Just hours after Bill Cosby was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, his publicists were busy making the media rounds. Publicist Andrew Wyatt called his recent guilty verdict a “public lynching,” and publicist Ebonee Benson invoked the story of Emmett Till—whose accuser, Carolyn Bryant Donham, admitted that she lied, which resulted in his murder—as evidence that all women aren’t honest. Please read that to yourself a few times. A public lynching. Emmett Till. I know they have a job to do, but good gotdamn.
The irony of that statement being uttered as a memorial dedicated to actual lynching victims opens in Montgomery, Ala., is nothing short of astounding. Bill Cosby is a grown-ass man who used his position to prey on and sexually assault dozens of women, and they’re using one of the linchpin stories that ignited the civil rights movement in concert with his case. That’s some Kanye-level trolling. And stupid. And ignorant.
Fuck them.
And fuck anybody who is actively on the Bill Cosby defense train. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Bill Cosby was convicted yesterday of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for the 2004 drugging and sexual assault of Andrea Constand. It’s a conviction in her case, but it represents a conviction for so many other women Cosby preyed upon. Each count carries a sentence of up to 10 years for the 80-year-old formerly known as “America’s dad.” Yeah. OK. All right. Let him go sit his ass in jail.
Cosby wasn’t lynched. He hanged himself.
He made choices to abuse women. He put his legacy in jeopardy thinking that he was immune from justice. He thought they’d never say anything. He was wrong. And there are people who are very upset about this. And that confuses me.
Now, some of you are caping for him and blaming the victims for the downfall of a man you swear gives a shit about you. And you know what? If you are a woman and he had the chance to abuse you, he would have. That’s how abusers work. Why would anybody defend that? Seriously, why?
But sure as shit, as soon as the verdict dropped, I saw people on my own social media timelines—folks I have subsequently removed—who were actively defending Cosby, mad that “that bitch” got him convicted.
“We gonna take Cosby to task but nobody’s gonna get Weinstein.”
What’s wrong with you people? They both belong in jail. They are both abusers. They are both predators and they both need Jesus. For his publicists—clearly going above and beyond for their job—to equate Cosby and his crimes to being lynched just illustrates how little we care about women. To some of you, there’s not enough proof. Or there’s no evidence. Or she waited too long. Or if she was (or any of them were) truly abused, she should have said something years ago. #WhyNow and shit?
And that entirely misses the point. It’s egregious to lay blame at the feet of victims for being victimized by a predator, and yet and still, here folks go. It’s the same old song. His publicists are supposed to do that. They’re being paid, probably handsomely, to defend a horrible human being. But others who think Cosby was publicly lynched?
What’s the justification there? If Cosby did any of what happened to any member of our families, we’d be pissed. We’d be ready to call the cavalry and take him down. But because it didn’t happen to you or your mother or your sister or your cousin or your grandmother, then it didn’t happen? Do women lie sometimes? Yes. Everybody does. But here’s a better question:
Are you listening when they’re telling the truth? Probably not. Not if you are on the Cosby bandwagon. You don’t give a shit about women. Cosby doesn’t, either. His arrogance and narcissism are why America’s dad is now a convicted felon—not because they publicly lynched him.
It’s because he hanged himself.