If Cosby's Victims had All been Black, Would Our Society (and Media) Care As Much?

[Charles de Gaudless]

I've seen the 35 women on the instantly-infamous New York cover. By my observation, there are maybe five women of color among them. All the rest are white. If black lives matter (which they do!), then surely black vaginas matter. Or have I gone too far now?

[olddots]

1. this could make for some ugly conversation .

I consider rape to be rape and every case to be vile .

[dsc]

2. clearly the real problem with this case is that the women were paid too much attention

and Cosby was hounded way too much over the years.

[Scurrilous]

3. Media? Care?

The media didn't care until footage of Hannibal Buress making a Bill Cosby rape 'joke' went viral and blew the @#$% wide open.

Vertical integration. The media is part of the same corporation or corporations that makes money off Bill Cosby. Caring about his victims hurts the almighty bottom line and we can't have profits not meet expectations. There'll be no bonuses!!1!

[djean111]

4. Yes, they would have cared as much because Cosby is a hypocritical celebrity.

Maybe it is more of an issue as to why so many of the women chosen by Cosby were white.
I believe the first Cosby accuser was white, and she was treated like she was just looking for money or attention.

[Rex]

5. All I see is the same kind of denial when discussing Rape Culture.

It could be a 100 women and some would still not flinch at his 'undoubted innocence'. DO I see a bias going? Hell yes I do! Why the FUCK is there even a slippery slope at all here? If he raped just one women, shouldn't that be enough? At least for him to say something? Anything? Fuck that lawyer shit.

And something else, why does he not have to answer any questions? His lawyer speaks for him now? Come on Bill, where is all that Fatherly Advice you loved to give out over the years? Telling Murphy and Pryor to clean up their act while you snuck around serial raping women off the radar like a vile bastard?

How far can we go? Cosby needs to stand up and either lie to the world or tell the truth. I guess closure doesn't mean much to a hypocrite.

[JI7]

11. in this case the op hiding behind fake concern for black lives

To dismiss what happened

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. My guess would be "yes, or almost, but only because he's a celebrity".

I suspect (although, like everyone else in this thread, this is pure speculation) that a non-celebrity serial rapist would significantly less likely to get coverage if they preyed predominantly on black victims, but that for a celebrity there wouldn't be much difference.

[Igel]

7. Lots of ways to frame this.

If Cosby had been white, would we care as much? I think not.

How about if Cosby had been white and all the women black? I think the outrage now would be huge. Huger.

If he hadn't had run-ins with the left-of-center population, would he be treated the same? I think not--it would be an aberration, bad, but still ... How embarassing.

I mean, some public figures are defended against accusations and some are left alone while others are hung out to dry.

Some sets of victims are held to provoke outrage, some we're indifferent to, and others are disparaged. As it is he's black, most victims are white, and his DU-rep is as somebody who's fairly non-PC and fairly conservative. If he were left-of-center, I suspect there'd be a hue and a cry claiming he's being attacked really because he's back and his victims were white, and the attacks reflect white psycho-sexual anxiety over a powerful, virile black man's predations on their wimmen-folk. We'd find reasons to not give much credence to his accusers, and DU would have this wonderful women-rights/"civil"-rights split.

We care about Palmer. His two local guides ... Not so much. If Cecil's brother was killed, it'll matter if he was killed by a white rich Western male or somebody else. If he was Chinese or Arab, it'll matter less. If he was killed by a local, we'll pretty much all yawn and rest up for the next attack on Palmer. I mean, if Cecil had been killed by a local who sold his head and pelt for 50k pounds to feed his extended family, we'd probably not blame the killer but how horrible the West was for making the country and therefore that hypothetical killer indigent.

Here's another weird example: In just Baltimore City, as of 7/29 something like 168 African-American/black people have been murdered this year by civilians (I'm dropping Gray out of the total). The number of African-Americans/blacks that the Guardian counts as actually killed by police in the US so far this year as of 7/30 is 175. We have a national movement over the 175+ that died from police or in police custody--many of them clearly armed, by the way, and indisputably so. A similar number, killed in Baltimore by non-police ... No huge movement. Just a bit of local outrage, with the outrage not directed at the murderers but at the police for not stopping the murderers.

[demmiblue]

8. What happened didn't happen to vaginas, it happened to whole people.

I mean really, "black vaginas matter?!" No, black women matter.

And, to the point, no one listened to ANY of these women for decades.

[HFRN]

9. yes, criticism of Cosby's drugging of women, is probably motivated by racism

just as was my getting a diet mountain dew earlier today - i have to admit i did it out of racism

[JI7]

10. trying to dismiss sexual assault by using blm movement

[GitRDun]

12. Not a good topic to compare races

I'm no expert on the topic, but it seems to me the big issues in this story are celebrities hiding behind their status to harm people in the worst way, and the myriad of issues / reasons why rape is not only under policed, but why societal pressures cause rape to be under or unreported by women.

This is about all women and a culture that accepts a second class citizenship for them. I don't see how injecting a racial comparison matters...all women suffer in this cultre.

[bettyellen]

13. WTF is the OP referring to women as vaginas? What the hell is wrong with you?

[JI7]

14. i alerted but someone else already did

And it was voted to leave by 5

[shenmue]

17. I made the first alert. Stay classy, DU!

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. Check this out...

[PFunk]

16. Hate to say this but no.

To the main stream media it's a bright flash, but short legs story that will probably last a week then be swept under the rug to be forgotten buy all save certain bloggers.

Cosby's is one of those entertainers who is popular enough with certain folks that can withstand all but the most critical career hits.

Unfortunately for him this is one of those critical hits.

[DonCoquixote]

18. an ugly truth

of course, let's not hide the class. What makes some of these women get listened to is the fact that some of them are rich and famous on their own, like Janice Dickinson or Janis Ian.

[kwassa]

21. Or Beverly Johnson, a top model of her era.

She is very well known.

[alphafemale]

19. these allegations have been around for years and dismissed

It's a couple of recent disclosures that have taken him past the ability to deny.

[kelliekat44]

20. Your OP title is understood. You could have expressed your sentiment differently but the point

is valid.

[kwassa]

22. Probably yes, due to the scale of the crimes

And the fame of the perpetrator, particularly someone who held himself up as a public moralist.

[Spider Jerusalem]

23. Probably

"Beloved family-friendly comedian who was 'America's Dad' in the '80's revealed as serial rapist" is something that probably gets attention regardless (although one finds it kind of depressing that it took as long as it did for it to get attention; this was known about a while ago). It seems like that it took the social media era for this to actually be a thing people were talking about; the Hannibal Buress clip where he talks about Cosby being a rapist went viral, that wouldn't have happened in the pre-Twitter/Facebook/Reddit/whatever era (when the traditional media were pretty much the gatekeepers for what and wasn't newsworthy).

[Arugula Latte]

24. I don't think they care that much as it is.

So ... NO. They'd care even less.

I can't believe some of the backwards, misogynistic shit I read on Facebook about this whole thing. Disgusting.

[KittyWampus]

25. If Cosby had been white, would our society (and media) care as much?

see- Hugh Hefner, Kim Fowler.

Even DU'ers defended Strauss-Kahn cause he is a Leftie.

[HFRN]

26. ...

[KT2000]

27. Yes - I believe the jarring issue

is Cosby's persona. He was part of our common experience through media. He represented the family man, someone with values, he shared stories about family that everyone could relate to and then to find out this other person in him was the opposite shakes most of us. The response has been one more of disappointment and sadness.

When there was just one accuser it caught everyone's attention because it did not compute with who we thought he was.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

28. Yes. Because Cosby. nt

[Starry Messenger]

29. What part of your body do I get to refer to you as, to dehumanize you?

I have a few candidates.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

30. You're trying too hard. (n/t)