Bill Cosby; Witch Hunt or A Modern Day Lynching

Lately I have been hearing and reading the barrage of negative comments, rumors and accusations launched across social and mainstream media regarding rape allegations against Bill Cosby. I look at the set of circumstances with circumspect and I contemplate what could have possibly preceded this unfortunate situation and can’t help but wonder why now and why him? It’s not that I don’t believe in his guilt or the validity of the allegations. However, what I am a firm believer in is the right to due process. I have always believed that any person that has been accused of a crime (guilty or not) should always be considered innocent until proven guilty. Once we have deviated away from this process we no longer are the civil and democratic society that we profess ourselves to be. When I witness the type of prejudicial and unmitigated personal attack on another human being without substantiated cause it becomes very reminiscent of the witch hunts of Salem in 1692 and other modern-day witch hunts.ie: Day Care abuse Trials and The Communist Witch Hunts of McCarthyism.

It appears as though it has become a standard practice for the media as well as the general public to assume the role of judge and jury? Oh yes, and let us not forget about this same poisonous campaign was that incessantly launched against the King of Pop ( Michael Jackson ). He was also convicted by the media and public as well and found to be innocent of any and all wrong doing in a court of law. However, the damage had already been done and the minds of people would always have that image of child molester burned into their conscious forever. I know, I get it, if the accusations are there obviously there must be some truth to them. I mean, why would someone accuse another human being of committing an offense if it weren’t true? Where there is smoke there most certainly must be fire. Not necessarily true. Often times there is something smoldering that causes produces the smoke and in this particular situation it is the accusations…

I’m left to think about the people of Salem who were all hanged and even stoned because of the mass hysteria that was generated and engulfed the minds of a few paranoid folks. granted we are not burning Mr. Cosby at the stake literally but nonetheless he is being served up..

People have a tendency to circulate unfounded stories when their minds perceive something to be that is not necessarily so and also when they are seeking revenge. or maybe some attention. Some people will also view it as an opportunity to cash in on someones stardom. Yes the world is rampant with unscrupulous, despicable and conniving leaches who will do anything for a quick payday. When do we start to question the legitimacy of these accusations as well as the integrity of the accuser. We don’t seem to have a problem assigning guilt to the accused.

Why should we ever question the integrity or intentions of an accuser? Obviously we are not known for sentencing innocent people to prison or to death row for that matter. Oh that’s right, we have erred on a few occasions so our system may be just a little bit flawed but surely the media and public opinion are absent of any culpability as it pertains to these matters.

When the media takes on an active campaign to consistently smear and feed the public with unsubstantiated information, it doesn’t matter what the level of innocence may or may not be. The assigning of guilt must be swift and precise. This irresponsible mechanization of information is not concerned with the innocence of someone, especially Black people. So there is no justification for them to assume an unbiased position. Especially when the sole purpose is to slander and destroy an individual’s reputation and credibility. If this individual is not in locked step with them and their ideologies and is a representation of independent Black power then they are the enemy. They can not afford to have any icon of Black power that has high visibility and influence to be venerated by Black people and definitely not by any white folks. This will give Black people the stupid notion that they can separate themselves from the white man and achieve social and economic success without him. In addition, if Bill Cosby is allowed once again to have his own television show, Black people and others just might begin to perceive themselves in a positive light instead of the negative image that white folks worked so vigorously to sub plant in the minds of people. No more Cosby shows depicting Black people as responsible and civil. We prefer the Blackish, The Hip Hop in Atlanta, The Black Divas and you know those shows that are really more demonstrative of the Black culture.

So, I am left with the question: Why the witch hunt or character assassination and why now? There was ample time to bring up these charges in a court of law but they never were. Why forty years later when this man is 78 years old? Oh what the heck, they might as well dig up former President Bill Clinton’s past history of alleged rapes and sexual harassment and for that matter anyone else they might want to destroy. The past should stay in the past unless of course it has some constructive relevance to the present. I don’t see where this would be remotely applicable regarding this situation. Bill Cosby has been in the public spotlight and performing in venues for over 40 yrs. He has been involved in the Civil Rights Movement, has an exemplary record for philanthropy in which he has donated millions of dollars to colleges, foundations and charities. I mean we are talking about Mr. Jello, Fat Albert, Kids Say The Darndest Things.,I Spy, Let’s Do It Again and the list goes on!!!!

Here is part of the legacy that this Black man ( Mr. Bill Cosby ) has created……

Career: Comedian, 1963–; actor, 1965–; author, 1973–.

Memberships: United Negro College Fund; NAACP; Operation PUSH; Sickle Cell Foundation; Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation.

Awards: Eight Grammy awards for best comedy album; four Emmy awards; NAACP Image Award; Golden Globe Award; four People’s Choice awards; Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame inductee, 1994; Kennedy Center Awards Honoree, 1998; People’s Choice Award for Favorite All-Time Television Star, 1999; People’s Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series, 1997; Image Award for Outstanding Performance in a Youth or Children’s Series/Special for: Little Bill, 2001; Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2002; Bob Hope Humanitarian Emmy Award, 2003.
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It is not my contention to assign guilt or innocence to Mr. Cosby however I will assign guilt to the media for their absolute and unabashed dereliction in their responsibility to remain objective in their reporting of the news. It is not their duty to form panels of discussion which offers up varying opinions pertaining to the quilt or innocence of any person. When this border line has been crossed it lends to influence the minds and judgement of the viewers. The threshold of intolerance continues to be shifted and we lose sight of what is right and what is wrong.

Black people and folks in general need to be extremely mindful of the information that we digest. We accept or are easily persuaded to disassociate ourselves from our own people based on accusations. It wasn’t to long ago when the then Senator Obama was vying for the office of POTUS and the media began a full-blown out campaign to assassinate the character of the Reverend Wright and his radical views. The then Senator Obama under much pressure threw the reverend under the bus ( so to speak ) denouncing the support of him, his radical views and statements. There was also an effort by the media and other conservative groups attacking The First Lady and depicting her as this angry militant Black women and more recently declaring her to be a transsexual and our President homosexual. This type of irresponsible and reckless behavior sole intent is to plant a seed and create an atmosphere of gossip and suspicion.

During this same period there were accusations of rape launched against Mr. Herman Cain ( a Black man ) who was vying for the office of POTUS for the conservative party. Mr. Cain had begun to gain considerable popularity in the polls however amid allegations of sexual assault and rape had decided to end his campaign for POTUS. Of course these charges were never proven and eventually that dark cloud which hovered above his head disappeared. Mr. Cain went on to launch a somewhat successful radio talk show and also made a number of appearances on Fox News and other conservative talk shows. However the smear campaign that was launched against him had achieved its intended purpose which was to remove him from the Presidential race. These people are a vile and contemptuous group who will go to any lengths to achieve their objective which is to attract an audience and smear the reputation of mostly notable people.

Once we begin to allow the media and others to influence our thoughts and judgement we no longer have control of our mind. Once we begin to succumb to the pressure imposed by others we are not free and we are not strong. We must resist the efforts by others to dictate to us what we should believe or who you should support. We should be more than capable of making that decision on your own. If however your choice should turn out to be incorrect then so be it. At least you will have made the error based on your own judgement not by the irresponsible rhetoric being spewed by someone else. We need to be courageous and not easily intimidated. For once we need to support our own!!!

Observe and listen CAUTIOUSLY!!!

Written By; Al DeVeaux Jr.

You make some astute points and indeed the media frenzy regarding Cosby has gone into anything goes mode. But there are some important distinctions between what we see going on here and witch hunts, lynchings, day care hysteria and the Red Scare. I have been studying false accusations and mobbing for several years now, and what witch hunts, lynching and the McCarthy era have in common is that the hysteria of false accusations centered on character assassination and witnesses testifying to seeing or hearing something–in other words, they were not actively involved. Where some do come forth and make accusations of direct involvement, it remains limited to a few people and the accusations either mimic in exact words the testimony of others, or they become increasingly bizarre.

The day care hysteria of the 80’s involved children responding to leading questions. Children and intellectually disabled people will make accusations in large numbers, but when they do they will always become increasingly outlandish and improbable and they will be made in response to leading questions from an authority figure.

In workplace or other organizational settings, there may be false accusations made by many people, but they will have three characteristics. First, they will be made by people under the supervision or influence of someone in power who has signaled the accused person must go, that any accusation will be believed, and no one will be punished for false accusations. Second, they will either mimic or out-weird what has been reported by others, and these others will be people who belong to the same gossip circle. Third, while large numbers will engage in character assassination, and never more than three or four will make accusations of direct involvement, and usually no more than two.

In his book, Crooked City, Martin Preib makes a compelling case for large numbers of false accusations of torture by a police officer. But in that case, the prisoners making the accusations not only share in the same “gossip circle,” but they have direct benefit in doing so–early release, appeals of their convictions or their convictions are overturned. Moreover, the testimony followed the pattern of direct mimicking of what was testified to by others or escalating the violence they accused the officer of inflicting.

That is the closest to the Cosby case that I have found in all the psychological and anthropological literature, but a look at how the accusations against Cosby unfolded and you see that it was only after several women reported it that they began to communicate among themselves, and the vast majority have not made any effort to cash in. Moreover, in all likelihood none of the accusers will receive a penny, regardless of Gloria Allred’s efforts to cash in. The three women who have joined her will be pilloried by Cosby’s PR and legal teams, and their private lives turned inside out with everything from their history of therapy and drug abuse to their gynecological records turned over to his lawyers once the rules of discovery kick in.

If the Cosby accusations are false, what we would expect to see is women accusing him of using weapons, tying and gagging and other acts of increasing force. We would also see identical details–the pills would all be the same color, for example. But instead, we are seeing variation in details, but no pattern of escalation.

There is no doubt that racists will celebrate the public take down of Cosby, and that the media have given the green light to any smear of his character however unrelated to the accusations. But in concluding that at this late date the accusations are irrelevant and should not be aired, ask yourself if a beloved white celebrity were accused by two dozen black people of drugging them and committing acts of violence against them, would that information be considered old and irrelevant just because it happened in the seventies and eighties?

2 thoughts on “Bill Cosby; Witch Hunt or A Modern Day Lynching”

Janice Harper says:

December 5, 2014 at 2:03 pm

You make some astute points and indeed the media frenzy regarding Cosby has gone into anything goes mode. But there are some important distinctions between what we see going on here and witch hunts, lynchings, day care hysteria and the Red Scare. I have been studying false accusations and mobbing for several years now, and what witch hunts, lynching and the McCarthy era have in common is that the hysteria of false accusations centered on character assassination and witnesses testifying to seeing or hearing something–in other words, they were not actively involved. Where some do come forth and make accusations of direct involvement, it remains limited to a few people and the accusations either mimic in exact words the testimony of others, or they become increasingly bizarre.

The day care hysteria of the 80’s involved children responding to leading questions. Children and intellectually disabled people will make accusations in large numbers, but when they do they will always become increasingly outlandish and improbable and they will be made in response to leading questions from an authority figure.

In workplace or other organizational settings, there may be false accusations made by many people, but they will have three characteristics. First, they will be made by people under the supervision or influence of someone in power who has signaled the accused person must go, that any accusation will be believed, and no one will be punished for false accusations. Second, they will either mimic or out-weird what has been reported by others, and these others will be people who belong to the same gossip circle. Third, while large numbers will engage in character assassination, and never more than three or four will make accusations of direct involvement, and usually no more than two.

In his book, Crooked City, Martin Preib makes a compelling case for large numbers of false accusations of torture by a police officer. But in that case, the prisoners making the accusations not only share in the same “gossip circle,” but they have direct benefit in doing so–early release, appeals of their convictions or their convictions are overturned. Moreover, the testimony followed the pattern of direct mimicking of what was testified to by others or escalating the violence they accused the officer of inflicting.

That is the closest to the Cosby case that I have found in all the psychological and anthropological literature, but a look at how the accusations against Cosby unfolded and you see that it was only after several women reported it that they began to communicate among themselves, and the vast majority have not made any effort to cash in. Moreover, in all likelihood none of the accusers will receive a penny, regardless of Gloria Allred’s efforts to cash in. The three women who have joined her will be pilloried by Cosby’s PR and legal teams, and their private lives turned inside out with everything from their history of therapy and drug abuse to their gynecological records turned over to his lawyers once the rules of discovery kick in.

If the Cosby accusations are false, what we would expect to see is women accusing him of using weapons, tying and gagging and other acts of increasing force. We would also see identical details–the pills would all be the same color, for example. But instead, we are seeing variation in details, but no pattern of escalation.

There is no doubt that racists will celebrate the public take down of Cosby, and that the media have given the green light to any smear of his character however unrelated to the accusations. But in concluding that at this late date the accusations are irrelevant and should not be aired, ask yourself if a beloved white celebrity were accused by two dozen black people of drugging them and committing acts of violence against them, would that information be considered old and irrelevant just because it happened in the seventies and eighties?

1. africafifth@gmail.com says:
  
  December 7, 2014 at 8:33 am
  
  Thank you for comment. The point that I am making here is that the media and others have continuously launched campaigns to assassinate the character of people esp;(Black People) with unsubstantiated damaging allegations regarding sexual acts of immorality. In addition, we as Black people are quick to jump on the bandwagon of haters and support their malicious agenda of condemnation. We are much to premature in assigning guilt without due process, which is wrong period. Whether or not Mr.Cosby is guilty, we should reserve judgement until it has been established either way. That applies to this situation or any other.