I was once a big fan of Bill Cosby.

One scene in particular from The Bill Cosby Show made a huge impression on me. Dr. Huxtable is talking to his son, Theo, about his grades. Theo starts a long impassioned speech about how he has to be himself. School work just isn’t his strength.

He pleads with his father to let him be himself. The audience starts to clap, and Dr. Huxtable interrupts with, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!” He then proceeds to set his son right.

I loved that scene because it was different than most of the tripe that Hollywood writes about how “you’ve got to be yourself” or “do your own thing.” It seemed to me to be what a real father would tell his son.

In real life, Cosby did not use the same excuses that many like Al Sharpton use to explain problems in African-American society. He urged responsible behavior by black men toward their families. He spoke about African-American self-help. He said that the key to a better life was education.

Other African-American leaders criticized him for not joining in with blaming the ills in black society on everybody else. I thought that was an adult and an honorable thing for Cosby to do.

Unfortunately, there had been some disturbing news about Cosby’s private life, but the facts were sometimes murky. Not much attention was directed toward his private life for a long time after some of these allegations began to surface. However, in October 2014 a deluge of bad news about Cosby started.

Comedienne Hannibal Buress performed a routine about Cosby for “talking down” to young black men about their mode of dress and lifestyle and then she added, “You raped women.”

That unlikely event sprung a leak in the Cosby’s public relations dam and suddenly women began to come forward to accuse him of rape. As many as 39 women have accused him of rape as of this summer. A trickle of disassociations by universities, charities, civic groups and other honorary groups have become a torrent. Nobody wants to be associated with Bill Cosby any more.

This month, court records from a 2005 lawsuit were made public. In a deposition, Cosby testified that he had obtained quaaludes, a sedative, to give to women with whom he wanted to have sexual relations.

The gentle man, who introduced us to Fat Albert, is clearly an evil man. He is a user of women.

No longer is he the honorable family man. Everything he espoused about African-American society is now devalued. That’s too bad because, at least with respect to education and responsible behavior, Bill Cosby was correct — even though he didn’t follow his own advice.

I would hate to see charlatans and demagogues have the only megaphone in minority communities. Nevertheless, the loss of a responsible voice in African-American society is absolutely required in order to bring justice to all the women he exploited. I had never heard of Hannibal Buress. Isn’t it bizarre that she finally triggered his downfall in 2014, many years after he had committed his crimes?

I wonder how many knew about Cosby before 2014 but said nothing.

 

Michael Waldron is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, who was born and raised in Niles. He previously served on the Niles Community School Board of Education. He can be reached at ml.waldron@sbcglobal.net.