How to discuss Bill Cosby with Bill Cosby apologists.

Bill Cosby will walk out of a Pennsylvania state prison a free man, after the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court issued an opinion to vacate his conviction.

The former comedian had appealed to the court in December when his lawyers argued that Cosby’s entire life was put on trial that caused him to suffer unquantifiable prejudice.

(cont. Fox 43)

You know what that means: your aunties, hoteps, and secret rapists in the family are about to flood social media with witchhunt claims and whataboutism and deflections away from Cosby’s guilt. So in case you’ve forgotten how to respond to them, here is a refresher for the top three “conversations” Cosby apologists want to pull you into.

ONE. There is no evidence that Cosby assaulted anyone.

Sexual assault really is a war of words in many cases.  Who do you believe?  The accuser or the accused?  Without any physical evidence it is Andrea Constand’s word against Cosby’s. (Andrea Constand is the plaintiff in the case where Cosby was ultimately found guilty and sent to jail, the conviction that was thrown out today.)

But wait!  We have Bill Cosby’s own words where he admits to having sex with teenagers, admits that an agency would send him 5 or 6 models a week and he would “feed them a good meal,” and admits to drugging his dates with Quaaludes.  We have those statements coming out of his own mouth.

This is a long quote so I’m gonna throw it in italics instead of blockquote it, for easier reading.

COSBY DISCUSSING HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH 19-YEAR-OLD THERESE SERIGNESE

Q: Did you give her quaaludes?

A: Yes.

Q: What effect did the quaaludes have on her?

A: She became in those days what was called high.

Q: She said that she believes she was not in the position to consent to intercourse after you gave her the drug. Do you believe that is correct?

A: I don’t know. … How many years ago are we talking about? 197(6)? … I meet Ms. Picking in Las Vegas. She meets me backstage. I give her quaaludes. We then have sex.

COSBY DISCUSSING THE TEENAGE MODEL HE HAD A SEXUAL ENCOUNTER WITH

Q: She says that just days after … she told you that she did not drink, you told her to come over to (your townhouse) and served her amaretto. Do you recall serving her amaretto?

A: No.

Q: That you told her to sit next to you on the couch and that you put your arm around her and began massaging her shoulder and arms suggestively. Did that occur? … This occurred sometime after you met her parents.

A: I need clarification on time.

Q: She’s 17 and I believe throughout the time she knows you she becomes 18 or 19.

Q: On a later occasion you had her masturbate you with lotion. Did that ever happen?

A: Yes.

Q: (She) used the lotion to rub your penis and make you ejaculate?

A: Bingo.

COSBY DISCUSSING A TEENAGER WHO FILED A POLICE COMPLAINT AGAINST HIM

A: I fed her dinner, gave her three drinks. We went then to the living room. We went through acting, elementary moves. We then went to the sofa. We laid down together. I was behind her.

Q: Was she lying down or sitting up?

A: No, she was down.

Q: Did she fall asleep?

A: Yes.

Q: What did you do when she fell asleep?

A: I got up.

Q: Did you engage in any type of sexual contact with her while you were on the couch?

A: No.

Q. Are you aware that the woman’s statement was that on the night of the dinner at your New York townhouse, “At some point Cosby and the woman were sitting on a sofa and Cosby was massaging her back?”

A: Yes.

Q: “Cosby then lowered his pants in an effort to receive oral sex?”

A: “In an effort to receive oral sex,” that did not happen.

Q: “The woman rebuffed Cosby’s advances and was immediately sent home, driven by Cosby’s driver?”

A: And that is not true.

(cont. DailyMail UK)

We have Bill Cosby’s own testimony to establish that pattern of behavior and point straight toward guilt.  Plus, we have fifty women telling the same story over and over and over, how this man would invite them somewhere, drug them, and assault them.  They didn’t sit in a room and compare notes and they have absolutely no reason to make any of this up – there’s no money to be made, no fame to be had, and no punishment to dole out.

TWO. The “victims” waited so long to accuse him which means they’re making it up for money.

Let’s take Andrea Constand first because she’s the one who actually had the criminal suit.  Constand tried to pursue this right when it happened.  She went to the police (the way she’s supposed to), gave her statement (the way she’s supposed to), and let the police do their work (the way she’s supposed to).  Nothing happened and the district attorney at the time did not file charges in the case, citing “insufficient evidence.”  So, Constand sued Cosby in civil court and the two of them reached settlement.

Fast forward to present day, and a floodgate of women have now told stories similar to Constand, which establishes a pattern of behavior.  Along with that, a judge unsealed Cosby’s deposition testimony in Constand’s civil case where he admitted to some of his questionable behaviors under oath, and the current prosecutor decided to take on Constand’s case before the statue of limitations ran out.

Let’s be clear:  I seriously doubt the current prosecutor, Kevin Steele, cares that much about justice.  However, Cosby’s story was huge, he wanted to be elected, and he used this case as part of his platform for election.  He promised that if elected county prosecutor, he would go after Bill Cosby.  It made a big splash, he was elected, and here we are.  However, his motives don’t affect Cosby’s guilt or the facts of the case.  Steele had higher ambitions than justice for Constand, but the point is still the same:  she deserves justice.

And the other women who’ve also told their stories years and decades after the fact probably found strength in numbers.  It’s hard to be a 20something woman accusing America’s Favorite Dad of sexual assault at the height of his popularity.  It’s much easier to hear someone else tell their story and not only find strength in not having to stand alone, but also find strength in the distance between the present and when it happened.  You’re not a 20something starting out – you’re an established 40something.  He’s not America’s Dad and arguably the most powerful person on primetime – he’s a fading star way past the height of his fame.  And it’s not fair that he was able to do this for so long to so many people and then have the nerve to castigate others on how they behave.

THREE. These allegations were cooked up to keep a Black man from buying NBC.

This one makes me laugh but WOW it really won’t die! It is not hard to google for 3 seconds and find out everything you need to know.

1) Bill Cosby was never in line to run NBC.
2) Bill Cosby wanted to buy NBC in the early 90s even though the company was **never for sale** and the rumors of its sale kept persisting because ratings were down.
3) Even at its lowest point, NBC was worth almost $5 billion dollars. Bill Cosby has never been a billionaire. Even if NBC was for sale at any point, he couldn’t afford it alone. He’d have to join hands with a bunch of other people – and those other people most certainly would have been white.

This is not a witch hunt against a Black man who was about to “make major moves” or however you want to phrase it. This last round of allegations was largely the result of Hannibal Buress making comments about Bill during a stand-up routine. Did a group of racist white people approach Hannibal to plant the Cosby story again because Bill was about to buy NBC at today’s price? They went to a 2nd-tier comedian and hoped the comments would go viral?

One last NBC note about a frequent refrain I’ve seen on Hotep Twitter: white folks using 30 year old allegations to keep a Black man from buying NBC.

If any of the “explanations” about white folks trying to take down Bill include any references to 30 year old allegations, just nip it in the bud, because the accusations were not 30 years old the first time he was accused. Nor the 2nd. Nor the 3rd. They certainly weren’t 30 years old in 1992 when these people swear he was initially going to buy NBC. And if they’re referring to the age of the allegations in the present, NBC is worth tens of billions of dollars right now, so clearly Bill Cosby was not about to buy it in the past few years.

So that’s it. You need not let any Bill Cosby Apologists waste your oxygen, but if you must be around them – maybe you’re related to them or they sign your paychecks, I dunno – remind them that Dr. Huxtable is not Bill Cosby.  Dr. Huxtable was a great television character.  Bill Cosby is a creep who admits his creepy behavior, went to jail for it, and is now has his conviction overturned because of how it was prosecuted.

But on that Dr. Huxtable tip…I just want to remind y’all that the first draft of the Cosby Show saw the Huxtables as a limo driver and a plumber.  It was then rewritten at Pill Cosby’s request, and they became a doctor and a lawyer.  And Bill Cosby decided to play a gynecologist.