This is addressed to all black media. My YouTube platform is not huge but healthy and growing. At any rate, my channel has more of a universal appeal as I primarily contend with issues that matter to all members of the human race. However, that does not mean that I am any less “conscious”, concerned or aware of matters that affect the black community at large. With that said, the Bill Cosby trial entails many elements that make the situation more than appropriate or likely for my channel to have covered it. It entails celebrity scandal, the United States Justice System, legal protocol and yes, there is also an obviously a racial dynamic, and a problem within a problem.
For a time very few people were publicly defending Bill Cosby early on. Regardless, years ago when the rumors first started to bubble into mainstream discussion, I researched, knew a lot of information, and my channel did defend him. Not emotionally, but armed with serious facts. Consequently, the channel momentarily received an enormous amount of attention because my defense of Bill Cosby revealed startling evidence that he was being wronged and that we were being misled by a biased media with an agenda back when few platforms were defending him. But there was another problem. It was also through researching the cases of Bill Cosby that I discovered that many “black” media outlets, like “The Root” and “BET.com” were infiltrated and in on the media slandering. From the start, these publications were releasing scathing opinionated trash against Cosby relentlessly. It was disheartening. I say this in no uncertain terms; Coming from outlets that concern themselves with African-American issues, this was blasphemous, should not be tolerated, and should never happen again. I, for one, cannot sit idly by when I see something. This needs to be cut, dealt with and repudiated right now.
Again, this isn’t about protecting anyone who happens to be black and guilty. I’m not here for that, and that would be a huge simplification of the situation, and a cop out. It’s about respect, staying on code and expecting at least “black media” to reserve judgment against someone, who happens to be black, who hasn’t yet been convicted and therefore, might have been innocent.
When you actually research the evidence to the Cosby allegations instead of just buying into the mainstream media narrative, it was easy to see how weak and flimsy much of the evidence was against him, and how mainstream was hiding blatant deception. But what was more startling than that was to catch multiple articles from certain black media sites also refusing to give the benefit of the doubt, or respecting innocence until proven guilt. These so-called black sites also ignorantly chose to bypass evidence or reserve any respect for an African-American icon, and instead quickly joined in to grab the rope and pitchforks. In the case of BET, which is owned by people who are not black, while still calling itself “Black Entertainment”, I suppose this is to be expected when no one from their audiences objects. Also in an article by “The Huffington Post”, Bob Butler, the president of the National Association of Black Journalism (NABJ), told TMZ all reports relating to the assault claims have been unbiased. So basically he cosigned that nothing was wrong with the way the media handled Cosby, even as they failed to report the discrepencies in many of the claims against him. So although Butler did not go in on Cosby, his pandering to appease mainstream media did not help. In another instance, renowned radio host Tom Joyner leaped out and suggested that Bill Cosby should go ahead and plead guilty to spare his wife and children. I’m thinking, “did he actually read any of these allegations? Did he speak to his wife and family about what they thought?” He is a legend in black radio, catering mostly to black audiences, and this is the half-cocked statement he decrees? This is a problem. Many of the lesser named writers and “journalists” featured below among a few others, did go in on Cosby a lot worse. No evidence and all. The writers who chose to do this need to understand that no, they were not doing good work or good journalism. Instead, they need to understand that as writers of color this may be historically significant, and they have eternally disgraced themselves. In impressionable ignorance, they allowed themselves to be used by agendas and they have cursed themselves.
BET.com:
http://www.bet.com/celebrities/news/2016/05/24/bill-cosby-s-life.html
http://www.bet.com/celebrities/news/2017/06/14/bill-cosby-episode.html
The Root:
http://www.theroot.com/blame-it-on-the-quaaludes-guilty-or-not-bill-cosby-1796063880
http://www.theroot.com/black-music-month-playlist-no-2-cosby-ain-t-the-god-w-1795932271
It was a case that produced little to no evidence at all, and so even if a periodical took the stance of Cosby’s guilt, I can respect that. But the so-called black media that did not want to go to bat for Cosby should have simply chosen to stand down altogether. You don’t have to believe he’s innocent, but you don’t have to drag him while he was being lynched either. In this situation and considering the country’s history, without a conviction or factual evidence, simply remaining neutral would have been the best thing to do for a skeptical black media outlet. Instead, with no evidence these disgraceful entities couldn’t resist and joined in the media lynching with everyone else. For black media outlets to decide to carelessly and recklessly do this to a black icon was nothing short of blasphemy. Is there no honor? Do we just accept this?
Well, there is a reason this happened. These entities let everyone know that they are not only there to cater to black interests. Some black media sites are tainted, crisscrossed and infused with feminist agendas, LGBT agendas, and/or are owned by “others” and outsiders who do not necessarily have the black community’s best interest at heart. And there it is.
To those who “got offended” by the feminist and LGBT comment, that makes my point yet again. Getting “offended” by someone’s truth was never a part of black culture. A part of this society, definitely, but never indigenous societies. Someone’s truth is not condemnable. And truth isn’t always what we want to hear; it is what it is. I have love for all good people of every persuasion, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the profound validity of the point. It’s not stated to be offensive or meant to hurt anyone. It’s not about judgment for someone else’s persuasion, it’s about staying on code when applicable. I don’t want to use their names to cover myself, but I know people who have grown to denounce their feminism because they’ve learned that it didn’t enrich their lives and that it was never meant for their people. And I know of those who identify as LGBT, but have been illuminated to be proudly what they are, but know not to infuse or push LGBT agendas over black concerns because the struggle isn’t one and the same. I see the games, tools and mechanisms for what they are. Now let me explain how being emotionally pulled “off code” works: When Kim Burell made her controversial sermon about homosexuality, in her own church, it leaked and she was dragged and punished. However, strangely we only saw black celebrities like Pharell Williams and Mo’Nique publicly condemning the issue. Crowd-shaming and silencing people is not how we talk and air out our opinions, issues and differences. But follow the point; we know damn well there are still multitudes of black people in every black church who still feel exactly how Burell feels. And black celebrities and preachers who we know feel exactly how Burell feels, on record, cowardly stayed quiet. So, why would a black media outlet join in to castigate and destroy Burell if not to serve an LGBT agenda over a black celebrity’s right to free speech in her own church? Think. Again, you don’t have to agree with her Christian beliefs, but you don’t have to go in on her and help stop her money. This is about precedent and consistency. To further drive the point, I’m a vegan, but I know when and where to unleash and spout my vegan views. If it’s my own platform I can say whatever I want. But on a platform that isn’t mine to an audience I know is mixed, but predominantly African-American, that is my main focus, not my veganism. If this going off code to serve other masters isn’t brought under control, it bleeds into so many other things with most people not even realizing it. In the case of Cosby, I saw many writers echoing the sentiments of new wave feminism, over the benefit of the doubt and preservation of a black cultural icon, and to me, that was egregious. And yes, off code.
As a people, black Americans were historically used to having the odds stacked up against them, and were often never given the benefit of the doubt even when irrefutably innocent. So when so-called black outlets joined in against Cosby, in my opinion, they disqualified themselves as capable or trustable to cover African-American criminal cases ever again. What they did was symbolically bigger than the Cosby situation and there was something much larger about their transgression. They don’t know what they did, primarily because they are compromised and confused, and no “woke” person called them out on it. People who subscribed to those channels just let it go because unfortunately many of us are confused, weak, distracted, unfocused—and therefore powerless. We could expect this from other networks more concerned with sensationalism. But what those black media sites did spat on the grave of every slave and civil rights warrior that lived and died here. As I, along with many, many others were on the front lines of this unprecedented media lynching, for them this was unforgivable and they disgust me.
Through our innate sense of morality, we are being compromised, confused and played. Again, this is bigger than the Cosby scandal. I’m here telling you the unmitigated truth: If you let this happen, with all the infiltration’s amiss, and you let them lynch Cosby with many of us siphoned off into other groups, subdivisions and compromised by all the traps, then we will have failed. Anything can successfully be done to any one of us because we will have proven ourselves unfit to stand up and fight off the powers that be when honor demands it. People who came before us have gone through worse than this. We can do better than this, and we have to. Sure, what we believe personally can and will be discussed as we are entitled to our opinions. Regardless, this new precedent of black media joining into media lynch black legends and icons who are pleading for justice needs to be called out, severely punished and choked by the throat to death right now, or else.
There are bigger platforms than mine, but what I’m speaking is the truth. Truth is like a fire. It can’t be unheard or ignored when it’s listened to. It’s spreads and reaches out. My hope is that when truth hits, people rethink their subscriptions, see the agendas for what they are, reject and denounce what isn’t acceptable and move into action. This needs to be called out and handled, and it cannot wait.
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