That's NOT where your pudding pop goes, Bill Cosby!

I am not at all surprised by the recently unsealed court transcripts that said that, yeah, Bill Cosby did try to ply women with drugs in order to sexually take advantage of them. I mean at this point I think it would be harder to find women who haven't been taken advantage of by Mr. Cosby. I still admit to being disappointed by this conformation of Cosby's morally repulsive actions and the fact that he has been able to get away with this for so long by paying his victims off (But only if she remained a sufficiently educated rape victim, because Cosby's's not going to let a little thing like sexual assault get in the way of a little sanctimonious moralizing.) However it's always disheartening when a man that was so admired within America in general and the Black community in particular has fallen so far from the "image" he maintained. I talked a bit about my somewhat confused feelings about this on another post:

I never had any "hero-worship" toward Cosby, but as a black man (which of course means that I'm the sole voice of Black America), I did have admiration for him. Keep in mind that this was at a time when Black people were depicted as jive-talking buffoons and ill-tempered thugs...when we were featured at ALL (Hee, "the more things change" huh?) His show gave America a different (and sorely needed) look at a little-seen slice of the African-American experience. When you grow up in a society that constantly tries to limit your options, things like that can mean a lot.

So no, I'm certainly not going to "defend" Cosby here (Hey, when a woman doesn't want you to put you "pudding pop" near here her "Jello cup", you better well listen to her, buddy!), but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have any admiration for other past achievements (Incidentally this is also the take I use regarding the Founding Fathers.). It's not enough to get him off the hook for "Cosbying" his way through a swath of women though.

Of course Cosby himself, hypocritically contributed to the "jive-talking Blacks" stereotype himself by chastising African-Americans who didn't follow the edicts he determined they should have, like listening to that rap music (which gives them the brain damage) or not going to college, or (gasp!) failing to keep their pants up (something that Cosby apparently had trouble doing himself.) By the way, that loud beeping noise you heard is the irony detector going off. Unfortunately by trying to preserve a "positive" image of African-Americans through condescending self-righteousness "How Proper Black People Should Act", Cosby just instead validated the false narrative of the "Good Blacks" who deserve rights and freedom from abuse and "Bad Blacks" who don't (and we've seen some of the damage that type of mentality can cause.)

A few other annoying point about this disgusting system of abuse. First regarding this particular incident that I linked, there is something important to keep in mind for those who say that this doesn't "prove anything." As I said on a message board:

Let's stop here for a minute to point out that having sex with a woman without her consent is rape, REGARDLESS of whether they took the drugs willingly or not (from the way most of the women describe the situation, I'd say they were drugged without their knowledge. However it just needs to be pointed out that Cosby wouldn't get off the hook if that were the case, since the point was that they were passed out past the point of consent in either case.)

Even before the court documents came out there was plenty of reason to doubt Cosby (and his somewhat vehement defenders.) One of the most irritating defense was people trying to invoke the ol' "her word versus his" tactic, the typical bane of rape cases. Now usually one of the reasons rape and sexual assault charges are so difficult to get is a lack of collaboration. The Cosby situation however, demonstrates the importance of the victims coming forward because it establishes a systematic pattern of behavior so the stories can then collaborate with each other (and for all the "not enough evidence" naysayers, let's remember that testimony is a form of evidence. There is a reason lawyers try to get so many sources of it.) The voices are now amplified, something that is needed when dealing with the wealthy and powerful (It's why class-action suits are a thing. Money has a bad habit of drowning out people's voices so they need to be particularly loud.) So it's not "his word against hers" but "his word against hers. And hers. And hers. Oh and hers. etc." Each new accuser that pops up is another dent in the credibility of America's favorite trifling Black scold father figure.

Update: And now poor Cosby will have to scold people people without his fancy honorary degrees in Condescension and Quaalude Distribution because some schools are rescinding them. Here's Fordham University's statement on the matter:

"That Mr. Cosby was willing to drug and rape women for his sexual gratification, and further damage those same women's reputations and careers to obscure his guilt, hurt not only his victims, but all women, and is beyond the pale," the statement read.