White supremecist didn’t make Cosby rape 20 something women.
If this is some white supremacist conspiracy there should be plenty of evidence with this many people involved.
For all this talk of evidence, your ilk doesn’t have any for your ridiculous conspiracy theories.
Over 20 women is plenty proof.
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Buddhuu,
No one is saying any community is immune to sexual abuse. What I am saying is that it is an epidemic in the black community that doesn’t get much attention. What you are saying is an attempt to diminish the severity of the plight of black girls and women.
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/07/10/florida_state_assault_charge_dalvin_cook_warrant_to_be_issued.html
Another story of how white power structure protects black men that benefit them.
The thing about Cosby and these football players is that white people benefit more from their contributions to society than black people do. For white supremacy that is deciding factor.
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@solesearch
20 accusations do not necessarily add up to “proof.” I’m not defending anyone, but in the US, a court of law decides whether someone is innocent or guilty, not the court of public opinion. And, yes, it’s possible his 20 accusers are lying.
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@res77:
Perhaps he wasn’t charged due to statutes of limitations in some of these cases.
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Just the fact that he did admit to using pills to drug and have sex with women is disgusting in and of itself. He is disgusting.
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@Herneith
I don’t know what happened. I merely believe in our basic right to due process. The American judicial system is by no means perfect, but Cosby at least deserves a chance to use it.
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So they want President Obama to take away his medal of honor.
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“I don’t know what happened. I merely believe in our basic right to due process. The American judicial system is by no means perfect, but Cosby at least deserves a chance to use it.”
– Too late! The creep has already gone on record (in court) admiting that he used drugs to have his way with women. Now his ex-MISTRESS is coming out of the cobwebs to insist that her former boyfriend is innocent… because he never had to drug her to get her goodies.
The only thing Cosby deserves is a cot.. UNDER the damn jail!
And that’s after he pays restitution and damages to his victims.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/08/us/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-allegations/index.html
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Too late! The creep has already gone on record (in court) admiting that he used drugs to have his way with women.
Anybody: What is, are the statute of Limitations on this type of Crime? I know they may vary from state to state. I ask this because I am baffled as to why this man was never charged. For example, did he commit these crimes in the same state, or did he do so in many states?
My opinion, I heard about these allegations as the person, Andrea Constand sued Cosby and settled out of court. There was non-disclosure clause contained in the agreement. The woman who filed the lawsuit is a Canadian and I recall reading about this case in the Canadian press years ago. The case wasn’t reported on once it was settled.
http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/07/08/canadian-woman-who-bill-cosby-admits-to-drugging-speaks-out
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http://deadspin.com/the-former-basketball-player-who-brought-down-bill-cosb-1661203971
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Resw77,
It is possible but unlikely. It is very unlikely that they could coordinate such a thing without being exposed.
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To Herneith:
Anybody: What is, are the statute of Limitations on this type of Crime? I know they may vary from state to state. I ask this because I am baffled as to why this man was never charged. For example, did he commit these crimes in the same state, or did he do so in many states?
The statute of limitations varies widely by state, from 3 to 30 years (although in some circumstances there are not statute of limitations..)
http://victimsofcrime.org/docs/DNA%20Resource%20Center/sol-for-sexual-assault-check-chart—final—copy.pdf?sfvrsn=2
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/rape-statutes-of-limitation-maps-table
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/rape-sexual-assault-statutes-limitations-laws
From the last link:
“The recently resurfaced rape allegations against Bill Cosby have also put statutes of limitations in the spotlight; it appears that the alleged incidents can no longer be prosecuted.”
For example, did he commit these crimes in the same state, or did he do so in many states?
I would guess mostly California and New York. Allegedly more than 15 victims along in California.
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Herneith, I believe a common SOL for Sexual Abuse is 7 years (but as has been said, they vary)
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It is raining tonight in Cape Town and decided it was the right time to toss out ‘Childhood’ by Bill Cosby, into the rain.
It so happened that it fell on page 169.
CHAPTER 10
Or Maybe It’s a Spanish Flea
…………..
By the time that I was thirteen,I understood sex,but I was still too short and thin to expect that any girl, no matter how much she liked my smile,would ever surrender to me anything more than her rotating shoulder blades. And then one morning,Junior Barnes told us about Spanish Fly,an aphrodisiac so potent that it could have made Lena Horne surrender to Fat Albert.
“You feed this stuff to a girl and she just goes crazy for you,” he said.
“Does she gotta to be Spanish ?” said Eddie.
“I don’t think so,” said Junior. She just gotta to be a girl.”
“How do you feed it to her?” I asked him. “In a sandwich or somethin’?”
“You gotta slip it to her when she thinks she’s drinkin’ somethin’ else. A coupla drops in her Dr Pepper.”
“But you gotta be careful not to give her too much,”said Junior, “or she’ll go for a flagpole instead o’ you.”
“Well, how d’ya know how much?” I said.”Does it say on the bottle?”
“Soon as her clothes come off, that’s enough.”
“I heard that even better is ground rhinoceros horn,” said Weird Harold.
“Maybe,” said Junior, “but it’s probably easier to get rhino horn in Africa than Philadelphia. Spanish Fly is the thing, I tell ya.”
“So where do we get some?” said Harold.
Eleven pages of his ‘humourous’ account of Spanish fly.
A few more excerpts: “And he would, not at this party.which has been planned to honor girls with a potential for depravity.
“When Saturday came,I was as happy as if I’d just learned that Russell had been traded to another project About an hour before the party was to begin, the four of us went to Fat Albert’s apartment, not to help him fold napkins but to plan the best way to give the girls their little hormonal favors.”
” “How we gonna feed ’em powder?”said Harold, for that was what the sailor’s packet contained.”
Chilling.
Tossed it out in the rain now.
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@solesearch
I’ve heard that from a lot of people, and if 50 people accused you of doing something you didn’t do, does it make you less innocent?
And it begs the question, why are these accusations coming out now, presumably many years after most of these events occurred? We are told over and over that it’s because these women lacked the courage and are now finally capable of coming forward. But all at the same time? Excuse me for being a little skeptical.
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Evidently Cosby was dropping hints about this way back.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA4yuz8qgj4)
Secret’s in the sauce…
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@ King
Holy hell that’s creepy. Even on its own.
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Resw77,
“And it begs the question, why are these accusations coming out now, presumably many years after most of these events occurred? We are told over and over that it’s because these women lacked the courage and are now finally capable of coming forward. But all at the same time? Excuse me for being a little skeptical.”
Because I don’t believe you are being intentionally obtuse I’m going to give you an actual response and not the snark I’d give to the willfully ignorant commenters.
A lot these allegations aren’t new. They are old. Women have been accusing Cosby of being a rapist for years. Why are a lot more women speaking out now, “all at the same time” ? Guy, you answered your own question before you even asked it! The question answers it self! They just now found the courage. It’s a snowball effect. It is a lot easier to do something when you have other people standing with you. And not just the people telling their stories but the amount of support they’ve been getting from people on social media. How is this strange? It is not strange at all. It is very normal human behavior. The reason it seems strange to you is because of your sexism that keeps you from seeing women as human beings.
If 50 people accused me of something that wasn’t true it would be pretty easy to expose them as liars.50 people cant keep a lie straight.
You speak of due process. What about due process for these women. You’re accusing them of a crime. Where is your proof? One man? All this talk of conspiracy and not one shred of evidence.
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@King: I clicked on the link for the You Tube about the barbeque sauce. That was hella creepy.
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Gen and Mary… Listen to his voice and intonation when he talks about the sauce! It’s sooo CREEPY!
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@solesearch
I’m really sorry to hear that. This is the type of mentality that must change in the black community. I love my people but we can not keep protecting these men/women that do this. This type of sick behavior is destroying many lives. We must have the courage to speak out. Even if others don’t like it. We must be brave in times like this.
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@King: Yeah, I was checking that out too. There is something deviant about this. Maybe it was art imitating his some of his creepy freak nature coming out in his make believe character of Cliff Huxtable. Kind like Jekyll and Hyde. I am of the belief he is just a creep and a hypocrite.
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@King: Maybe it was some of his creepy freak nature seeping through is make believe character.^^^^^^
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@ Mary: Yeah, this ain’t just coincidence. My question is, did he insert this into the script himself, or did the writers just know about it and put it in? Either way, Cosby had to approve it, and then when he was acting it out all he had to do was reach across the gulf to Mr. Hyde and access his creepy, controlling, Knock-out Bill persona. Yeah, I agree with you, that was some of his real freakiness coming out right there!
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what gets me is if he did this why – why would a good looking sucessful black male actor need to drug women to have sex with them.
it seems that again if true he is warped in some way related to racism and its puritanical relation to sex the way white racist say we are bad and ugly but still insist on having sex and even marrying us but never giving up on that we are bad and ugly.
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Mbeti, I think you hit on it. he is warped. Nut also consider, when Bill married Camille that was the respectable thing to do. I mean, if you wanted a career and to cross over to White audiences you had to marry, and marry someone Black.
Having said that, camille was very light and nearly White looking.
Often, this was the route that Black men took who would have certainly married White in later decades. Clearly nobody can read the heart of another, but it is an observation.
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Very interesting commentary by Dr Watkins. What if Cosby was white?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FQ6nneMc98)
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ever notice how many scandals involve sex – a very powerful drive that we have not mastered or perfected – althought how we could as a species do ethier is currently beyond me.
btw Its interesting to watch abagond’s invisible battle with the mentally ill – I didn’t see all those inappropriate comments he deleted (maybe its because he deleted them)
and who in thier right mind(as opposed to wrong mind -then I can understand ) consistently inappropriately comments at a concoius blog until after being warned they are banned.
meta comment about this blog – writings good but I think it needs or I would like to see more balance and more non human/social issues.
by balance I mean more or some stories about good things that happen to black people and I understand that to be fair and inclusive – unlike most media esp american ,you will be complled to include good things about whites and asian and others (which I’ll just ignore most of the time)
also more posts about ideas and technology – cause I tried of hearing about bad shit happing to black people and I don’t have the motivation to post my own blog,facebook page or um er – oh yeah find another blog.
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But he rarely if ever brought up White racism. That made him “safe” for Whites.
He was so trusted that he did ads for Jello, Kodak, Ford, Coca-Cola and E.F. Hutton.
Cosby was driven by respectability politics: White approval as the road to Black success.\
Maybe he promoted a certain message bc he was being blackmailed with his deviant proclivities. It happens in many industries, especially entertainment AAAALLLthe time.
Kanye West even admitted that he said certain things about race just to get attention because he’s an entertainer and his job is to get attention by any means necessary.
I think that’s what a lot of people who promote anti racism or any social justice are doing. And I think that was always the case it’s just that in the past public figures had to perform actual actions in support of whatever cause they espoused, not just spout some incendiary or transgressive rhetoric.
This just goes to show me that, as soon as someone is constantly disparaging someone else, they always have something to hide themselves. They’re just deflecting.
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@king
I appreciate your response — and it says something about my perception that I didn’t see it sooner or connect the dots quicker –
1.marries “camille was very light and nearly White looking.”
“that was the respectable thing to do.”
2.moralizes – berates and talks down to poor disadvantaged blacks and blames them while ignoring white racism.
3.most all if not all the women he rapes are light skinned (have the least amount of melanin) or white (albinic)
meaning least capacity to produce melanin in the epidermis (never mind why)
its almost too obvious
guess why i didn’t openly notice this before?
because you’d probably almost certainly die if you hold your breath waiting for anyone in “mainstream” media to make these connections …that’s probably why.
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@Mbeti
what gets me is if he did this why – why would a good looking sucessful black male actor need to drug women to have sex with them.
For most normal people want sex for connection, there’s physical pleasure but that’s usually a result of the connection.
So when men complain about “not getting any” it’s usually bc when they get it…they don’t do anything with it due to performance issues. When women really enjoy sex, they don’t have to be asked. That’s why when you see guys that are ugly and broke and only have an sixth grade educations but somehow are never without a womanit’s usually because they’re good lovers.
Even though as far as appearance…I don’t think Bill Cosby was ever considered to be conventionally attractive, he always seemed to me to embody the stereotype that the reason comedians are funny is because they are “funny looking”. He was definitely average to fugly. But I don’t think it had anything to do with appearance anyway. Darren sharper wasn’t someone most women would kick out of bed by anybody’s standards and he was wealthy and famous and yet he drugged and raped women too.
Cosby didn’t need to because nobody needs to rape anyone.
I think what you’re asking is why he chose to pursue sex this way? The answer is control and power. For some people sex is more of a power struggle than anything, and once they get it, however they get it, they’ve “won”. It doesn’t matter what they look like or how much money they make(Darren Sharper) it’s about their mentality and their attitude toward themselves and other people. Specifically whether they respect other people’s boundaries or not. For people with this mentality sex isn’t about connection or pleasure it’s about control and inflicting pain. Those people are generally rapists. Thats what they enjoy.That’s why rapists go after people of all ages and sexes. Elderly women actually get sexually assaulted more than people realize, and they don’t report it for the same reason most other victims report it: Its too embarrassing. And most of the offenders are not…other elderly people. And many of the men who rape other men in prison are not homosexual.
In the case of this drugging stuff: the most vulnerable a person can be is when they’re unconscious and they can’t respond to anything being done to you or remember what is being done to them. It also helps that going about it this way keeps you from getting caught or having victims fight you off and struggle against you.
I know it’s hard to imagine but people like this exist. Women have done it:
_____________________________________________________________
A woman from Tambov, Russia known as the “Black Widow” because she loves horror films and spiders, is currently on trial for drugging and raping 10 men.
The woman, known only as Valeria K., would lure men back to her apartment where she would serve them drinks laced with a powerful sedative that would put them to sleep for about 24 hours. She would then undress them, stimulate them and tie a rope around their penis to keep it erect while she had sex with them.
The men would end up in hospital with symptoms of poisoning and penis trauma after they awoke. When police were called, all the men told them about a hot brunette woman they had been fooling around with before they blacked out. With descriptions of the woman from so many victims, police were able to arrest Valeria K. for rape.
So far, police know about 10 victims, but only 9 of them are pressing charges against her. The 10th man is refusing to press charges, saying he remembers bits and pieces of the incident and enjoyed it. He says “like hot women,” and thought the assault “was great.” He does however, regret that he was drugged and couldn’t remember more.
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/26696/russian-black-widow-woman-arrested-for-raping-10-men/#xsjotGjFT9SI47w8.99
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^^^^^^It’s not funny that he got assaulted but, there’s one in every crowd.
And you’re right, it really doesn’t make any sense when the men were clearly willing, but that’s how people with this kind of mind think. They’re not …normal.
As soon as Beverly Johnson said Bill Cosby did this to her, I knew he was guilty. Not that I doubted the other people who talked about it but her account was so chilling.
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@solesearch
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The thing about Cosby and these football players is that white people benefit more from their contributions to society than black people do. For white supremacy that is deciding factor.
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/bill-cosby/#comment-288948
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THIS!
Beverly Johnson said something similar!
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Finally, I reached the conclusion that the current attack on African American men has absolutely nothing to do at all with Bill Cosby. He brought this on himself when he decided he had the right to have his way with who knows how many women over the last four decades. If anything, Cosby is distinguished from the majority of black men in this country because he could depend on the powers that be for support and protection.
http://www.vanityfair.com/unchanged/2014/12/bill-cosby-beverly-johnson-story
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@Mz.Nikita
I remember that too, so given her free spirit persona which she always seemed to display during those days (and even now), my guess is that Lisa Bonet most likely saw through or at least felt something non-genuine about this clown in the first place. Kudos to her if she did.
The rumour is, according to certain gossip boards, that Cosby sexually harassed Lisa Bonet all throughout her run on the Cosby show and couldn’t stand Lenny Kravits. That was the reason there was so much tension between them on the set(him firing her when she got pregnant and did that other film) and also the reason Lisa Bonet never showed up to any of the reunion specials like the other cast members. 😦
I don’t know if that’s true,it’s gossip and Bonet has never publicly stated anything but it’s food for thought. Supposedly Phylicia Rashad had an affair with Bill Cosby too which would explain why she defended him if that was the case.
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@AlitaRegina
thanks for your informative comment (which I’ll address more fully if need be later am in a public location with a lot of distractions)
however while you where typing your comment I was browsing and found this
On Cosby’s boyhood attitude toward women:
“If a girl wandered on to a football field where I was playing, I might make knocking her down part of my fly pattern, for a girl was only an honorary human being; and if my roller skating assumed a certain grand sweep, a girl or two might hit the cement, not an unfitting position for such a lesser part of humanity. In my relations with girls at the age of eight, I never broke hearts, I merely tore skin. Girls simply had to understand that boys did not sit quietly on the floor feeding dolls; boys practiced the violence that was so essential to their becoming men.”
— “Love and Marriage”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2015/01/28/the-9-most-disturbing-passages-in-bill-cosbys-books-on-love-sex-and-family/
I also kinda wondered how you could treat women like that and this kinda sums it up for me ,but there is obviously more.
btw – is just me or is commenting and researching slightly a celebrity scandal the 2nd most easy internet task right after just looking clicking and downloading
as opposed to numerous more serious things that can be done online and off.
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@Mbeti
is just me or is commenting and researching slightly a celebrity scandal the 2nd most easy internet task right after just looking clicking and downloading
It’s certainly …up there, lol.
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@Mbeti
______________________________________________________________
not an unfitting position for such a lesser part of humanity. In my relations with girls at the age of eight, I never broke hearts, I merely tore skin. Girls simply had to understand that boys did not sit quietly on the floor feeding dolls; boys practiced the violence that was so essential to their becoming men.”
______________________________________________________________
………………Well um…that explains a lot.
I wonder how young misogyny starts? Bc I played with my brothers and cousins all the time growing up. We played basketball and we played with dolls and action figures and I know I wasn’t the only girl with brothers to play like that. I know when boys get to a certain age misogyny starts to show but is it really as early as eight ? 😦
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Camille is the perfect wife for a celebrity like him pretty and thin and light skinned. It was the perfect ruse. This is just getting sicker and sicker.
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Your a sick individual you’re a twisted embarrassment
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boys practiced the violence that was so essential to their becoming men.”
Idk if Cosby’s talking about black kids bc in my neighborhood girls fought more than boys did. Maybe he means upper middle class? I never known working class girls that didn’t box.
Its one of those telling socioeconomic class signifiers that just confuses me as an adult. That’s why Cosby didn’t rape Beverly Johnson, she cursed him out, while she could still talk, and he lost interest and put her in a cab:
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I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I’d been drugged—and drugged good.My head became woozy, my speech became slurred, and the room began to spin nonstop. Cosby motioned for me to come over to him as though we were really about to act out the scene. He put his hands around my waist, and I managed to put my hand on his shoulder in order to steady myself.
As I felt my body go completely limp, my brain switched into automatic-survival mode. That meant making sure Cosby understood that I knew exactly what was happening at that very moment.
“You are a motherf…er aren’t you?”
That’s the exact question I yelled at him as he stood there holding me, expecting me to bend to his will. I rapidly called him several more “motherf…ers.” By the fifth, I could tell that I was really pissing him off. At one point he dropped his hands from my waist and just stood there looking at me like I’d lost my mind.
What happened next is somewhat cloudy for me because the drug was in fuller play by that time. I recall his seething anger at my tirade and then him grabbing me by my left arm hard and yanking all 110 pounds of me down a bunch of stairs as my high heels clicked and clacked on every step. I feared my neck was going to break with the force he was using to pull me down those stairs. It was still late afternoon and the sun hadn’t completely gone down yet. When we reached the front door, he pulled me outside of the brownstone and then, with his hand still tightly clenched around my arm, stood in the middle of the street waving down taxis.
When one stopped, Cosby opened the door, shoved me into it and slammed the door behind me without ever saying a word. I somehow managed to tell the driver my address and before blacking out, I looked at the cabbie and asked, as if he knew: “Did I really just call Bill Cosby ‘a motherf…er’?”
Why that was even a concern of mine after what I’d just been through is still a mystery to me? I think my mind refused to process it.
The next day I woke up in my own bed after falling into a deep sleep that lasted most of the day. I had no memory of how I got into my apartment or into my bed, though most likely my doorman helped me out.
http://www.vanityfair.com/unchanged/2014/12/bill-cosby-beverly-johnson-story
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There was a book about this too, called ” The Gift of Fear”, that states what I’ve always known which is basically that, the harder and longer you resist the more likely you are to escape danger. Being angry and turnt up is what saves your life often times.
And even though growing up, I got the standard upper middle class education and values in school and at church, I was always encouraged by basically everyone I knew to to yell and fight whenever I thought it was necessary.
I’m grateful being working class never encouraged me to listen to societal messages that encourage passivity. Being calm and clear headed always helps but your body triggers adrenaline for it to be used in situations exactly like the one above.
I’m glad my parents were never on that “be a lady” “dont talk back” bs.
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@OpenMindedObserver
So, I suppose on THIS particular blog, the inherent racism of his hypocrisy may in fact be the main problem. But, at the end of the day, it is important to be clear that hypocrisy is bad but raping is worse. We wouldn’t want people getting the idea that raping is just something that people do but we draw the line at hypocrisy.
THIS!
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@ solesearch
I’m not the person to use conspiracy theories to support what I believe in and know. Many of us (in this commentary forum) know that many of the 20-plus women who accused Bill Cosby of drugging them are recovering drug addicts. I wouldn’t be surprised if these former drug addicts (some are still drug addicts) are using Cosby’s wrongdoings as an excuse for their failure in show business.
Besides, whether Bill Cosby is guilty or not he made the bed he’s lying in.
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Michael Cooper,
Your comment is stupid. I don’t think you are stupid. But you obviously think I’m stupid if you believe that meaningless and pointless comment is enough to cover up your sexism. If you really believe what you just typed keep reading it until you realize you’ve said absolutely nothing.
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Oh! So while Bill Cosby was moralising: pointing his finger at young Black men taking drugs and pulling their pants up, he was drugging young women and pulling their pants down.
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“The rumour is, according to certain gossip boards, that Cosby sexually harassed Lisa Bonet all throughout her run on the Cosby show and couldn’t stand Lenny Kravits.” ” Supposedly Phylicia Rashad had an affair with Bill Cosby too which would explain why she defended him if that was the case.”
@AlitaRegina-I’ve often wondered about both of those possibilities myself…though I would like to believe that Ms. Rashad would not dare engage in such a mess, one can never tell with Hollyweird and the pressures many women face (especially POC) in order to have/maintain a successful career..
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P.S. I would have loved to see the disapproving expression of ole’ Bills face when he learned about Bonet and Kravitz, given that his rocker lifestyle had to be the epitome of Everything that the Cosby show did not represent (publicly) at the time! LOLOL
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@ taotesan
Ziiiiiiing!!!!
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I notice a lot of people in general (not necessarily on this blog)who believe the “innocent until proven guilty” and don’t think so many accounts and even verbatim admission from the accused is enough evidence, the seem to have this homies over h..s mentality and that they just don’t want to admit to, or maybe they share Cosby’s proclivities…
I noticed this even with the Atlanta Child Murders case. How even when the guys wife pinned the murderer as killing all those kids people were still talking about how there wasn’t enough evidence, and how it was this white supremacy conspiracy to destroy the black man, even though no children have been murdered in Atlanta since that man has been in prison. And he keeps saying to this day that it wasn’t him, but Ted Bundy never admitted to all the murders he committed either.
I discussed both this case and the Atlanta child murders case at a job I had in nightlife previously. The guy always rubbed me the wrong way, because he was very openly misogynist and I quit bc his advances were making me uncomfortable. Come to find out he had spent time in prison for sexual battery. Which kind of explains his willingness to defend a rapist and a..serial rapist/ killer of children. And considering how midoginyst soceity is, in such a casual way, I’m not surprised if a lot of these mens defenders automatically assume women who accuse men of rape are lying, assume that because they’ve done it or wanted to do it at some point in their lives. A hit dog will holler. Rape is probably, sadly one of the easiest violent crimes a man can get away with. There’s a backlog of rape kits in many crimes around the country. Our criminal justice system being so classist and racist is the reason for why criminals in a certain tax bracket go free.
I just know with entertainers, because I love gossip boards ever since I stole my mothers copy of “Hollywood Babylon” everything about the media is a construct. Its stupid to put athletes and entertainers and public figures on a pedastle so high that they can’t be knocked down because those are just carefully crafted personas.
So much wealth and power worship translates to sexism and white approval/attention worship anyway. And at least in the working class community I do see a big shift away from that, especially in regards to the Illuminati and who believes it exists and who doesn’t. Whether or not it does isn’t the point, the point is many young people are starting to really question the images that they’re seeing and what they’re hearing and who it’s coming from and what the true purpose of it is. Youth today don’t just blindly follow the money and power like, I hate to say, some middle to upper class older people do. And I get why in generations past it was so important to some people to have role models from a certain socioeconomic background.
But Bill Cosby is a rapist, and as my Granny would say ” Let the white people take this one.”
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I saw on my Google News feed that Camille is lashing out at accusers saying she knows her husband is a philander and serial cheater but that the women consented to the sex and drugs. Wow just wow, poor lady is probably in denial maybe she has to tell herself this to make herself feel better. She says her husband is not a rapist.
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Innocent until proven guilty is like “Freedom of Speech” often misunderstood. In reality the right is for the LEGAL PRESUMPTION of innocence until proven guilty. What it means is that the COURTS must not treat you as if you are guilty until you have been declared guilty at trial. Therefore you cannot be punished for a crime until you have been found to have committed said crime. That is what this rule of jurisprudence guarantees.
HOWEVER, this has absolutely nothing to do with people’s personal opinions. There is NOTHING that says that people cannot put two and two together and make of their own minds about what occurred. Naturally, the court of public opinion can only punish a person shunning them. They have no legal power to exact criminal justice. And so, if they are wrong they can withdraw their verdict and apologize.
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@Micheal Cooper
I wouldn’t be surprised if these former drug addicts (some are still drug addicts) are using Cosby’s wrongdoings as an excuse for their failure in show business.
Are you sure you’re not cherry picking a little bit? I mean I wouldn’t consider Beverly Johnson a failure in show business. And she admitted to using drugs recreationally, and also that Bill Cosby drugged and attempted to rape her at his home. I dont know about all of them but I know one of the other women was a Temple University Employee.
Beverly Johnson said the reason she didn’t pursue it further is that people like Janice Dickenson got ripped to shreds bc of her drug use.
I feel like that’s irrelevant anyway since Cosby admitted to giving sedatives to women, making him a fellow drug supplier if not user, while he was married. And sexual predators often pick victims on the margins of society simply because if they come forward no one will believe them. They tend to study and profile their targets way in advance so that nothing will com back to them.
Just because you’re an ambitious drug addict/prostitute/hotel maid whatever it doesn’t mean that you can’t be a rape victim. And people know powerful men do this sort of thing all the time too.
There was a supermodel named Kate Mulder who talked about being sexually exploited in the modeling industry and they blamed it on her drug use too even though she was perfectly coherent at the time she made the accusations(she later attempted suicide). The BBC actually did a secret investigation of the modelling company she worked for and found executives offering money to underage models for sex. She also said there were political figures of power involved in it too.
Isn’t the that whole “they were drug addicts/career motivated ect” standard of innocence something that you would never apply to a black man?
I’m not assuming anything in regards to how you feel as an individual I was just looking for some insight I’m just asking. Bc I seriously don’t get why black men don’t have to be perfect victims when they get shot by the police but women have to be perfect victims in order for people to believe that they’ve been raped?
The racially charged power imbalance in regards to black men and the police is obvious, so why isn’t the sexually charged power imbalance that’s being exploited her between men and women in a lot of cases like this just as obvious?
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@solesearch
I don’t think you’re stupid. But I do know that individuals, like you and I, are entitled to our own opinion, right?
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@AlitaRegina
I think the “innocent until proven guilty” attitude of the majority of the black community has more to do with the constant negative slander we receive together with the knowledge that when some of us wind up being like everyone else (i.e some humans are badder or make more mistakes than others) we are unfairly portrayed as “all being like that” and justifying bias and abusive collective treatment.
\
that said unfortunately just as most humans are religious and most males are sexiest among the numerous flaws or limitations we have as a species.
@King
@ taotesan
“So while Bill Cosby was moralising: pointing his finger at young Black men taking drugs and pulling their pants up, he was drugging young women and pulling their pants down.”
Ziiiiiiing!!!!
cosign !! although I’m partial to ba ta bing!! myself 😉
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@King
True I just find it strange how the burden of proof for the powerless is always heavier than the burden of proof for the powerful people.
And most sexual assault cases, just like racism, are very heavily influenced by public opinion if not decided by them.
If the victim is underage, her character is still called into question even when the man is old enough to be her father or or the parents get blamed even it was someone they trusted.
And then in this case, the (some) women are being dismissed for using drugs but Bill Cosby…isn’t being held equally responsible for giving them to women? The dynamics are strange but I didn’t really grow up in an environment where television had this much of an impact on my consciousness. Thats whats weird about it to me.
Even Mike Tyson and Tupac I was divided about for years until recently. I didn’t think they were guilty but I didn’t think they were both innocent just because I liked both of them. Now today I think they weren’t guilty of what they were accused of but I didn’t always.
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Well something in the jello ain’t clean
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In the book The Color Purple, a part that I thought was really relevant didn’t make it into the movie.
Celie’s real father was a successful store owner who was lynched by white business owners in the town, and the stepfather who ends up raping Celie is a “go along to get along” Uncle Tom who lied and said he was Celie and Netties real father to inherit their property after the mother died from sadness and grief. The stepfather Alphonso basically does this whole creepy speech about how stupid Celie’s real father was for not giving the white man his share of what he didn’t earn:
____________________________________________________________
“Your daddy didn’t know how to git along,” he say. “Whitefolks lynch him. Too sad a story to tell pitiful little growing girls,” he say.”Any man would have done what I done.”
“Maybe not,” say Shug.
He look at her, then look at me. He can tell she know. But what do he care?
“Take me,” he say, “I know how they is. The key to all of ’em is money. The trouble with our people is as soon as they got out of slavery they didn’t want to give the white man nothing else. But the fact is, you got to give ’em
something. Either your money, your land, your woman or your ass. So what I did was just right off offer to give ’em money. Before I planted a seed, I
made sure this one and that one knowed one seed out of three was
planted for him. Before I ground a grain of wheat, the same
thing. And when I opened up your daddy’s old store in town, I bought me my own white boy to run it. And what make it so good,” he say, “I bought him with whitefolks’ money.”
pg88 “The Color Purple” Alice Walker
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That whole passage is why the classism and patriarchy in the black community never sat right with me. The people who excel and advance socioeconomically often tend to be the kind of black people who are willing to “make deals with the Devil”(forgive the Illuminati reference, I was only using the term metaphorically) at the expense of the rest of the community and they’re the sort of people, in regards to Athletes and Entertainers, like Cosby and Darren Sharper. Rapists and Criminals who are unscrupulous and will thrown their own under the bus.
Beside I think people who really are living as morally as Cosby tried to front like he was doing for all those years are too busy uplifting the people in the community they see as causing so many problems. Thats why they’re not out in public excoriating the youth for institutional abuses like police brutality and racism.
Allegedly that guy who committed the Atlanta Child Murders say he hated “ghetto children from the streets” and that there were too many of them.
No wealth is earned by honest endeavors, that’s just a fact….that people refuse to accept. Even supposed Christians who know that Jesus signed his own death warrant when he overturned the tables in the moneylenders temple, will still follow “prosperity gospel” and practice materialism without a second thought, knowing full well that this countries wealth was built using the blood of our ancestors. I think that’s another reason so many well to do black men always marry light skinned wives, besides racism, they get to say that no matter how white the woman in question looks, that she isn’t a white women so that they don’t look like complete Uncle Tom’s. And men like Ralph Ellison Clarence Thomas, Bill Cosby, Darren Sharper tend to practice sexism(rape is the logical conclusion of that) as a way to gain access to the white man’s world of wealth and spaces. Its their way of “going along to get along”
That’s why Celie’s step father rapes her in the book. He degrades and oppresses black women to enrich himself because then white men will leave him alone. I feel like a lot of out leadership does this secretly. Wasn’t Al Sharpton an FBI informant?
This is why socioeconomic status and gender and how much white attention and approval a person has shouldn’t make them a role model necessarily.
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People only want to see inequality when its outside of our community but a lot of economic cannibalization goes on amongst our own. And it’s not just us, I forget what industrialist (Andrew Carnegie?) staffed their factories with poor immigrants from their own ethnic groups.
It’s like the way to advance in America is to be as willing to sell out, brutalize and exploitate your own as much as possible. It’s not even having money that people respect, it’s having a certain level of income that people in America in general and the black community seem to respect, and also living a certain kind of lifestyle, AWAY from the black (majority working class/low income community) that people respect and will look at and say, “Wow this person has really accomplished something.” And with that respect comes this kind of immunity from wrongdoing, that makes men like Bill Cosby and Darren Sharper feel like they can and will get away with anything.
They’re not exactly wrong. Darren Sharper should be under the jail but his wizard of a lawyer and his bribe managed to get him nine years. And I think Cosby settled his civil suites. Despite basically admitting what he did.
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@Mary Burrell
“Well something in the jello ain’t clean”—LOL. I like that.
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@Mz. Nikita
I would have loved to see the disapproving expression of ole’ Bills face when he learned about Bonet and Kravitz, given that his rocker lifestyle had to be the epitome of Everything that the Cosby show did not represent (publicly) at the time! LOLOL
Yes and also I notice that sexist/misogynist older men HATE younger men just as much as they hate women. Because theyre threatened by the competition.
Lenny Kravitz is sexy was probably ever sexier back then. I think maybe Bill didn’t enjoy feeling he had to compete.
I notice this in NYC. All the requirements for “experience” are pushing younger men out of the workforce or making them enter it and start their families later. And the reason for it is SO obvious and it very much disproportionately affects the black community to the point that if you go out and party at the clubs now, at least in Manhattan, you’re more like to get harrassed by a guy old enough to be your Dad. Thats what all these corrupt trade unions and grafather requirements have done to the social life, its made all these 40+ black men feel like they’re the most reliable bachelors on the market, for women in their late teens early 20s.
Take construction for example, the only young people working in construction I see are invariably Latino/Hispanic or ethnic/ recent immigrant whites. The few black men that do have jobs in construction are almost always in their 30s at the youngest, sometimes as old as 65.
You can’t seriously tell me that a 50 year old man can do construction work, or any kind of manual skilled labor, better than a younger man can. And these men know that and they basically coon and do a soft shoe to these older white racist construction company owners so that they have the one thing that gives them leverage in the dating market: money and a job.
It’s so sad too bc unemployment among black youth is so high, especially in the inner city. There was a time when Construction was filled with opportunities for low income inner city youth but when push comes to shove older black men will sell out the youth and women just keep themselves comfortable.
Thats what happens EVERY time too. I’ve even seen it at work with sexist supervisors, as soon as a young guy comes in who’s respectful and professional the sexist onw, usually older, will actively work to undermine him, especially if he’s in a position of authority or seniority.
Thats why men jump up to defend other men who do this depending on their age I just give them hard side eye. I don’t think a lot men realise how sexism/misogyny/pimp/rape culture undermines lowers THEIR position, at the same time it oppresses me. The look up to and admire the very same people that cause or exacerbate their oppression and disenfranchisement a lot of the time out of some misguided desire for male succor and mentorship conviently forgetting that only ONE Rooster rules the roost( following that line of thinking).
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@Solesearch
“They just now found the courage. It’s a snowball effect.”
That’s a weak argument without any basis. Your reasoning why they all of a sudden decided to speak out and the media all of a sudden decided to give them all attention is an opinion–an emotionally charged one IMO.
“If 50 people accused me of something that wasn’t true it would be pretty easy to expose them as liars.50 people cant keep a lie straight.”
So if 50 people accused you of committing 50 separate criminal acts, their testimonies obviously won’t be the same nor should they be. But please answer the original question, if 50 people accused you of committing crimes, does it make you less innocent?
“You’re accusing them of a crime. Where is your proof? ”
Actually, I didn’t accuse anyone of anything. Please re-read my statements if that helps.
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While I realize that on a hot button subject like this, the comments often reveal more about the commenters themselves than the subject at hand but…some of y’all are trippin’. All of the grand social theorizing and reckless speculation is a bit much though some of it is indeed funny and juicy gossip.
Insofar as the matter at hand, “50” women are not accusing Cosby of the same thing. The claims run the gamut from he tried to kiss me or made a rude pass at me to the drugging sexual assault ones. The media has conflated the claims to feed the narrative.
The current reality is that Cosby has very little, if any, real legal exposure as the statue of limitations has run on all the currently known accusations except one and in that instance the accuser, Chloe Goins, appears to be telling a rather fishy story. She claimed that something happened at a particular event at the Playboy mansion when it appears that not only wasn’t Cosby at the event, he wasn’t even in LA. Even TMZ’s not buying that one but, they are thowing her onto the “50” pile for effect.
Also, why are FSU athletes even being mentioned here? It seems clear by now that Jameis Winston was falsely accused and the two incidents in the media now are not sexual assault claims but, unfortunately, the kind of drunken nonsense that happens in bars and clubs every day.
Overall, I’m not surprised that Cosby was living the “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll…errr..Comedy?” lifestyle and taking advantage of wanna bes, hanger ons and other assorted folks despite the clean public image because I could always separate the Huxtable stuff from the likely reality. He reminds me of a lot of a type of hypocrtical dude who was around when I was a kid. They were relentless hounds and generally suspect characters who as they got old tossed on dashikis and played “village elder” and started finger wagging the younger generations. In Cosby’s case, it was dark sunglasses and “pound cake” speeches.
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@AlitaRegina,
Whoa now, I think you are mixing up a few things in order to blame “everything” on older black men which, imo, is the sort of generational sniping that’s pointless in the end.
Who do you think came up with the now standard exaggerated requirement for job experience? Not 40+ year olf black men.
Who controls the trade unions? Not 40+ year old black men.
Who controls the construction industry? Not 40+ year old black men.
Also, it’s not true that trade unions/construction were some sort of sea of opportunity before as blacks had to fight, in some cases literally, to get the relatively few spots that were given out. If you’re talking about broad manufacturing jobs, that might be a different story but that was mostly negatively affected by the overall decline in that manufacturing in this country.
If a young dude in NYC were looking to get into a decent job with benefits with little to no experience, he should pick up “The Chief” which lists all the civil service exams but even then the wait from exam to actual start date is usually years due to supply and demand.
The big elephant in the room you might be overlooking is the mass incarceration state and who it disproportionately effects – young black men. Why do you think all those older black men are still on the job when their white former colleagues are fishing in Florida? I don’t think it’s primarily because they want to profile in da club and troll for young women lol. The system has effectively made a generation or so of a lot of young black men “non-persons” in terms of employment.
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I have been on other sites and the responses from what i could guess where older men who made the similar comment about it being the 60’s and 70’s and that was just the way it went down, it was what it was. People used drugs to enhance the sex. So my response to them is why does that make it right? These type of responses are very telling of the patriarchal and misogynist society we live in. Many men are don’t love women and only want to use them for their bodies. This Cosby business has the theme of misogyny and sexism running rampant through it. Many men still don’t understand what rape is and why they don’t have the right to a woman’s body like that.
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Typo:^^^^ Many men don’t love women and only want to use them for their bodies.
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The other night i was watching the film Thelma and Louise and i am ashamed to admit that was my first time watching it. There is a most disturbing scene where Thelma and Louise are at a country western bar and Geena Davis(Thelma) has had too much to drink and this cowboy sleeze bag follows her outside because she is getting sick and needs air. Long story short his intention is to sexually assault her. He slaps her and is determined to rape her. I was too happy that Susan Sarandon’s character came to her friend’s rescue. And shoots the scumbag and kills him. Watching this and then this stuff with Cosby resurfaces. I couldn’t help but think about how men view woman and the rape culture we live in today.
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Mary Burrell,
I hear you but, there is a difference between using drugs to enhance sex and slipping somebody what they used to call…”a mickey”.
In the 60s and 70s ludes were used so..um..enthsiatically…by everybody to enhance sex that they were banned. But, people being people, they switched to coke in the 80s and are using Molly now and of course, the great grandaddy of them all, booze, is still around.
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@ks: It is just creepy to me that people that slip women mickeys are just pathological. Why do they have to drug the woman? If she is not consenting then find somebody else to have relations with. This is disgusting on so many levels. It’s bad enough he was cheating on his wife and she stood by and knew he was doing this trash.And Cosby preaching to black people about how they needed to clean up their lives. Folks in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing stones.
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@ks
We’re talking about two different things. You’re talking about racial oppression and I’m talking about sexual oppression and how it reinforces racism and how people refuse to see it bc of men love having privilege even if it weakens their position.
Black Men don’t have to cause structural inequality to take advantage of it or perpetrate it. And that’s what many of them, like Bill Cosby,see no problem doing. That’s why when he had the power to hire a black model, Beverly Johnson, instead of helping a black woman advance her career, he used that position to lure her to his home under false pretenses and then attempted to drug and rape her.
I don’t think 40+ black men are the cause of sexism or racism but many of them are the gatekeepers of it because of sexist/misogynist they are and how much they love having male privilege. They benefit from a system that disadvantages many in their community, including younger people of both sexes.
You can disagree if you want to but I just think that racist oppression doesn’t exempt you from personal accountability for your actions at all, especially when your actions cause others in your racial community harm. Like all these children that don’t get supported financially by their fathers, or all these women and children that get raped.
And instead of people(in a general sense) just saying that, they have to do all this mental gymnastics to avoid the obvious. Saying that the problem is women who use sex to advance their careers when the problem is men who use their careers/financial/social position to make sexual advances.
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@ks
At least on the job, what I’ve seen a lot of older SEXIST black men do is purposefully work to undermine any younger man’s career who they felt threatened by. The older Uncle Toms know that with age they get a certain level of unquestionable trust from superiors, especially in white dominated professions and they use that to weed out certain men who, not necessarily anti authoritarian, don’t put up with their old school soft shoeing and sexual harassment of women.
I’ve never known a sexist/misogynist man that wasn’t coward anyway. They don’t like it when women fight back against them and they especially don’t like it when men stand up for women because they might just get their a..es kicked.
Despite what men like to tell themselves, most normal women like men their own age. Thats why all those male public moralists were excoriating black women for being baby mamas and loving “thugs”. I think a lot of 40+ Black Male public moralists, especially the ones who go to places like the Dominican Republic and Brazil for sex tourism, were mad that all those “baby mamas” would rather be poor and struggling with a man they love, that’s their own age, than turn tricks or have love children for their old a.ses.
And I notice a lot of them, when they talk about, “whats wrong with the black community”, tend to critique “youth” in general, that’s why they talk about the problems(poverty, unemployment, prison, absent fathers, single mothers, domestic violence) and never the causes( institutional racism, classism). And they act like brand new just because they have socioeconomic privilege and conveniently forget they they were young once and had to face the same barriers the very people they disparage are facing.
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I don’t think it’s primarily because they want to profile in da club and troll for young women lol.
That might not be the main reason, I mean I’m sure child support costs a lot of money at any age. You know many toddlers a lot of these 50+ men have? My last boss had a seven year old and he was 52. And yeah , he had to work but…how do you have an unplanned pregnancy at 50+? (The mom was obviously not 50. Bought thirty years younger than that. and what was he doing with her? Tricking. That’s why he was still doing something he should have already been retired from.)
He didn’t think nothing was wrong with it either, and he admitted to neglecting the kid. And this was a guy from a two parent home, college educated, well to do.
And they don’t just troll women at the club, they do it in public, to young black women. JUST black women too, I notice these same men don’t say anything to Latina/Asian/White women, bc they’re too afraid to get lynched.
The system has effectively made a generation or so of a lot of young black men “non-persons” in terms of employment.
Young people in general, but older men take advantage of it to make young woman tricks for them. There’s no other reason a younger woman would be interested in them anyway and they know that. And the reason a lot of the ones who act like this can’t retire to Florida and they’re still working when they should be retiring is because of the way they act now is the same way they’ve been acting all their lives. They didn’t suddenly just wake up and become irresponsible people with no accountability one day, they’ve been like that all their lives and now they’re getting long in the tooth.
The same kind of guys who sexually harassed me when I was twelve and they were old enough to be my father, are now sexually harassing my niece in middle school now that they are old enough to be HER grandfather.
And every time black male personal accountability is brought up, the excuses come out. And that’s why they act that way. They know they’ll always have an excuse. If its not the white man, it’s heauxs. If the mother isn’t the reason they aren’t paying child support, the kid is. Everyone but black men is responsible for their choices.
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@ks
Remember when Gabby Douglas won the Olympics and her absent father( I think he was in the military) conveniently reappeared when she won several gold medals to get ask for an autograph?
What systemic inequality was the reason he wasn’t around when Gabby was getting racist taunts at the gym she trained for the Olympics at(like being told she should get rhinoplasy on her nose)? What prison was he in when her mother was driving or paying for her to be driven across the country to get specialist training and coaching? It’s funny how this oppression managed to take up so much of his time until his daughter became a success.
I mean I’m just saying. Its that kind of thinking that nobody ever really criticises that makes men in general but especially in the black community feel like they can and will get away with everything and for the most part they do.
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If i am not mistaken Cosby’s own daughter had a drug problem.
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“Take construction for example, the only young people working in construction I see are invariably Latino/Hispanic or ethnic/ recent immigrant whites. The few black men that do have jobs in construction are almost always in their 30s at the youngest, sometimes as old as 65.” “Take construction for example, the only young people working in construction I see are invariably Latino/Hispanic or ethnic/ recent immigrant whites. The few black men that do have jobs in construction are almost always in their 30s at the youngest, sometimes as old as 65.” @AlitaRegina Yes, I am glad that I am not the only one who has noticed this phenomenon as well-having lived on the East Coast myself I can agree that this is indeed rampant and true. Tsk, tsk!
“Remember when Gabby Douglas won the Olympics and her absent father( I think he was in the military) conveniently reappeared when she won several gold medals to get ask for an autograph?” @AlitaRegina, Sure do, it never fails to “amaze” when folks somehow manage to drag their proverbial azzes outta’ the woodwork to get a slice o’ the unearned pie from the “seed(s)” they didn’t help water when they growin’ up and strugglin’ to make it! SMH
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^^^ that’s what I’m saying, lots of people have personal problems, that doesn’t mean they can’t be victims of crimes.
The only time people’s personal problems seem to become relevant to the issue is when it involves a woman’s sexuality or rather her sexual victimization.
It’ll be stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with the case much of the time too. The biggest recent example I remember is the Dominic Strass Kahn rape case, where they claimed the maid he sexually assaulted lied on her immigration form that she filled out years before the case even occurred?
True or not wtf did that have to do with whatever happened in that hotel room between her and Dominic Strasse Kahn?
It was really irrelevant way to dismiss the case and it was so obviously about intimidating her by threatening her with deportation. That’s what that character assassination is about usually, intimidation. Everyone has something that public opprobrium could make them lose.
And in this case especially Cosby admitted to drugging the women, and his wife still says it was consensual? I know date rape wasn’t considered that bad in the seventies because it was more socially acceptable to experiment with recreational drugs back then but that doesn’t change the fact that it was date rape.
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AlitaRegina,
I dunno…I tought we were having a different conversation but now I can see that older black dudes are your go to bogeymen for everything. Yikes!
From jobs, to the club, to the street, to sexual relationships, to office politics, to sexism and sexual tourism and so on. You’re weaving together different things/events, making some reaalllly strained connections while tossing in some personal ancedotes for good measure but, It all comes down to one thing – old black dudes=bad! Heh. Your insistence seems rather personal.
Anyway, you’re doing as much dubious moralizing and philosophizing as Cosby once did. You just have a different target than him. He blamed young black people (men and women) and you blame older black men. Like I said earlier, this sort of generational sniping is pointless, especially for black people. Everybody can have a slice of the blame pie. Full yet? Great. Now what? Let’s get on with it.
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Also, unfortunately, there’s nothing unique about the Gabby Douglas situation. At least she only got hit up for an autograph. Do you know how many NFL/NBA/MLB/etc. players get hit up by long lost relatives and parents of both sexes? We could be here all day and night counting them. For a good, but sad, laugh check out the ESPN 30 for 30 episode “Broke”.
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@ Mz.Nikita
having lived on the East Coast myself I can agree that this is indeed rampant and true. Tsk, tsk!
I noticed this because my Dad was an electrician and a machinist and although I work in a different industry now I leave for work at the same time a lot of construction people do and I never see any black people my own age.
And it’s not because black youth aren’t interested in that. I know in the trades there IS discrimination but I also know that, white/latinos/asians will give their young people a hand up or a referral or whatever. They’ll help young people in their community get jobs or tell them when things are posted or let them know where to go apply ect ect.
I don’t see nearly as many of 50+ black men that hit on me doing that for young black men, and I think it’s a d..n shame.
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@ks
I dunno…I tought we were having a different conversation but now I can see that older black dudes are your go to bogeymen for everything. Yikes!
You realize that this is an blog post about an older black man who drugged and raped women and used his socioeconomic position and fame to shield him from the consequences of those crimes?
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@ks
I actually brought up men of other races and women too. But your avoidance of the issue is what’s so transparently personal, not mine.
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@KS
At least she only got hit up for an autograph.
…….by her own father…that didn’t raise her…..
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@KS
I mean don’t you think it’s pretty scary that Beverly Johnson thought she was doing something related to work, with a man she thought she was safe with, a man who presented a socially acceptable image “Everyone’s Favorite Dad”, only to stumble home to her flat in a drugged stupor after he drugged her expresso,( that he insisted she drink)and she woke up a day later with no memory of how she made it home?
Keep in mind Lisa Bonet worked with that guy. He was her boss and he fired her.
But yeah….nothing at all frightening about any of that./sarcasm
The scary thing about this is how people like you dismiss things like that as people worrying needlessly. The fact that someone like him, so many like him, were in positions of power to make or break people’s careers should be very frightening to you but I mean if that doesn’t bother you, to each his own.
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And he even made jokes about how people shouldn’t accept drinks from him during his recent stand up tour in Canada. I wondered then was he giving his accusers the middle finger in figurative sense.
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AlitaRegina,
“You realize that this is an blog post about an older black man who drugged and raped women and used his socioeconomic position and fame to shield him from the consequences of those crimes?”
This is getting silly. I guess the word allegedly doesn’t exist anymore and accusations=guilt. And of course since Cosby is an older black man you can bizzarely compare him to pretty much any other older black man in any other situation.
Hence your never ending tales of older black men in trade unions or construction or da club or the street or the office or the ones who have children with agreeable younger women and so on and forth. Men who don’t have much in common with Cosby, other than being older black men, which as it’s clear from your posts, are the root of all evil in the black community. What “crimes” have these men committed other than being older black men that is? Really strange stuff.
C’mon, fess up. What is your real issue with older black dudes and don’t tell me any foolishness about da club or the street or who’s banging who in the office because we all know young dudes holla and get after it too.
The Gabby Douglas thing is just…odd. So her father shows up after she becomes famous and….hits her up for money…no…tries to ride off her fame Kardashian style….no….asks for an autograph and (goes away?) …yep…the horror! LOL! I shouldn’t laugh but your sense of proportion is way off. Right now, there’s many a NBA/NFL/MLB player going broke trying to help out deadbeat relatives and friends who are living in their pockets. Gabby got off lucky.
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he even made jokes about how people shouldn’t accept drinks from him during his recent stand up tour in Canada.
Maybe Jian Gomeshi was at the show XD
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I guess the word allegedly doesn’t exist anymore and accusations=guilt.
…..Allegedly?
______________________________________________________________
Cosby: “I meet Ms. (Redacted) in Las Vegas. She meets me back stage. I give her Quaaludes. We then have sex.I do not, I can’t judge at this time what she knows about herself for 19 years, a passive personality.”
http://variety.com/2015/biz/news/bill-cosby-admits-to-drugging-women-for-sex-report-1201534649/
______________________________________________________________
Beverly Johnson:
______________________________________________________________
After the taping I met all the cast and then met with Cosby in his office to talk a bit about the hell I’d been through in my marriage. He appeared concerned and then asked what I wanted from my career going forward. He seemed genuinely interested in guiding me to the next level. I was on cloud nine.
Cosby said he wanted to see how I handled various scenes, so he suggested that I pretend to be drunk. (When did a pregnant woman ever appear drunk on The Cosby Show? Probably never, but I went with it.)
….. he offered me a cappuccino from the espresso machine. I told him I didn’t drink coffee that late in the afternoon because it made getting to sleep at night more difficult. He wouldn’t let it go. He insisted that his espresso machine was the best model on the market and promised I’d never tasted a cappuccino quite like this one.
It’s nuts, I know, but it felt oddly inappropriate arguing with Bill Cosby so I took a few sips of the coffee just to appease him.
Now let me explain this: I was a top model during the 70s, a period when drugs flowed at parties and photo shoots like bottled water at a health spa. I’d had my fun and experimented with my fair share of mood enhancers. I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I’d been drugged—and drugged good.
http://www.vanityfair.com/unchanged/2014/12/bill-cosby-beverly-johnson-story
______________________________________________________________
………..allegedly?
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AlitaRegina,
You are all over the place now even moreso because your arguments aren’t making sense. So in a typical last refuge move you are making insinuations. I never said anything about Beverly Johnson and what does Lisa Bonet have to do with anything?
Aside from the salacious rumor mentioned by somebody earlier here which hasn’t even been remotely confirmed by anybody so what she got fired? You mean an actress got fired from a tv show? I’m shocked.
Do you even know the sequence of events? She left the Cosby show to go to the spinoff, A Different World, then the Angel Heart and topless spread thing happened then she got pregnant and left the show (DW but was kept as a reoccuring in the Cosby Show) and guess what? The following year she came back to the Cosby show as a main cast member but was booted in 91. She was a main character in 5 out of the 8 seasons and 2 reoccurring of the Cosby show and 1 full season of A Different World. For an actress with no previous experience other than guest spots, she had a great run and, like the other cast members, has made a mint of $$$$$ on residuals. Yeah Cosby really did bad by her.
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@ks
What is your real issue with older black dudes and don’t tell me any foolishness about da club or the street or who’s banging who in the office because we all know young dudes holla and get after it too.
1.)What do you mean by “getting after it”? That little turn of phrase is a bit confusing can you explain it a bit?
2.) Since I have no idea what you mean by “getting after it”(and I’m going to be generous and not make an assumption), I’m just going to clarify that I was talking about rape/sexual assault/sexual harassment/lack of male accountability for these and other offenses in general due to sexism/patriarchy and how it negatively impacts women in general and everyone who isn’t a man with a certain amount of privilege and power in different degrees of severity.
3.) We’re not talking about a man who was young are we?
4.) And…where do you think the young black men get this kind of behavior from? What kind of example is men like Bill Cosby setting for younger black men who because of various reasons(Gabby Douglas has a brother as well) have few role models(possible because their biological fathers are only interested in parenting them when they become successful without their fathers)?
In answer to your question: I never said that I had any issue with older black men, you assumed that I did because I wrote about the issues that many of them have as a group as it related to the topic of this thread.
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AlitaRegina,
Goodness gracious you are confused. Yes, allegedly. Words have meaning.
Beverly Johnson has made a claim or accusation that will not be proven in any court anywhere except perhaps the court of public opinion. There is a gigantic difference, legally and morally, between “giving” (whatever that means) somebody a lude, or coke, or Molly or a drink and then having sex and slipping sombebody a mickey or roofie in their drink. Johnson is claiming the latter though not the sex part.
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Goodness gracious you are confused. Yes, allegedly. Words have meaning.
Whats confusing to me is the you keep using the word allegedly to refer to something that he admitted to doing:
______________________________________________________________
Cosby: “I meet Ms. (Redacted) in Las Vegas. She meets me back stage. I give her Quaaludes. We then have sex.I do not, I can’t judge at this time what she knows about herself for 19 years, a passive personality.”
______________________________________________________________
There is a gigantic difference, legally and morally, between “giving” (whatever that means) somebody a lude, or coke, or Molly or a drink and then having sex and slipping sombebody a mickey or roofie in their drink.
Cosby in his own words didn’t say she “took” the quualude he says he “gave it” to her before having sex with her.The woman in question says Cosby drugged and raped her.
Johnson is claiming the latter though not the sex part.
The only reason she’s “claiming” they didn’t have sex is because Johnson cursed Cosby to his face several times, while she still had the wherewithal to speak, and then Cosby responded by dragging her down the stairs to a cab and out the door while she was losing consciousness and she managed to get herself home safely in some way that she doesn’t remember because something in the espresso that Bill Cosby insisted she drink made her black out and lose memory of an entire day.
It’s not an allegation if he admitted to doing it.
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AlitaRegina,
By getting after it, I simply meant trying to get or chase women. It’s ceratinly not exclusive to older men. Just some loose language on my part.
Oh no you don’t. : ) Don’t try and run away from it now with the “clarification” and use the feminist sexism/patriarchy blah blah blah stuff as cover.
You tried to wrap Cosby around the neck of older black men as if he was typical. You used some petty personal examples about who’s hollering in da club, office poltics and some older dude who had a kid with a young women. You even tossed in sexual tourism for good measure to buttress your point.
Own it! Cosby is not a typical older black man though he is a tiresome and pompous hypocrite who’s getting a well deserved comeuppance.
As an aside, here’s what happend with your trade unions/construction “image”.
The white guy level stayed the same because of nepotism and institututional racism.
The latin guy level increased because there’s an army of them and a lot of them are willing to work cheaper and off the books.
The black guy level decreased because of the institutional racism of the drug war. A lot of the young guys who would’ve replaced the older guys you’re complaining about are either in jail or have criminal records. What’s an older say, black electrician who wants to mentor a young man supposed to do when, if even he trains him, he’ll never get licensed with the city because of his felony conviction? Sure the kid can be a low wage laborer around the site but, for how long? That’s a lot of back breaking grunt work for little money and no chance to move up the ranks.
That’s why I said earler that the evil system essentially makes those dudes “non-persons” in terms of employment. Doesn’t that make more sense than supposing that older dudes just want to keep working in usually physically demanding jobs just so they can profile in the hotspot and have young baby mammas? Really now…lol.
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There is a gigantic difference, legally and morally, between “giving” (whatever that means) somebody a lude, or coke, or Molly or a drink and then having sex and slipping sombebody a mickey or roofie in their drink.
Oh is there really in your mind? Between this little chestnut and “getting at it” I’m not sure if I even seriously want to bother engaging you in discussion about this but I will say this:
Regardless of what YOUR morals are, I consider any sex that you can’t or don’t consent to, to be rape. Just so we’re clear I don’t think an unconscious person or someone who is stupefied by the influence of drugs can be an actively consenting sexual partner, mmmkay?
You seem to be under the impression that I take an issue with men or older black men when my issue is what you’re actively engaged in right now: excusing the inexcusable. This is why people get away with committing rape, particularly men, particularly older men. The only reason I mentioned older black men engaging in this behavior specifically is because the topic of the thread is an older black man who engaged in this kind of behavior and also because sexual predators generally stay within their ethnic/racial groups for the most part (although I feel like black women are targets of sexual predators of all races much more often than society cares to acknowledge) because of demographic reasons and the fact that most sexual aggression is covert. So by it’s very nature its the sort of violence that takes place under the a cover of some sort, to take the victim unawares and to sheild the perpetrator from consequences. Most sexual predators hide in plain site by assuming positions of moral authority(priests, educators, bosses) which is what makes it so threatening from a female standpoint: it can happen to you anywhere with anyone at anytime( like it ‘allegedly” did with Dominic Strasse Kahn’s maid at the hotel he was staying at) and it’s the only crime where the victim is the one on trial, which is why it goes unreported so often.
It doesn’t help that even when men admit to sexual impropriety, or the crime itself, society rarely demolishes their character like they do to women. Quite the opposite.
But by all means, please continue braying.
Goodnight
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AlitaRegina,
“It’s not an allegation if he admitted to doing it.
Just stop. He didn’t admit to doing anything to JOHNSON. Period.
Is there some sort of strange transitive property that I’m unaware of where that if you say you gave drugs to somebody that means that if somebody else said you slipped them in a drink, then the latter is true because of the former?
Also, you need to either read the depo and/or stop spreading slight of hand misinformation. Insofar as the other woman in question is concerned, Cosby claims she took the drug knowingly after he gave it to her whereas she claimed that Cosby said “take these” and she then proceeded to do so. That’s is a lot different than Johnson’s claim.
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Oh no you don’t. : ) Don’t try and run away from it now with the “clarification” and use the feminist sexism/patriarchy blah blah blah stuff as cover.
That was actually the brunt of my argument. That sexism and patriarchy hurts men as much as it does women. Certainly more than it benefits them that’s why I don’t get why so many men subscribe to it.
The black guy level decreased because of the institutional racism of the drug war. A lot of the young guys who would’ve replaced the older guys you’re complaining about are either in jail or have criminal records.
yeah…because they care so much about criminal records in the trade/manual labor/ construction skills industry. That’s the main career field where background checks are so important and ….extensive and always done. That’s why no immigrants without status work in construction-end sarcasm
What’s an older say, black electrician who wants to mentor a young man supposed to do when, if even he trains him, he’ll never get licensed with the city because of his felony conviction? Sure the kid can be a low wage laborer around the site but, for how long?
Well lets see: instead of tricking and taking sex tourism trips and doctor shopping for roophies, and preaching from the pulpit about “respectability politics and pound cake” maybe these older black men could band together, use their leverage,like every other minority group does, and get the laws changed or find a way to work around the law, like by starting their own companies within their communities and branching out.
Instead of sport newscasters bribing judges to let them off on rape charges, why don’t they just avoid the rape entirely and use their position and influence or even something as basic as I dunno, their time, to mentor at risk youth and create opportunities for them so that they don’t feel the need to engage in crime? Instead of inviting them to drug and rape parties( Like Sharper “allegedly” did with Lebron James)?
Even apprenticing without licensing, WOULD make a big difference. I don’t think black men realize how much their presence, even without the things other men have, matter to the youth of the community.
Maybe they should try, instead of just giving up before they start.
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Sh.t do something at this point besides act powerless and make excuses.
When many of them, like Bill Cosby, clearly have power that they use for the benefit of themselves at the expense of future and present generations.
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@KS
Maybe they can do something at this point besides act powerless and make excuses.
When many of them, like Bill Cosby, clearly have power that they use for the benefit of themselves at the expense of their community.
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If anybody else wants to take this I’m done with this donkey. I’ve heard all these excuses and rhetoric before. And none of it is valid.
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@KS
Considering all the stuff that needs to be done in the black community, maybe “getting at it” isn’t the best use of older black men’s time, perhaps?
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AlitaRegina,
Me: “There is a gigantic difference, legally and morally, between “giving” (whatever that means) somebody a lude, or coke, or Molly or a drink and then having sex and slipping sombebody a mickey or roofie in their drink.
You: Oh is there really in your mind? Between this little chestnut and “getting at it” I’m not sure if I even seriously want to bother engaging you in discussion about this but I will say this:
Regardless of what YOUR morals are, I consider any sex that you can’t or don’t consent to, to be rape. Just so we’re clear I don’t think an unconscious person or someone who is stupefied by the influence of drugs can be an actively consenting sexual partner, mmmkay?
Stop performing and grandstanding and take your loss like a woman.
You’re arguing to extremes and trying to frame the discussion because you can’t make your point. You’re trying to pretend that you don’t know the difference between knowing and unknowing in my example above.
Right now there are probably millions of people happily having drunken or drug influenced sex and are not raping each other in the slightest.
Despite your exuberance, you don’t even know that the claims against Cosby are varied. Not all the women claim Cobsy drugged them, not all claim that he raped them or tried to rape them, some claim neither.
Of course Cosby is finished now and deservedly so. The funny thing is that I never liked the Cosby vibe. The whole “Our Kind of People” Sag Harbor/Martha’s Vineyard/etc. types are some of the most unsufferable negros on earth.
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AlitaRegina,
Aaannndddd right on cue, you’re back to complaining about older black men again. You’re to the point where you can even follow my points coherently as the trade union/construction thing was really easy.
So again fess up! Stop the noise and spill it! Who did you dirty? Some old guy? You’re waaayyyy to stuck on it for it merely to be some standard feminist intellectual exercise.
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AlitaRegina,
Okay, I’ve tbeen on you a bit but on a serious note, you seem really divorced from what’s happening in the community.
Who do you think is encouraging the young guys to take the civil service exams particularly for the one decent sorta black union left – the MTA or mentoring the few of them that qualify into the trades or doing the diversity workshpos and networking in corporate america and so on? Mostly older established black men and women. There’s a lot of other stuff going on as well.
It’s not all booty chasing in Brazil ; )
Take care and stay out of trouble out there!
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@KS
Despite your exuberance
I know you’re probably using “exuberance” because you’ve heard the expression “youthful exuberance” somewhere, and thought it would make your argument sound more intelligent than it was to use it in a sentence but it really doesn’t fit. The closest word you could have used that would have applied to my tone of my writing was “zeal”. Since you seem to think I have some agenda, when you’re clearly projecting your own intentions onto me.
mentoring the few of them that qualify
There’s actually way more than a “few” that qualify, judging by even the most generous estimate. And mentoring just for it’s own sake isn’t something anyone needs to qualify for at all. But whatever you have to tell yourself.
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AlitaRegina,
I tried to give you a break but alas….
You are clearly out of gas and are just sputtering now. Stop pouting.
You lost so move on. Have a goodnight!
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@King: LOL
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@King,
Now that is funny! Well played.
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🙂
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I’m srry king, I don’t mean to come off rude or stupid but u was just wanting to know what mz. Nikita and you meant
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Sorry for being absent these few months. I’ve been busy with other things. First off, how’s everyone? Second, I like to leave some input on the subject.
I’ve read that there are many blacks, black males especially, that felt some sort of collective shame when they first heard about these allegations. To them, it was like Cosby, a man they admired and even idolized, made living as a black man in America much harder. It’s hard to say if he did or didn’t. Even if Bill didn’t rape those women, and news of it didn’t exist, life in America is already hard for black people.
In any case, this should be treated as a sexism issue and not a race issue, but I can’t help think that because Cosby is black that rape has and will play a part in not only how this scandal is covered in the media, but how it affects the lives of Black Americans in general in some way, shape or form.
Next, we must come to the realization that there are black men who are also rapists. That’s not to try to play on the age-old stereotype of the black male rapist, but it is acknowledging that rape is a gender issue, not a race issue. It’s problematic for black men because we have been branded as natural-born rapists since back in the day. And I fear that Cosby helped contribute to making things harder for an honest and open conversation without playing the stereotype seeing as how Cosby IS that stereotype threat. And if that’s the case, again, how will it affect Black Americans?
As a side note, I often wonder if Cosby had been a white man, would there be any news about it, and if so, how far would it go? I compare Cosby’s mess with deceased British entertainer Jimmy Savile. According to Google News search alone, his child abuse cases are still a highly discussed subject and he’s worse than Cosby, in my opinion.
Whatever the case, it looks like Cosby’s chickens are coming home to roast as they should.
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‘Wolf, it’s good to hear from you and know you’re doing alright in this krazy climate that wer’e livin’ in these days! 🙂
” I know in the trades there IS discrimination but I also know that, white/latinos/asians will give their young people a hand up or a referral or whatever. They’ll help young people in their community get jobs or tell them when things are posted or let them know where to go apply ect ect.” @AlitaRegina, once again you’ve told honest-to-goodness truth, I know Latins firsthand that do this for their peepz all the time.
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A pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things. (Throws up in mouth) YUCK!
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He said in sworn testimony he paid off women to keep his infidelity from his wife.
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While Cosby was lecturing the “Poor Blacks” about not holding up their end of the Law and Order deal, he was himself:
1) Buying prostitutes (ILLEGAL)
2) Buying (ILLEGAL) drugs to use on women
3) Raping women (OBVIOUSLY ILLEGAL!)
I mean, all that’s missing is murder. Add to that that while he was lecturing about responsible parenting and asking questions like “Where were you when your child was becoming a criminal?” His own daughter was found have a drug problem.
Again, I’m not even saying that everything that Bill Cosby said was categorically wrong, but man.. that is some SERIOUS hypocrisy!
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Brothawolf
I was hoping you would comment on this seeing as you did a well written piece yourself.
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@King; I remembered that one of is daughters was a drug addict so i thought to myself as well how could he lecture people about how to correct what was messed up in their lives when his back ground was not squeaky clean. He had trouble in his own back yard. I just see this as the chickens coming home to roost.
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@ Mary
Exactly! And then he goes and writes book on marriage while he’s using prostitutes and raping women half his age. Wow, I wonder what his advice on marriage is… get a good pharmacist?
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@King: I even read there was some type of fetish where men like women when the are sleeping. somnophilia. I wonder why he want the women knocked out/sleeping? So they wouldn’t have to look at his ugly face.
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@King
ROFL!!!
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In the original version of Sleeping Beauty, the King actually rapes the princess while she’s asleep and she gets pregnant and gives birth, all while asleep, and one of the twin babies wakes her up by sucking the flax (that pricked her and put her to sleep) out of her thumb/finger.
And then the Princess wakes up with two kids.
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^WHat!? Why am I being accused!!!?? I did nothing of the sort!!
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@AlitaRegina, LmaooOoo He got that “wait til you see my jello puddin’ pop” look on his face!
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@King
Why so defensive? A hit dog will holler, The Brothers Grimm got dirty info on you!
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Seriously though, I gathered from being Europe that most fairy tales in their original cultural context:
1) Did not have happy endings(because in mythology Fairies were actually kind of notorious for being a__holes.)
2) Were meant to scare children as much as entertain them.
3) Magic was powerful and dangerous because of how it robbed people of agency and free will.
And I emphasized the fact that it was the “King” and not the “Prince” because most retellings say that it was a Prince’s kiss that woke Sleeping Beauty ( I think because Princes are typically imagined as being younger) when it actually wasn’t a kiss that woke her at all, and certainly not by some dashing young prince.
Even in the past the crime of seduction was generally done by older to younger. The master of a house that “seduces” a serving girl is generally not going to be young. And even if he is young…he learned that behavior from someone older. Rape is just not something normal young men do without being taught to do it. And there really is a big issue in society with men abusing their authority and power to pursue sex. Especially in Hollywood. With both sexes. There’s actually a documentary coming out now about it that very subject called ” An Open Secret”.
This culture of men not holding other men accountable and not checking them has existed for a loooong time and in the Black Community does actually fall squarely on the shoulders of the much of the older black male generation, I’m sorry.
I think the only reason many of them don’t tell younger men not to rape, and largely from what I’ve seen they don’t, is because they’ve done it or they feel entitled enough to women’s bodies that they don’t think that rape is something wrong. Its a big blind spot in the black community that is constantly overlooked and the only people who seem to draw attention to it are mostly women. But it really shouldn’t be like that at all.
I think the reason for that isn’t racism per se but how easy it is for people who view themselves as powerless to use their oppression to nurse a sense of entitlement. If there’s something wrong with their personality, a bit egotistical or narcissistic sociopath, then the very real oppression and victimization they suffer can lead to chronic lack of accountability that leads them to believe they can do and say whatever they want to people and it’s somehow justified by that oppression/victimization. That’s how victims become abusers.
And its a slippery slope from one to the other but in the case of sexism and misogyny the black community is really bad at drawing the line.
Thats why so many people defended or continue to defend Bill Cosby and that’s also why many people ignored all the evidence that the accusations against him were true. Including a lot of women, like Whoopi Goldberg.
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@ AlitaRegina
Haha!
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Hold on a second, what is this “…not telling younger men not to rape” garbage!? The overwhelming vast majority of men, young and old, don’t rape anybody. Rape is committed by a tiny minority of men and those are mostly repeat offenders. The “crime of seduction”? WTF? And, the casting couch has predated anybody posting here.
This errant nonsense of, again, blaming older black men for both! grooming younger black men to rape and not telling them not to rape (nice double talk) is getting pathologically silly like some sort of bad parody of a gender studies class droning on with the black version of the “rape culture” feminist propoganda. A dubious term that even RAINN called out last year.
We live in a supposed “rape culture” in which the crime of rape has drastically fallen, where rapists are widely reviled and where even an accusation of anything approaching rape is enough to ruin your life. Yeah right. Also, they need to stop lying and say what they really mean when they say rape. They mean male perpertrators and female victims. Nobody really gives a you know what about all the guys getting gang raped in jail by other guys. In fact, it’s widely laughed at with Bubba and dropping the soap jokes. Talk about a “rape culture”.
Look, most people here are astute and know it’s not a coincidence that Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Floyd Mayweather and Bill Cosby are the “face” of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault That, as DL Hughley noted a few days ago, we’re told that Serena Williams is ugly while being told that “Caitlyn” Jenner is beautiful. That the sexual provocativeness of Rhinna or Nicki Minaj is a problem while Miley Cyrus is just bravely exploring her sexuality. That Beyonce’s feminisim is weak while Talor Swift is a feminist hero.
That we have to throw Janay Rice and Camile Cosby under the bus because they won’t bow to the mob and throw their husbands under the bus. In the Cosby case, we are demanding that not only his wife speak out in public, we are demanding that she speak against her husband AND in support of his accusers! Strange how nobody demanded that of Hillary Clinton or Spitzer’s wife or others. The same Camile Cosby who has done more to help educate black people, and black women in particular, over the last 25 or so years than any blog or hashtag ever will.
If Malcolm X were alive, he’d recognize this trickeration for what it is and warn us against carrying water for, in this case, white feminists who are using us to push their agenda and narratives. You can “me too” the Miss Scarletts and Miss Anns all you want but you will evetunally find out that #solidarityisforwhitewomen.
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@ks
Strange how nobody demanded that of Hillary Clinton or Spitzer’s wife or others.
You’re deflecting and over conflating. At least in Indiana most white people I know called Bill Clinton a rapist in casual conversation. To the point that living in New York now and seeing all the support that Hillary gets is kind of baffling. Especially in regards to that whole running drugs out of Mena, Arkansas that the Clintons were most definitely involved in.
I mean if you’re going to generalize and try to make this about racism, when it’s actually about sexism, misogyny and rape culture, you probably should NOT have used the Clintons as an example because ALOT of people in can’t stand them, Hillary in particular. It just depends on what part of the country you’re in and the socio economic class of the people you’re talking to. You’re really reaching with that assertion, I’m sorry.
If you wanted to make an equivalent case, you could look at Stephen Collins, the Dad from “Seventh Heaven” who admitted to molesting a child but Seventh Heaven reruns were actually pulled from public syndication when the tape of him admitting to it came out. They tried to sneak and put it back on but people found out about it and it was pulled again. At least in the area I was in. I think even the TV network that aired on cable stopped too.
______________________________________________________________
http://www.inquisitr.com/1660102/7th-heavens-reruns-resumed-but-you-wont-see-stephen-collins-anytime-soon/:
However, according to E! as soon as the headlines started to quiet down about Stephen Collins’ shocking predilection, reruns of the show returned to UP TV. Episodes aired on November 10, and apparently viewers of UP TV weren’t having it.
Viewers took to social media to complain about the return of 7th Heaven reruns, and now the network is having a change of heart. In a statement to E!, Up TV said, “We have received a mixed to negative response regarding the show on Facebook and in viewer emails. Clearly, a show that has been a fan favorite series for us has been severely impacted.”
Due to the response over the 7th Heaven reruns, the show will be pulled off the air for the second time since the controversial Stephen Collins news. Still, the network tried explain why they decided to bring it back on the air in the first place.
“We brought the show back because many viewers expressed they could separate allegations against one actor from the fictional series itself, as it turns out they cannot. We will be taking the show back off the air.”
______________________________________________________________
Even that episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philidephia” that Stephen Collins played in was pulled from air after the tape of him admitting to molesting the ten year old came out. And even now you will not see television networks airing stuff that Stephen Collins has done. His career, at least in television is effectively over. As it should be.
All the equivalent cases of this I can think of,(Roman Polanski, Woody Allen) at the bare minimum there actually was a lot of backlash and public outcry.
Just because you weren’t paying attention to it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Or that no one else was paying attention.
So it’s not as if the white sex offenders got off scott free and in the case of Stephen Collins his wife was actually the one who turned him in. Woody Allen it was actually the same situation as well, with Mia Farrow.
Spitzer wasn’t accused of rape either so…. I don’t know what the f__k you’re on about honestly.
You’re making really stupid comparisons in service to a very dumb cause.
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@KS
They mean male perpertrators and female victims. Nobody really gives a you know what about all the guys getting gang raped in jail by other guys. In fact, it’s widely laughed at with Bubba and dropping the soap jokes. Talk about a “rape culture”
Don’t pretend you suddenly care about men that are locked up. Didn’t you say this just a a little while before:
A lot of the young guys who would’ve replaced the older guys you’re complaining about are either in jail or have criminal records.
If you really cared about men in jail you wouldn’t be defending a rapist who bought his way out of prison. Mike Tyson and Tupac went to jail at least. If Cosby had committed as many robberies as he did rapes he would have been under the prison a long time ago. Stop acting like racism, which has nothing to do with Bill Cosby’s personal choice to be a rapist, doesn’t have a disproportionate effect on lower income working class black people. The very people Bill Cosby ridiculed because they hadn’t enriched themselves by serving white interests and acting as if structural inequality was because of baggy pants and stealing pound cake.
You seriously wasting keystrokes trying to defend this grown Uncle Tom who deliberately took advantage of structural inequality to gratify and protect himself from the consequences of his actions.
GTFOH with that b_lls___. For real.
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@Abagond
You can delete my comment in moderation.
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Even that whole “black brute” stereotype gets applied to younger, and poorer black men more often than it gets applied to older sweater wearing grandads. Violence in general is associated with people of all races from lower class backgrounds. That’s why middle to upper class people in general tend to be able to buy their way out of prison. Always HAS been that way. Even back in the day.
That’s why a lot of OLDER BLACK MEN actually get a pass on a lot of irresponsible inappropriate behavior. They have the social safety net and the access to wealth and resources to hide much of what they do, that younger poorer men generally don’t.That’s why sexism/misogyny clearly serves a classist function as well.
I don’t get why a lot men refuse to see this?
You want to go back to the “good old days” of pre women’s liberation? Okay. Good luck getting married before you’re forty. Or even losing your virginity. Because the only people who can afford to get married or have sex are going to be men that are OLDER. WTF do people think “The Color Purple” and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” was about?
Under that kind of system most men who can’t support a wife and a child are going to be a bachelor’s until they’re middle aged and they comes into their own in terms of income and socioeconomic status. That excludes the majority of men from sex and companionship.
If something impoverishes and oppresses women, it’s not going to help you either. Especially in the black community which has dispropotionate levels of poverty for reasons, like racism, that we all d__n well know.
But I mean if having a woman “stay in her place” is worth that then go on right ahead and shoot yourselves and your only chance of reproducing in the foot.
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To any young men with sense, don’t buy the BS that men like KS are trying to sell you because they D.G.A.F about you.
Let me reiterate:
They Dont. Give. A. F_.k about you!
They like think you’re a lost cause:
What’s an older say, black electrician who wants to mentor a young man supposed to do when, if even he trains him, he’ll never get licensed with the city because of his felony conviction? Sure the kid can be a low wage laborer around the site but, for how long? That’s a lot of back breaking grunt work for little money and no chance to move up the ranks.
Because they’ve given up on you. They’re old and viagra exists and they want to get their d..ks whet while they still can and you’re standing in the way of that. They don’t like the fact you’re poor.
Do not fall for their BS excuses.
Just because they’ve given up doesn’t mean that YOU have to.
Trade skills are HARD skills. They have economic value whether or not you’re licensed to practice them. And as long as you know how do them, people will pay you. Not many people in this economy have those skills anymore. They may not pay you as much as somebody else but it pays more than working at Mcdonalds. Because it’s a skill. You can make more or just as much money with a GED and knowing how to weld or knowing mechanics or drive a forklift than you can as an LPN with an associates degree does. You basically just have to show up and have the right tools. Thats the ONE occupational field where young men have the advantage by their youth alone. My pops didn’t have status and he had a felony. Until he got injured that didn’t stop him from earning an income. Eric Garner had a felony and HE still worked for the city.
IDK what this KS fool is on about but he’s making BS excuses.
Don’t let racism be the boogeyman to keep you from earning a living. Most of the men who have jobs after they leave prisons are the ones who learned trade skills while they were in locked up. Like my Pops.
Construction and Trade Skills don’t care about criminal records. And most of them I know for a fact don’t do background checks. Only 50% of employers do criminal background checks. Public schools used to teach things like shop and mechanics and now that they don’t, the only black men who know those things are older usually. But there are organisations, government and private, that will teach at least basic skills. And many places will hire you without experience. As long as you’re wiling to do the work.
KS is completely full of crap. I’ve even seen white college graduates on construction sites, because that’s where the work and the money is now.
Don’t listen to people who make excuses, they DGAF about anyone but themselves.
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Update (July 27th): New York magazine has printed the stories of 35 women who accuse Bill Cosby of assault:
(http://nymag.tumblr.com/post/125179609945/im-no-longer-afraid-35-women-tell-their)
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I know they will never talk but i wonder what the cast of the Cosby show really think about him?
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AlitaRegina,
I didn’t realize you were still babbling nonsense here. You sound like the old hit dog who’s been hurt. You went full on performance “acting out” mode but, your loud fussing ain’t saying nothing.
Putting aside your pathological issues with older black men (which is really your issue with Cosby) who, once again, are to blame for everything….I mean…wow…you REALLY need to talk to somebody about that. It’s seems bizarrely personal and causing you to argue incoherently.
Anyway, back in reality, when you clear away the noisy smoke regarding Cosby, there’s no fire, at least not yet. He has no serious legal exposure, his fortune is intact though his public reputation is in tatters, for now.
As Cosby’s able attorney, who gave a great interview over the weekend to HuffPo said, the accusers in general so far haven’t presented any verifiable evidence or information for their claims that could be acted upon then or now and that Cosby hasn’t admitted what some in the media claim. She’s right. And at least a few who did that actually mention specifics have already been outed as dubious. (e.g. The Tonight show claim, the “repressed memory” that wasn’t claim, the Playboy mansion event claim that Cosby didn’t even attend and wasn’t even in town for…etc.)
There’s a bigger issue here but you won’t see it because you’re too busy whining and using Cosby as a bogeyman representation for all those older black dudes who are supposedly keeping younger black dudes down which apparently, keeps them from either trying to talk to you or keeps them are being employed at a level where you feel that can deign to acknowledge them. No extra thirsty low level brothers need apply. lol.
Back to the bigger issue. None of the people pushing this, (the Allreds, the white feminists and/or tweeting SJWs, the big media) really care about the women in question. They’re just tools to feed the Big Narrative. Namely that when it comes to claims of sex crimes where women make them against, accusation=fact, accuser=victim, belief must be non-critical and questioning the veracity of any claim is victim blaming. That narrative took a big hit due to the Rolling Stone/UVA, “Mattress Girl” and Lena Dunham fiascos but it looks to be back on track now.
Overall, it’s part of the “toxic masculinity” meme which is the current white feminists tactic for trying to further neuter white men by telling them what types or traits of masculinity are “acceptable” or not.
Finally, you’d think that we as a people would’ve learned by now not to run with the mob considering how often it’s chasing us but, I guess it feels good for some like you to carry the torches and do the chasing rather than running away from them. Miss Ann/Scarlett is going to give you a good pat on the head.
BTW, the 7th Heaven comparison is stupid as Cosby, unlike that guy, hasn’t admitted to attacking minors. A better comparison to that guy would be Roman Polanski who actually did admit to drugging and sexually attacking a 13 year old girl but unlike Cosby, he’s still getting his movies shown and receiving standing Os at the Oscars. Funny that.
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@Mary Burrell
Phylicia Rashad defended him, Kisha Knight Pulliam called them “just allegations,” and Raven-Symone dismissed the allegations too.
This smells like the old rape allegations from the 1800s-1900s where multiple white women and girls would falsely accuse innocent black men and boys of rape, only to see them lynched in front of the town. Same thing, different day.
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Update: The November cover for Ebony magazine shows the Huxtables of “The Cosby Show” behind broken glass.
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Update: Cosby, for the first time, is to be charged with a crime:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/30/bill-cosby-charged-sexual-assault
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he’s probably in philly to post bail today!
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In all honestly I don’t feel sorry for him. I do however feel sorry for his wife.
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When I saw this information in the news I immediately thought that it’s good that yet another sexual predator is being caught in the net of justice, the other one being Daniel Holtzclaw.
The Cosby case shows that those crimes are not specific of any special ethnic or racial group (many things were said in the Daniel Holtzclaw’s thread regarding his crimes and the link to his race, Eurasian), and the victims can also belong to any race, although it’s true that it’s more frequent that the victims tend to be poorer or less powerful than average and, because of that, more easily become targets of sexual predators.
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It’s amazing that there are people, especially black folks, that are still defending this man. I find it funny how some of them reject the idea of respectability politics. Yet, they support a man who’s built his whole career around it only to be exposed as a ruse to cover up the fact that he’s a sexual predator.
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I wish I didn’t believe it. Unfortunately, I’ve been hearing rumors for a long, long time. When he was performing on campus, the staff in charge of campus events would tell everyone to make sure he was never left alone with a woman, especially any of the students.
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Most people don’t really care about oppression, most only care about being oppressed.
Some in Hollywood want to forgive Roman Polanski and allow him to live and work in LA but they now see Cosby as a sexual predator who should be stripped of any honors and assets and sent to prison.
Some Blacks say that Cosby’s alleged crimes occured too long ago but the same celebrated at the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen.
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Abagond, right now – October 2017 – I think you should write something about the case of Harvey Weinstein. I would describe it as Cosby version 2.. A shame.
I would suggest further you examine this case in the context of a more general problem women face when they want to advance their careers in certain professions. And this happen in many societies worldwide, not just the United States.
Gender-dependent problems have not receive much attention in this blog. Not yet, it seems.
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An interesting sample of opinions in the following link:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/11/opinions/gender-and-power-opinion-roundup/index.html
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Working class rapists go to prison.
Rich ass rapists go to therapy.
The porportionality of punishment is misconstrued. Non violent drug offenders recive longer sentences then rapists. Race place a part in sentencing lengths sd well.
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a watershed!
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81 years old doing the perp walk in hand cuffs to a prison cell.
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Update: Cosby has been sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison for sexual assault. The judge determined he is a “sexually violent predator”, so he will be put on the sex offender registry and be required to undergo counselling for life. He is 81.
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Will they serve him Jello pudding for dessert?🤣😆
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LOL!
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🤣🤣🤣
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camp hill, pa, they process you there and send you to the particular upstate prison — he’s goin ‘up top’
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he’s still out in philadelphia, for someone to go from court directly to prison?
is he in quarantine in solitary now? whatever, the bureau of prisons clearly gave him some preferential treatment, for what it’s worth
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Update: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned Cosby’s 10-year prison sentence for a “process violation”. He is now a free man.
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