Bill Cosby: Icon and Sexual Predator
Bill Cosby is shown circa 1960s.
Hannibal Burress reignited the flames. Watch below.
It’s easy for me to separate the artist from the art as people mainly reveal the best representation of themselves and not who they are. Only do loved ones (friends and family) really see whom we all are deep down, which is why judgment for me is reserved for actions whether alleged or not.
With that being said, the Washington Post pretty much summed up what I thought originally about Bill Cosby when I heard these allegations many years ago. I suggest all, but particularly his defenders, read the specific allegations of all of these women.
Bill Cosby, like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, is a sexual predator. A sexual predator is a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically “predatory” or abusive manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to “hunt” for his or her sex partners. One does not have to commit sex crimes to be a sexual predator although most often do as I believe Cosby did.
Where and When?
The incidents were alleged to have taken place in a Hollywood-studio bungalow, a chauffeured limousine, luxury hotels, a New York City brownstone. But it also stretches into unexpected places, such as an obscure Denver talent agency that referred two of Cosby’s future accusers to the star for mentoring.
The allegations span from when he was the first black star of a network television drama in 1965 to the mid-2000s, when Cosby was firmly entrenched as an elder statesman of the entertainment industry, a scolding public conscience of the African American community and a philanthropist. They also span a monumental generational shift in perceptions — from the sexually unrestrained ’60s to an era when the idea of date rape is well understood.
Sexual Predator
Sixteen women have publicly stated that Cosby, now 77, sexually assaulted them, with 12 saying he drugged them first and another saying he tried to drug her. His modus operandi is remarkably consistent. Young, white women without family nearby; drugs offered as palliatives; resistance and pursuit; accusers worrying that no one would believe them; lifelong trauma. There is also, as expected, a pattern of intense response by Cosby’s team of attorneys and publicists, who have used the media and the courts to attack the credibility of his accusers.
Accusations have flared periodically throughout the past nine years, both because of changing attitudes and, particularly over the past month, because of social media’s ability to transform a story into a viral phenomenon almost impossible to suppress or control.
Icon
Cosby built his fame on a family-friendly comedic persona. He has lectured black youths about proper behavior. He has been honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom and been lauded for making the largest donation ever by an African American to a historically black college, Spelman College in Atlanta. We can’t take away what he has meant for both comedy and black people. We can also acknowledge that he is a criminal sexual predator.
