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Bill Cosby; Heathcliff Huxtable is dead.

July 21, 2015 by  
Filed under Ent., News, Opinion, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) “Power tends to corrupt – and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
~Sir John Dalberg-Acton

It’s true that we should all be presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, once that guilt has been proven beyond reasonable doubt, all that remains is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Here’s the truth: Heathcliff Huxtable is dead. The long, sordid, sexual excesses of William Henry “Bill” Cosby, Jr. effectively buried him alive.

In case you’ve forgotten, Dr. Heathcliff “Cliff” Huxtable was the main character of “The Cosby Show” – NBC’s groundbreaking 1980’s sitcom. The show – which ran from 1984 until 1992 – depicted the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.

Commercially, the show was a smash hit globally. It almost singlehandedly saved the entire sitcom genre. “The Cosby Show” lifted NBC from third (last) place to first place among the then-three major networks. The show’s smashing success paved the way for all TV networks to air other shows centered upon black families. On-camera and off, Bill Cosby was American exceptionalism at its best.

Culturally, “The Cosby Show” was the epitome of must-see TV. Everyone discussed Thursday’s night episode on Friday morning – be it at the office water cooler, the hallway of your school, or on the phone with friends. Dr. Huxtable was

America’s dad. He was universally loved because [1] either he reminded you of your own father; [2] if you didn’t have a father, Dr. Huxtable was the father you wish you could have had; and/or [3] he was an awesome blend of a successful professional, loving father, doting husband, faithful friend, and dutiful son. Everybody loved “The Cosby Show” – both genders, all races, all socioeconomic young Bill Cosbybackgrounds, all walks of life, every political party, and all ages. Make no mistake: Heathcliff Huxtable and Bill Cosby were one and the same. They were indistinguishable.

Intellectually, “The Cosby Show” itself was based on Cosby’s life. The actors portraying the Huxtable children were chosen because of their ability to convey the personalities and quirkiness of their real-life counterparts. Actress Phylicia Rash?d was chosen to be the avatar for Camille Cosby – Cosby’s wife.

Professionally, Bill Cosby routinely made history. He was the first black actor to be featured in a starring role of a weekly dramatic television series when “I Spy” was broadcast by NBC in 1965. At the time, NBC affiliate stations in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida refused to air “I Spy” because of Cosby’s role in the espionage-themed TV show. Cosby performed stand-up routines to sold-out audiences wherever he went. He recorded musical albums as a vocalist for years. Cosby’s version of “Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything’s Alright)” sold over one million copies in the US – and reached number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. He owned his own record label, Tetragrammaton Records. Cosby founded the CSC (Campbell, Silver, Cosby) Corporation – the Los Angeles-based production company which produced the Saturday morning “Fat Albert” cartoons, motion pictures, and other television shows.

Financially, Cosby has earned hundreds of millions of dollars. He was a celebrity endorser extraordinaire. He was won countless awards in entertainment. Cosby was awarded a presidential medal of freedom. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He’s one of the most famous people on earth. You would think that all of Cosby’s success, acclaim, and wealth would make him a content man. He was, just not the way you’d expect. Not the way you’d accept.

In the last year or so, dozens of women have come forth to share harrowing tales about Cosby. Theirs were not testimonies of his benevolence or charity or business acumen. Their stories were rather about manipulation, victimization, being drugged, raped, molested, and otherwise violated. Their accusations against Bill Cosby – an entertainer so iconic, so beloved, and so powerful – largely fell on deaf ears. Many people didn’t believe those women because they couldn’t fathom Bill Cosby/Heathcliff Huxtable doing such heinous things.

Legally, Cosby knew this quite well. He used his status as America’s Greatest Dad to employ the O.J. Simpson legal rabbithole: use vast wealth to hire a legal team big enough, skilled enough, and cutthroat enough to secure the freedom to keep doing his dirt. No man should ever have conducted himself in such a way – especially not a married man. Certainly not a man with daughters of his own.

Truly innocent people do not voluntarily pay out six and seven-figure settlements armed with airtight confidentiality agreements to their accusers. Cosby has done so for decades.

The New York Times recently obtained a nearly 1,000-page transcript of Cosby’s 2005 deposition in a sexual assault claim. In that transcript, Cosby came clean in his own words. Subsequently, his guilt is as clear as his contempt for – and objectification of – women.

This maker of history… is himself history. His career is in ruins. What goes around, comes around.

Even Cosby’s biggest fans must admit this. Heathcliff Huxtable is dead. Perhaps he never existed at all. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Staff Writer; Arthur L. Jones, III

This talented brother is a local Minister, weekly featured Democratic Op-Ed columnist, non-profit advisor, and sees the Braves winning it all this fall. Rev. Jones welcomes your comments! Please email him directly at: tcdppress@gmail.com.


Comments

8 Responses to “Bill Cosby; Heathcliff Huxtable is dead.”
  1. Anne says:

    Actually, he HAS confessed, and only being shut down by his attorney in that deposition when he was asked if the women KNEW he was giving them Qaaludes stopped him from answering. That attorney must have known that a truthful answer would have been incriminating for Cosby. Why does anyone defending him think that he and his attorneys fought so hard to have this deposition kept private? It’s because one attorney called it “embarrassing.” Does anyone think he gave a story to the National Enquirer about his own daughter’s drug addiction to keep one of him being published think he did it for anyone but himself? And what do you think bribing, paying off, and even threatening some of the women was about except silencing them?

  2. jdean says:

    Of course he would not say it. So why are you acting like he confessed. Again you cannot crush quaaludes. It is not a pill that dissolves like aspirin or a rufee. You cant crush it. He did sue and won, remember the case in 1997, the other woman who tried to extort him. He cannot talk because his lawyer is saying plead the 5th because of all these previous cases. He could be guilty but until there is real evidence you cannot call them victims. Thats the way our justice system works. So he is an alleged rapist. Why are you so convinced? Here is a women who was paid to destroy Cosby https://youtu.be/z18ttYBME48 You must really trust liar whores like Janice Dickinson or Beverly Johnson, yeah they have very credible and respectful backgrounds.

  3. Anne says:

    djean: He’s not going to ever use the word “rape” to describe what he did. However, common sense should tell anyone that giving women a sleep-inducing drug by slipping it into drinks like wine or coffee, or lying about a tablet being to cure pain or relieve anxiety, is subterfuge. Why on earth would a woman need a sleep-inducing drug for consensual sex? It simply doesn’t make sense. Besides, does anyone defending him ever have an answer for why he has never sued even ONE of these women for defamation of character or tried to get a day in court? That alone speaks volumes. You do know that his lawyer shut him up when the judge at his deposition asked him if these women knew he was giving them the drugs. That’s also quite telling. Back in his heyday, he had modeling agencies providing women to him. He wanted them to be young, from out of town, and not doing well financially, so that right there says he wanted a heavy imbalance of power in HIS favor. If you expect him to ever say he raped anyone, you will be disappointed. He doesn’t feel he did anything wrong and he’s always had a sense of entitlement.

  4. jdean says:

    Anne he could be guilty. But there is no proof yet to publicly crucify the man. It has nothing to do with misogyny or any slight to black women. We are taught to tell people to report emergencies like rape immediately so justice can prevail. Now it cant because these women waited too long or….they are lying to get paid. I know this country. I know its history. I know the media lies. I know people lie. So Im not so quick to crucify this man until I get some hard pressed evidence. Qualuudes were not illegal until 1983 so according to people who lived in that era, they were done by lots of people and using that or ectasy or alcohol for the purpose of sex is not an anomaly. It is done today. That doesnt mean rape or coercion is automatically going on. If it was unknowingly with 40 women 1 out of 40 would at least come forward. Thats using logic. Sounds llike people have agendas to use the 2005 deposition to fit their agenda that Mr. Cosby admitted guilt. I see through that and I know that somebody wants to destroy this man’s legacy. If he was powerful why isnt the media covering it up now. He still has millions to cover it up. But no White supremacy gets the best of us. And your time is coming … soon. You cant run from this beast. We have to destroy it and meet it head on.

  5. Anne says:

    Does anyone still defending him seriously believe that he would admit raping women? He doesn’t think anything he did was wrong because of the sense of entitlement that made him think he had the right to the body of anyone he wanted. Sorry, but his words are incriminating both because Qaaludes were illegal and because he admitted that HE didn’t take them since they made him sleepy. So, where’s the logic in giving a sleep-inducing drug to women who supposedly wanted to engage in consensual sex? He was also asked if the women knew he was giving them that drug, and his lawyer stopped him from answering–most likely, because the truthful answer would have been incriminating. As for his being black, wealthy people can get away with a lot, including wealthy black folks. He was able to silence his accusers for years with payoffs, bribes, and threats from his team of lawyers to take legal action against anyone who was prepared to print any derogatory information about him. On top of it all, he was enabled by Hollywood’s powers that be due to the fact that he was making them even wealthier as well as becoming wealthy himself. His own words mark him as a sexual predator, and underscore his rank hypocrisy in telling other black folks how to behave while he was doing such dastardly things. Not even the fact that some of his victims are black seems to sway his defenders. There’s an article by a black man named Darnell L. Moore who addresses the reckoning the Cosby case provides for black folks. It’s titled “The Bill Cosby Scandal Proves Why Black Women’s Lives Still Don’t Matter.” To sum it up, the article speaks of Cosby’s black accusers in the context of how hypocritical it is on one hand to fight white supremacy while on the other hand ignoring the misogyny and the “reality of sexual violence” in black communities. He talks about the “dangerous limitations” of such a movement, and talks about how this “lack of dual focus has harmed black women throughout history.” While his article didn’t address this, it’s quite obvious that Bill Cosby is someone who on one hand can do great things and do horrible ones on the other hand.

  6. jdean says:

    He didn’t come clean. Stop spreading lies. He said he used qualudes for the purpose of sex. He never admitted to rape. You cant crush them and put them into drinks so these women took them knowingly. You are doing exactly what the media wants you to do. There is no physical evidence. If it wasnt for that punk comedian dry snitching about something he had no proof of Dr. Huxtable would still be alive. Since there is no evidence then you can say everything is allegedly possible. Not fact. You mean to tell me he raped 40 women and not one said something.In 1965 in America.. A black man. Be serious.

  7. Samantha says:

    Where are the proofs and what are your sources, Arthur Jones???

  8. Anne says:

    Bill Cosby’s case provides a moment of reckoning for black folks in particular. For so long, most of us if not all saw him as a consummate role model for black respectability and upward mobility. The Cosby show was instrumental in opening the eyes of many non-black Americans to the fact that upper-class black families do exist, in spite of the media’s monolithic portrayals of black families as poor, dysfunctional, etc. That was why it has been so hard to square these hideous revelations about his predation toward women with the upstanding American dad image he enjoyed for so long. It’s been disillusioning for those who got emotional sustenance from this portrayal to find that he’s not who we thought he was. It’s also sad considering that he came from poverty and built up a phenomenal career. It’s even sadder that it took America so long to come to grips with this side of him. Many of the women did try to report the incidents but were not believed, mainly because of the image Cosby enjoyed and also because he was surrounded by enablers. These included the Hollywood powers that be he further enriched along with enriching himself, as well as others in the industry who knew but said nothing. One enabler is a man who facilitated payments to women for Cosby and claims to have receipts with their names. Cosby himself paid off, bribed, and threatened legal action through his lawyers against any individual or news medium that even hinted at printing unflattering information about him. Angry and disillusioned folks called these women everything but children of God while trying to find some way to absolve Cosby from responsibility for his own behavior. But the information that has come from the deposition makes those defenses untenable, because his own words from the 10-year-old deposition condemn him. He is 78 years old, and his reputation has been irreparably damaged through his own doing, at a time when he should be enjoying the fruits of his professional successes.

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