Bill Cosby Town Hall To Teach Boys About Sexual Assault? How Sway?

Prior to Cosbys Pound Cake analogy excoriating poor blacks for not living up the example of his generation, most of what I have had to write about him ranged between good and great.  Within the last three years I had editorialized on many different angles. 

An open letter to Hannibal Burress congratulating him for having the guts to lambaste Cosby as being hypocritical for using his family-friendly television program as a false soap box from which to criticize black people, all while decades-long allegations simmered under the surface.  

There was another open letter to silly Cosby supporters who would rather paint 60 to 100 of his accusers as liars than relinquish their undying allegiance to the cult of personality the Cos has built up around him over the years.  

The last piece I wrote about him was around a year ago, when court documents revealed how he actually admitted using Quaaludes in one sexual encounter.  There have been other very capable and insightful articles written by The Shadow League Editor-in-Chief Ali Danois and contributor April Reign, and several others,have waded into this cesspool to try to make reason of it, and I was grateful to relinquish the responsibility.  

Contrary to what some may have thought, I took no pleasure at seeing any of these things play out in the manner that they had.  But Ive been working in media for two decades, and Im intimately aware of how perception is indeed reality for most Americans. Cosby was accused of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004. He says the encounter was consensual.

A juror tells ABC News the jury couldn’t reach a consensus after voting 10-2 to convict on two counts against Cosby.

I was glad that I was not tasked with covering his trial, and subsequent mistrial, due to two jurors who were unwavering in their support for him.   

The Bill Cosby brand has sustained portions of my imagination and creative growth throughout my childhood and early adulthood. It wasnt until Ghost Dad that I checked out of his creative works, but I still appreciated his message. Even if it was aged and antiquated, it was appreciated. 

Morality, being upstanding, pulling oneself up by his or her own bootstraps, who but ol Bill could talk straight to black folks without fear of losing fans or any repercussion?  All of his family-friendly comedy, the shows he produced that show black people in a positive light, as well as his many philanthropic works, made some believe him to be infallible.  

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The overarching direction of the trial escaped me, but quirky details like Cosby saying Hey, hey, hey in a Fat Albert voice while exiting the courtroom disgusted me.  Cosbys guilt or innocence aside, his next stunt is so far beyond the scope of imagination that it would be laughed at if presented on Law & Order.  

He has announced that he would bring a town hall meeting to Birmingham, Alabama where he would teach young boys how to avoid problems that their misbehavior might create.  

You already know what rule number one should be, right? Dont drug women and manipulate them while their unconscious. I feel infinitely soiled for even typing those words.  A 10-2 mistrial isnt a clean slate.  It means eight people out of ten believed you to be guilty! Whose doing PR over there?

Man, woman or child, if a you’re demonstratively celebrating a 10-2 mistrial on a sexual assault charge then you’re a horrible human being, Cosby looks like he’s demonstratively celebrating.  Whatever happened to all the respectability stuff he’s always talking about? This certainly isn’t respectable. 

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