The Sunday Mail
“THEY say I’m not the average black girl because I’m so well spoken, poised, full of etiquette. A white man’s token.
You know, I remember my ex’s mother telling me, ‘I didn’t know how I was gonna react when he brought a black girl, but I like you because you talk so white’. But when did me talking right equate to me talking white?
They say I’m not the average black girl.”
The above verse is an extract from a poem by Ernestine Johnson, a young woman who appeared on an episode of “The Arsenio Hall” show early last year.
She spoke with such eloquence and emotion that at times during her delivery, her powerful message was chewed up by the passion she exerted. The video is available on YouTube.
Such is the life of the average black person in the United States.
But powerful poems aside, this past week, racism reared its ugly head again after Penny Sparrow decided to utter her racist opinions about a group of people who were enjoying their New Year’s celebrations at a beach in South Africa.
I will not validate her opinions by giving her more space than she deserves, but the one good thing that came out of her stupidity is that it gave me a fresh perspective on one of 2015’s biggest stories — Bill Cosby’s fight against sexual assault and rape charges.
For all the talk about Black History Month, Rosa Parks and abolishing slave trade; all of which the Americans pride themselves in, it appears that racism is still alive in America and the rest of the world.
As I was reviewing Bill Cosby’s case from last year, I could not help but notice some racial undertones throughout the whole saga.
I wish to clarify a few things before I go further.
This instalment is not an attempt to defend Cosby in any way.
I believe Bill Cosby will have his day in court and if found guilty, I hope the authorities will lock him up and throw away the keys, because no man has the right to force himself on another human being.
If he truly is guilty, there should be no statute of limitations and if it were up to me, I would have his manhood cut off.
That said, I reviewed Bill Cosby’s case and how it has been handled by the US media with utter disgust. Public opinion has already convicted Cosby largely due to their one-sided and somewhat biased coverage.
It seems like everyone has already labelled him a serial rapist. Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty” and why has nobody, from the media, brought to the fore some of the negating circumstances about this case?
I wish to point everyone’s attention to a similar, if not viler case that went almost unnoticed shortly before Cosby’s case surfaced.
To many, the name Stephen Collins is almost equal in stature to Bill Cosby.
Like Cosby, Stephens was a big hit in the nineties, starring in the hit show “7th Heaven” as Reverend Eric Campden, the patriarch of the Campden family.
Despite his squeaky clean persona on the television screen, Stephens had a nasty divorce back in 2014. His ex-wife, Faye Grant recorded Stephens’ confession of having sexual relations with three under-age girls. She allegedly leaked the recording.
For some reason, Cosby and Stephens’ stories received contrasting coverage during the past two years.
Collins was granted an emotional interview with Yahoo! News anchor, Katie Couric during which the man confessed and pleaded for leniency, going as far as refuting claims that he is a paedophile.
One of his victims, April Price, broke her silence and said Stephens invited her to his lodgings. During the ill-fated incident, he is said to have undressed and waved his genitalia at her.
For such an issue, there were only a couple of exposes and an interview with him and that was it. He managed to live most of that year away from the public eye.
And then we have got Cosby, a frail old man pleading his innocence. He has been crucified in the media and lived most of 2015 as a social pariah.
He has since become the butt of all jokes with comedians, both white and black, taking turns to shoot at him and his legacy.
Most people have also chosen to ignore the timing of the entire débâcle.
Prior to Cosby’s case, he had filmed some programme with Netflix and was due to air a comedy special — “Cosby 77” — which would have officially launched his comeback to mainstream media. He also had a comedy series in the works with NBC.
Both deals have since been cancelled.
Beverly Johnson, an actress and model by profession, who is the latest to come forward and accuse Cosby of sexual assault, is alleged to have a history of making unsubstantiated claims. She is said to have made them against her two previous boyfriends.
No one in the media seems eager to pursue and interrogate this angle.
Whether Cosby is guilty or not remains to be seen, but one clear thing is that the media is not too keen to unravel the case for all its merits.
The reasons are a matter of opinion but one cannot help but sense the racial undertones given the differences in which these scandals were handled.
