If you had said : " Cosby was regarded as one of our leaders to people of a certain age group that he put through school." Agreed. His accomplishments and willingness to give back? Again, was he giving back because he actually cared or was it all cover for the things he was possibly doing behind closed doors?
From everything I've seen and heard, he cared. Unless, of course, you can provide evidence to disprove that.
He's an actor/entertainer. I'm honest enough to admit I don't know if he genuinely did care or didn't care due to that fact. At the end of the day however all the positive he did shouldn't give him a pass for any possible negatives that he may have done.
On that we are in agreement. If he did rape those women, he should be punished accordingly. No favors. But, just as the good he's done should not allow him to skate, the crime should not erase the message he was trying to deliver.
And no one is saying that the message should be erased. Why are so many people equating Cosby himself with a message that many other black people have been saying for the longest time as if Cosby saying it somehow added extra weight and meaning therefore without him it gets erased because Cosby as a messenger may be problematic?
I have to agree with Flame on this literally no other group is held responsible for their lowest common denominators the way we are. The expectation for those with harshest circumstances to all at once rise to higher level is both ridiculous and unrealistic. Compared to any other poor demographic nearly everything is identical.
I feel you. We really aren't that far apart The thing is, because he is who he is and he has (or held) such an esteemed position in the black comunity, the message could get muddled with the man and his actions. I see this every time I hear someone saying, "Fuck what he's saying, he's a rapist." Essentially saying if he was living a bullshit life, everything out of his mouth must be bullshit, too. And, that's what concerns me.
Here's the thing for me. Most of the black people I know do not & have never looked at Bill Cosby, along with other celebrities & entertainers, as part of the everyday black community. So as far as his message is concerned there is no problem with it because as I've said other everyday non celebrity black folks have been saying what he's been saying for quite some time. They just don't have that same high level profile & platform he has. So at least from what I'm seeing from my little space in the world, most people are able to separate the message from the man with no problems.
I havent read enough material on this story - doesnt it seem like those girls knew what Bill's interentions were and were cool with it? I only read about the Temple university woman, her story seems ridiculous.
Dark, I think the difference in our opinions stems from age. I'm old enough to remember when it wasn't as bad as it is now and that ratched ass behavior we all know and hate was no where near as wide spread. It's like one decade all of the stereotypes about blacks were just that, stereotypes. But, then the next year, bam! A significantly larger portion of us became the stereotype. Something really changed in our community and it happened very, very fast. What you are seeing from us old heads is a reaction to that.
That's 'cause you're woke. And, the people you come from, and are around, are woke, too. I use to do speaches at fundraisers and highschools. You'd be surprised how many people have no clue what's going on beyond their circle even if it affects their circle. They know what they're told or what they've heard. They have a roof over their heads and a job. That's as far as it goes.
No doubt some of them knew and this is a money grab. The problem for Cosby is there are two categories of his victims; the women he openly gave pills to and they swallowed voluntarily(still doesn't mean they weren't raped), and the women whose drinks were spiked by Cosby and he never told them they were being drugged. Some of these cases are so old, almost 40 years, that it's going to come down to who does a jury choose to believe?? That's why the amount of victims in total really is going to screw Cosby. If it was just one or two, nobody would pay them any mind. 50 women?? Together they make each other's case stronger. I'll be honest if I was fiending for new pussy like Cosby seemed to be, I'd have a personal assistant whose only job was to scout beautiful women and find out if they were down with me.:smt110 Cosby has a sickness. It has to be one of the EASIEST stunts in the world for a rich man to find fuck friends. Without drugging them. At some point for Cosby it wasn't just about the sex. He got off on having total control over a semi-conscious woman and doing whatever he wanted. And without the consent of his partner that's called rape.
You're right about that. The thing about the drug laws, though, is the crack thing got so bad that blacks were calling for tougher laws. We wanted more police on the streets, tougher sentencing and harsher laws. Real liberals on the left warned us what would happen (at least the ones I knew back in school and my very pro-black Pops), but we were all in. We just wanted our neighborhoods back. Fast forward to today and this is what we have. We ended up being our own worst enemy. But, you right. Had it not been for those two factors, the black comunity would look a whole lot different than it does today.
I watched the Cosby show as a kid but I never viewed Bill Cosby as some leader on a golden pedestal that others to believe he was. Celebrities are people with flaws just like everyone else and hero worshiping as someone can that can do no wrong isn't a good idea. There was a entertainer here in the UK called Jimmy Saville. Saville raised millions for charity over much of his life but he was also a pedo and rapist that used his celebrity status to cover his tracks. He dodged allegations all though his life until he died and all the sick stuff he did got out. Cosby brought this on himself in many ways. You can't go around acting like the moral arbiter of people while secretly doing immoral things behind closed doors.
This. I'm a late 60's baby/70's era kid, so I came up viewing Bill Cosby as simply just another entertainer. My parents & grandparents always said it was fine to admire and take inspiration from other people who achieved some level of success but to never forget they were still just human themselves. Some take the celebrity status that they have achieved and use it for positive means but that same status can be used to inflict harm as well.
Good points. Something has indeed changed and unfortunately it's not for the better. I'm noticing a lot of younger folks simply have a questionable set of values. It's like more people now failing put education as a high priority. While Cosby's (alleged) actions are obviously horrible, I have no problem acknowledging his achievements. Again, I say.. His message was on point. We (collectively) need to do better. Yes, racism is very much prevalent, but often enough we're also not helping ourselves. We have to do better.
Agreed. I'm also a 60s baby. I always found it interesting when some people take a strong liking to a celebrity as if they had a personal relationship. While I like some... I make no mistake and know that it's their talent that I'm a fan of and not necessarily the person. I do have some professional athletes who through interviews and such just really seem to be good people on and off the field, and I do admire them as well.