Truth vs. Fantasy...Bill Cosby vs. Cliff Huxtable and Bill Cosby

As more and more women are coming out to say that they were either raped of sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby people are beginning to believe that there has to be some truth to all of these allegations.  Many people of my generation are disappointed because we thought of Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable.  But he was not Cliff, Cliff was just a character that he created based on his fatherhood related sketches.  Actually, the characters from Fat Albert were closer to the people that he knew growing up. Could you imagine any of those cartoon characters growing up and becoming someone like Cliff Huxtable?  I forgot, that I didn't mention the show, I Spy, because that show came out in the 60’s.  However, in that show Bill Cosby’s character was created by someone else.   But, the funny part is that the I Spy character was a Rhodes Scholar who attended Temple University, so he was closer to the Cliff Huxtable model.  There were also the movie characters that he created, and of course the Jell-o commercials.  So, what is my point about mentioning all of these characters, well it is just that, they were characters.  They were not real.  I think that Bill Cosby should be given credit for always trying to emulate strong positive intelligent African American characters, as an actor.  But, these characters were not him.  They are just characters, only friends and family know the actual man.  As an African American, I think that our fear, is that if these allegations are true, then the positive characters and image will be taken away or somehow diminished by the rest of society.  But the possibility of who Bill Cosby was and is, doesn't mean that strong intelligent African American role models don’t really exist in our society.  They do.  We just have to accept that he may not have really been one of them.  And that part was OK; there was no requirement that you have to be yourself as an actor. There never has been. Many entertainers have their public and private personas.  The real issue is that we have found a much darker and/or disturbing private persona for Bill Cosby.  And many people in our generation feel betrayed.  We thought that we knew him and we may not. 

Here is what I have noticed…


There are many critics that find it impossible for him to be a rapist because Bill Cosby has mentored or discovered many young women.  And, these women have gone on to have great careers.  Some of the more recent females have included Robin Givens, Stacy Dash and Erika Alexander and you know what, I don’t think that he did anything to these females.  He has also given advice to Oprah Winfrey, and no, I don’t think that he tried anything with her either.  There were many women over the years that Bill Cosby mentored, and I don’t think that he was ever anything more than a friend or fatherly figure to them, and because of that, I believe that it was easy for a struggling actress or model to meet Bill Cosby and believe that he would be their mentor, because he had a history of doing that for females that he thought were talented.  All of the women who claimed to have been raped by Bill Cosby have more than a similar story in common.  They have a similar type and they seem to have similar personalities.  So, then the question becomes, is it possible, that he labeled some actresses as truly talented and others as women that he could take advantage of and get away with it.  And I think that the answer may be yes.  Most of the women that I mentioned were too young for him to try anything.  However, Robin Givens was about the right age.  Could you imagine what would have happened if he had tried something with her?  That woman would have sung like a bird or been heavily compensated.  I hate to say it, but I think that Bill Cosby knew what type of prey to select. 

#BillCosby
#mentor
#predator