Howard Students and Alumni Are Furious With Phylicia Rashad's Support of Bill Cosby

[babylonsister]

Howard Students and Alumni Are Furious With Phylicia Rashad’s Support of Bill Cosby
#BYEPHILICIA
Howard University’s newest dean celebrated Bill Cosby’s prison release. A number of students and alums, many of whom are survivors of sexual assault, want her gone.
Cheyenne Roundtree, Entertainment Reporter
Updated Jul. 01, 2021 4:26PM ET / Published Jul. 01, 2021 3:13PM ET


Mere hours after Bill Cosby’s TV wife Phylicia Rashad celebrated her former co-star’s shock release from prison, she attempted to walk back her joyous statement following a tidal wave of backlash.

Cosby, 83, walked out of a Pennsylvania prison on Wednesday, serving just three years of his three to 10-year sentence for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. The state’s supreme court suddenly overturned the disgraced comic’s 2018 conviction on a legal technicality—it found the prosecutor couldn’t go back on his predecessor’s declaration not to charge him.

Rashad, who played Clair Huxtable alongside Cosby for eight seasons on The Cosby Show, was thrilled. “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted—a miscarriage of justice is corrected,” she not only tweeted, but shared on Instagram.

It did not go over well for Rashad, who was tapped in May by Howard University to be its new dean of College of Fine Arts, recently renamed to honor the late actor and former student Chadwick Boseman.

FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected! pic.twitter.com/NrGUdwr23c
— Phylicia Rashad (@PhyliciaRashad) June 30, 2021

The 73-year-old was immediately slammed, as people raised the question of how students could feel comfortable reporting instances of sexual assault to a dean who had rejoiced in the release of an alleged serial predator who had 60 women publicly come forward to accuse him of assault?

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/howard-university-students-and-alumni-are-furious-with-phylicia-rashads-support-of-bill-cosby?ref=home

[PortTack]

1. And rightly so!

[Phoenix61]

2. It would be one thing if she was just an instructor but as dean

she is responsible for ensuring other instructors follow all of Howard’s policies. I don’t see how a student would feel comfortable going to her if they thought an instructor was being sexually inappropriate with them.

[Goonch]

3. 😒

[hlthe2b]

4. Unbelievably clueless and callous. n/t

[Demovictory9]

9. agreed

[maxsolomon]

5. As someone who saw this discussed on The Root's FB page yesterday

I can tell you that Rashad isn't close to the only one who feels that way.

It reminded me of the staunch defenders of OJ.

[Hekate]

6. Thank you for the additional info

It’s sad in so many ways, but culture wars aren’t just for red-hats

[maxsolomon]

10. I hadn't thought of it as a Culture War issue

but OJ was, so that makes sense. I remember Chris Rock's routine on it: "We won! We won! What the F did we win?"

I also see parallels in the people (some on DU, you know who you are) who insist to this day that Amanda Knox killed her college flatmate in Perugia.

[Raine]

7. She's deserving of every bit of their anger! nt 😡

[mnmoderatedem]

8. yeah Phylicia, good thing you weren't one of his victims

if you were drugged and raped by him, me thinks you would have a different outlook.