When it comes to Bill Cosby, we’ve all been blindsided–even with the accusations and settlement of a decade ago. This time it’s too many, too similar, too predatory.
One victim is too many. What is preventable, however, is a collateral victim. That would be society at large–and how it now views the message of this beyond-flawed messenger.
“Annie Hall” and “Blue Jasmine” are no less superb regardless of who Woody Allen is or might have been in his private life. The same for Cosby.
Punish the messenger, if it comes to that. But don’t punish the message. It’s still valid, even if Cosby’s a Mr. Hyde hypocrite.
Whether he was recalling childhood chums, riffing on the Old Testament about Noah’s archetypal boat-building or showing America a non-stereotypical black family, Cosby was delivering a message about what we multi-hued Americans had in common. An America riven by racial unrest needed an African-American voice that wasn’t race baiting, race hustling or Uncle Tomming.
He never turned cynical or angry when his son Ennis was murdered in 1997.
“What’s a cubit?” I still remember that line from the Noah routine. Or the coin flip before the Revolutionary War that explains why the British had to wear non-camouflaged uniforms and march in lines.
It was vintage Cosby. Never risqué, never crude, ever relatable.
Yet he was chided for not using street language like Richard Pryor or Red Foxx. He became television’s Jackie Robinson, but was criticized for lulling white households into a false sense of civil-rights success. Later he was resented by many blacks for moralizing about personal responsibility. Cosby railed against gangsta rap and teenage pregnancy. In effect, he wasn’t black enough.
Cosby’s response to those critics: “A white person listens to my act and he laughs and he thinks, ‘Yeah, that’s the way I see it too.’ … And we both see things the same way. That must mean that we are alike. Right? So I figure this way I’m doing as much for good race relations as the next guy.”
Arguably, a lot more than the next guy.
No, Bill Cosby’s no Cliff Huxtable, old-school obstetrician. But whoever he is, however much his image is shattered, his societal message remains valid, relevant and never more necessary in an America that hasn’t seen its last racial tragedy.