Hell yeah, “We Need to Talk About Cosby.” Not just because the superb Showtime documentary series by that title addresses with skill and integrity the many hot buttons the true story of the American icon hits on. Because in my case, it’s personal.
I have a onetime co-worker and friend that he drugged and raped. So I am outraged that this longtime serial sexual predator and psychopathic and toxically-narcissistic hypocrite was freed from jail on a technicality.
His guilt and inherent evil are undeniable in director W. Kamau Bell’s brilliantly broad yet nuanced examination of a public life at the highest reaches of fame and prestige while, at the same time, he engaged in vile predatory acts against women, again and again. It was kept largely secret for decades. But when the dam finally broke, the fact that some 60 women all tell what is, in essence, the same story announces, hell yeah, he’s for sure guilty as charged (and likely other victims have not gone public). If justice wasn’t an imperfect system, Cosby should be spending the last of his days behind bars.
My friend Joan is among the many victims who speaks and is shown in the series, albeit in her case briefly. She is among the earlier ones – a young woman whose ambition was a career in comedy. Meeting Cosby felt like it could be her big break. She’s wicked smart with a keen wit, could have been a contender, I believe. Cosby not only drugged and raped her. He also shattered Joan’s dream.
Cosby began to rise to fame as I was coming of age in the 1960s. Okay, I never found him all that funny as my friends and I listened to his best-selling comedy albums. His humor felt corny and goofy to me. Nonetheless, I was a fan of his TV series, “I Spy.” and came to respect Cosby as a symbol of African-American progress and success in our society’s mainstream during the years of struggle for civil rights for people of color.
Following the later success of his family sitcom “The Cosby Show,” he became known as America’s Dad. A graduate of Temple University, he was also Professor Cosby, an activist for education overall as well as specifically for his race. As he became a multi-millionaire, Cosby also earned esteem as a philanthropist. As an entertainer, he transcended the negative Black stereotypes that had pervaded the media. He was admired and trusted, a spokesperson for such all-American products as Jello, Coca-Cola and Kodak. In 1981, Coke’s head of public relations posited that the “three most believable personalities are God, Walter Cronkite and Bill Cosby.”
The admiration he enjoyed with White Americans was exponentially exceeded by the level of respect he enjoyed within the African-American community. Bell wisely interviews numerous Black comedians that he inspired, tracing how, over the previous decade, as more and more of Cosby’s victims came forward, they had to accept that this public figure so beloved and esteemed was not the man they thought he was. Then, to compound the disturbing news of his criminal misogyny and sexual violence, in 2004 Cosby set himself up as a public scold of his fellow African-Americans for some their behavior.
Interestingly, the doc traces the breadcrumbs he left along the way about drugging women to enjoy their sexual favors as if it was some kind of joke. There were rumors within the entertainment industry that this celebrated family man in both his wildly successful TV role as the patriarch of the Huxtable clan and his real life was a philanderer, and possibly worse. Yet for decades, Cosby’s fame served as armor protecting him from the consequences of his crimes alongside the disturbing social tendency and legal tactic of doubting victims of sexual assault. He is now the worst symbol of the abuse of women enabled by celebrity and power, such as with also Harvey Weinstein, Jeffery Epstein and far too many more, including Donald Trump.
That Cosby’s heinous history as a sexual predator became big news at a time when white supremacy has reemerged in our society compounds the damages wrought by his crimes. The eloquence and honesty of the Black talking heads in the series at least offers some small ameliorative.
“We Need to Talk About Cosby” is an important show at a critical juncture. One can only hope that it fosters some positive social dialogue on sexual crimes against women and maybe how celebrity and power enable a range of abuses. Even if that comes to pass alongside the civil and any possible further criminal consequences Cosby might face, none of that can make up for the damage the man did to the lives of those many women.
FEATURE FILM: “Eye in the Sky” – This 2015 film with the always compelling Helen Mirren as its lead wrestles with the moral issues of the high-tech war on terror within a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
BOOK: “Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery” by Richard Hollingham – The early parts of this quite fascinating study of medical surgery’s advancement from near-butchery to a near-amazing modern science require a strong stomach. But the reward is a story of human progress told with entertaining efficiency.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.
From The Progressive Populist, March 1, 2022
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