The Delusional Defiance of Bill Cosby

You would think that being accused of drugging and sexually assaulting over fifty women in horrifyingly, disconcertingly, damningly identical ways over a period of decades, then getting convicted of sex crimes and spending possibly your final years doing time would instill in someone a sense of humility. 

In the case of Bill Cosby, America’s dad turned America’s Serial Rapist, you would be wrong. After Eddie Murphy used part of the monologue in his triumphant return to Saturday Night Live to point out the irony that Bill Cosby, self-appointed high judge of morality and a man who spent years, if not decades, telling people like Murphy that they need to clean up their act or face the full force of his righteous rage, is in jail for at least some of the horrible crimes he’s committed while the foul-mouthed, famously profane Murphy is a wholesome house husband. 

If I were Cosby or Cosby’s “people” I would at least attempt to be gracious in taking this relatively mild dig at a dude who spent decades casting sour, unstinting judgment at people for swearing or wearing their pants in a manner Cosby violently disapproved of while enthusiastically pursuing a secret life as a prolific sex criminal. 

You officially lose the right to cast judgment on your peers when you’re convicted of one of the dozens, if not hundreds of sex crimes you committed while simultaneously lecturing black America on how they must dress, talk and behave. 

Cosby’ publicist Andrew Wyatt took a different tact, however. He responded to Murphy’s dig with a statement reading, in part, 

"Mr. Cosby broke color barriers in the Entertainment Industry, so that Blacks like Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappell (sic), Kevin Hart and et al., could have an opportunity to showcase their talents for many generations to come. It is sad that Mr. Murphy would take this glorious moment of returning to Saturday Night Live and make disparaging remarks against Mr. Cosby. One would think that Mr. Murphy was given his freedom to leave the plantation, so that he could make his own decisions; but he decided to sell himself back to being a Hollywood Slave.

Remember, Mr. Murphy, that Bill Cosby became legendary because he used comedy to humanize all races, religions and genders; but your attacking Mr. Cosby helps you embark on just becoming click bait. Hopefully, you will be amenable to having a meeting of the minds conversation, in order to discuss how we can use our collective platforms to enhance Black people rather than bringing all of us down together.”

Nobody is denying that Cosby was a pioneer and a legend who accomplished extraordinary things, who was a hero and a role model before he became a preeminent cultural villain and harrowing cautionary tale of arrogance and evil unchecked.

That’s what made Cosby’s outing as a conscienceless monster who leveraged his incredible wealth and fame and power to destroy the lives of countless vulnerable women who made the mistake of trusting him so horrifying.

Cosby is not in a position where he can command, let alone angrily demand a meeting of the minds with Murphy, particularly after his mouthpiece called him a slave. What could Murphy possibly have to gain by having a sit-down with an ex-convict who spent years disparaging him in various forms? Why should he show this bitter, bile-filled hypocrite the kindness Cosby never showed him? 

Apparently nobody told Cosby that you cannot simultaneously be Prisoner Number 46374 and the unimpeachable conscience of black America at the same time. It’s pathetic, and sad, and tragic that Cosby still imagines that he’s in a place to tell Murphy what to do but it’s not surprising at all. 

If Cosby had a conscience, he would not have done what he is accused of having done over and over again, with no remorse and seemingly no sense of guilt or shame either. 

It’s similarly ironic that Cosby’s publicist would call Murphy a “slave” for not respecting a serial rapist when a pre-fall Cosby used his incredible power as one of the most famous and influential black men in American history to argue that the problems of the black community had everything to do with black men swearing and loving violent rap and not wearing belts, that it was largely a matter of a deficient culture of violence and not racism on an institutional or personal level. 

It might seem obvious to you or me that Cosby’s best move from a publicity standpoint is to keep his head down, die quietly and hope that people forget about him and his horrible crimes but there is a surprisingly large group of people convinced that Cosby is an innocent man railroaded by the powers that be because he had gotten too powerful and needed to be silenced.

Wyatt’s statements are clearly designed to play to Cosby’s delusional base, to that sad subsection of the general public that desperately wants to hold onto their image of Cosby as America’s dad in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary.

Cosby is clearly beyond hope for any kind of public redemption but his final years don’t have to be quite this humiliating of a shit show. Instead of defending what’s left of his legacy, Cosby and his publicist’s actions and inability to take responsibility for continue to degrade it. 

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