Everybody knows some part of Bill Cosby. Stretching back to his stand-up comedy shows and then his appearance on TV in 1965’s “I Spy”—and the whole “Fat Albert” cartoons (1972-1979). We saw him on the Silver Screen in “Uptown Saturday Night,” “Let’s Do It Again,” “California Suite,” “Ghost Dad,” “The Meteor Man” and his crowning achievement, “The Cosby Show.” Indeed, Cosby, a black man was “America’s “Dad.” He (and the show) represented the best of what black folk had to offer America. In some people’s (black & white) minds the show was unreal. Can you believe that? A black doctor married to a black lawyer raising very well-spoken and well-behaved chirr’ren? What utopian world were they living in? Oh, that’s right, Hollywood!
And then the fall from grace…
Unlike the mass majority of people who have an opinion about the Bill Cosby rape saga, I took the time to read the evidence—41 women who all claim that Bill Cosby raped them, mostly by slipping them a “mickie”—quaaludes, Spanish Fly (a supposed aphrodisiac for women)—what you young hip-hop heads call “Molly.”
The basic question being asked is, “Why now? Why come forward after all these years?” Hold that thought.
No question in my mind. By today’s standards, Bill Cosby is/was a pedophile and a rapist, but by the sexual standards of yesteryear, Cosby was quite normative. (Read on and I’ll explain oh impatient one!) Tain’t no way in hell that this many women are lying on him and if you read each case, Bill had a definite modus operandi (way of committing these crimes). There is a pattern. Bill used his fame and wealth and promises of helping careers to get these women into compromising positions whereby they would be assaulted. What’s crazy to me is that with all of Cosby’s fame & money, why did he need to drug women for p####? Hell, I’ve been broke-as-a-joke, riding around in a 1967 Dodge Dart with Flintstone brakes making $2.75 per hour and still pulled baddies back-in-the-day! I guess his moufpiece game was lacking or his dick was small and drugging a chick would take the sting off his UN-endowment? I don’t know…
Today, they call them “groupies,” “star-struck,” “dick-riders,” “Stans,” “tricks,” and “thirsty.” Indeed, many of these women were out to get what they could from ol’ Billy. Cosby was the ultimate “come up!” No doubt about that! But Cosby was on that b#######! He knew he was famous. He knew he was wealthy and he knew that all these pretty women showing him attention weren’t attracted to his Jello-pudding-pop-broad-nosed-ass! He knew that they were there to “run his pockets” (gold digging) and use him as a steppingstone to further their “careers.”
This ain’t blaming the victims either! Indeed, Cosby ran through raped them! The minors that Cosby allegedly raped—they get a pass because they were underage—minors who were probably starstruck as all get-out! But many of these grown-ass women? Playboy Bunnies, actresses, upstart/super models? Cosby was their ticket to fame & fortune. They lowered their morals & values and brushed aside red flags which would indicate that Cos had ulterior motives other than elevating their careers. From reading the reports, some of these ladies opted to take drugs from Cosby while in his private company—dressing rooms, hotel rooms and at his private home without Camile (Cos’s wifey) at home. Cosby was not a medical doctor! “Here! Take this. It’ll relax you,” he would say. (And they did. Side-eye)
So why now? Why wait so long to bring rape allegations?
This is where I side with these women (no matter what their motives for involving themselves in Cosby’s life). Cosby’s alleged crimes started in the 1960’s and ended in 2000’s. For 40 years Bill was able to weave his web of raping chicks without repercussions. Why? Because of the climate of rape. Many of these women were raped in the 60’s & 70’s. What was the culture of rape back then? Terrible! Many women who were raped back then kept quiet because the onus/burden of proof would be on the victim. Our sexist society back then really s###### on rape victims! As one lawyer website writes about prosecuting rape cases in the 60’s, 70’s:
“Prosecuting rape cases was extraordinarily difficult for the victim. The culture and beliefs surrounding rape made legislators, prosecutors, police and jurors believe that, when a rape occurred, it must have been the woman’s fault. She must have consented or wanted it. The law also required corroboration by another witness… that the victim tried to fight off the attacker… sexual history and reputation were fair game for cross- examination. And if the assault did not occur between strangers, it was not viewed as rape. What is now known as ‘date rape’ was not acknowledged.”
In the 70’s (my formative teenage years) we heard all about Spanish Fly. This was the date rape drug of choice and young men were encouraged to slip this pill into a woman’s drink. The culture did not dictate that anything was wrong with this practice. Men got stank (sex) by hook or crook back then! I was just lucky enough to be one pretty m########### who needed not the aid of Spanish Fly or any other mind-altering drug to get some coochie. Oh, but I had white friends who were down for the pill game! At 15 years old I had an older white friend named Eddy (he was around 24) who had quaaludes & Spanish Fly on deck should I need some. He told me all about the affects that these drugs would have on women and the p####! (Can you believe this white boy even told me I’d be eating p#### one day? In da 70’s when p#### eating c########## was strictly a white boy thing! Not nann n#### in da hood would ever admit to licking the nappy dugout in the ’70’s! Well, I admit it. Eddy was right about that!)
Bill Cosby continued operating under antiquated, archaic and outdated sexual rules. Quaaludes & Spanish Fly were socially acceptable p####### hunting bait back then, but by the mid to late ’80’s our society shifted its compassion-towards-women-mentality. And, today, the evidence is very evident. Example?
We jumped all over Rick Ross for rapping, “Put a Molly all in her champagne/She didn’t even know it/I took her home and enjoyed that/She didn’t even know it!” Rick Ross could’ve easily been this generation’s Bill Cosby, but bloggers like myself made him aware of his faux pas (misstep). S### sounded like date rape and we jumped all over him!
The term “date rape”—which is the category we’d have to throw Bill Cosby in is a relatively new term, which, while Cos was doing said rapes would have been oblivious to. According to Wikipedia, the phrase “date rape” was first used in 1975 in a book called, ‘Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape by Susan Brownmiller and then in 1980 and 1982 by Mademoiselle & Ms. magazines.
What Bill Cosby “allegedly” did was nasty, despicable and downright wrong, but, operating in the American sexual culture of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s—he was doing nothing abnormal and these women knew this, thus their continued silence until now. Slipping chicks quaaludes, Spanish Fly, Benadryl, LSD, etc. were all the rage back in those days! Cosby was part of a culture that taught men to conquer women by any means necessary. That’s just what it was and is!
The best way to explain it is that society evolves. What seemed okay and alright in those days is just not acceptable today. A famous person (like Rick Ross) who slips a chick a molly today is subject to ridicule, public embarrassment and loss of endorsement deals (like Reebok). A famous person (like Cosby) slipping a chick a quaalude or Spanish Fly circa 1975 was no big thingy. It was par for the course! It was socially acceptable behavior.
Bill Cosby is simply a product of a sexual society gone awry. He should’ve given up the mickie game in 1979, but having gotten away with it for so long caused him to bring that drug game into the new millennium.
Everybody’s a victim—the 41 women as well as Bill Cosby. Yet, the blame should lay squarely at the feet of our sexist, misogynistic and homophobic society, which creates “Bill Cosbys” (men that would trick women for sex) and women, that would use their body and looks to entice the basest desires of men for a selfish reward (in many of these cases, careers).
Bill Cosby has been made a pariah and anathema. His great works will be stricken from the annals of entertainment all because of what? Women looking for a “come up” and Bill looking for a “lay down.” It is the ultimate folly & fuckery of the entertainment industry. Cosby had a cache of pills for the p####### at his disposal and like a rat to cheese, most of these women fell for the bait.
Indeed, rapists need to be castrated—made eunuchs—and then killed, but this isn’t the case with Bill Cosby. He made a lot of wrong decisions based on societal sexual norms and each of these women made a wrong decision, based on societal sexual norms. That’s how I see it.
Earlier this week, President Barack Obama and rapper Kendrick Lamar touted their get-together at the White House under the banner of the My Brother’s Keeper initiative. The touching event was widely praised on social media, with Black Twitter and others noting, “First person in the White House with cornrows,” and more. Epic. Mind you, Kendrick is the rapper I said had the “Blackest album of the year 2015.” And now, just look at him and the crew on the red carpet in b-boy stances. Priceless.
