No Capes!!

Bill Cosby is black and that sucks. Being black in America can often times suck, but that is not why it sucks that Cosby is black. This is not even about his personal black experience and how that may have sucked. This is more about how the fact that he is black, will impact the African American community internally. Anyway, Bill is black, and not only is he black, but he was the black man to be in America for generations. He had funny, but respectable stand up routines. He crafted a respectable black family for television that was so respectable that it could even serve as a blueprint for "normal" American families. He, this black man, would  be elevated to "America's Dad." He pretty much moved on and became America's grandad with, "Kids Say The Darnest Things"

Bill was so good, so respectable, that it almost felt like he was single handedly making America into the post-racial, colourblind society we hear so much about. He was elevating the black community, one sagging pants at a time, carrying it to the dizzying heights of waist worn respect and decency. Golly-gee, if Martin had a dream...

Whatever.

Why does it suck that Bill Cosby is black? It sucks because some of us, too many of us, will don our capes for Bill Cosby. Too many of us will step onto the battlefield of racial politics, march to the front lines, and take fire for Bill Cosby; for the culture. Mind you, brother Bill was not returning the favour, in fact brother Bill was not a fan, nor a defender of the culture. Brother Bill threw the culture, and the men and women in it, living it, making it, under the bus whenever he could. Bill tried to silence Hip Hop, Bill detests AAVE (..but Fat Albert though), and constantly, and consistently castigates the black poor for the choices they are forced to make, and for not working hard enough and pulling themselves up.
I wonder if Bill loved black people. I think he did. I'm sure he did. I'm just not sure that he liked their blackness; not all of it. A lot has been invested in making blackness unwanted and unlikable - I get it; we all struggle. It sucks that Bill is black because rallying to the support of our brothers, and to a lesser extent our sisters (sad), in these types situations is an instinctive, defensive response in the black community in America. We know that the justice system, from police to judges to lawmakers, has not always had our best interest at heart. We know that equal crime does not merit equal time, as we see here and here. So, we cape. We cape hard. We even cape for those that do not need, nor deserve our capedom, just because they are black. #thejuiceisloose Bill does not deserve us donning our capes.

Celebrity sex scandals are nothing new, in fact a sex scandal can catapult virtual unknowns to A-List status in the blink of a Kardashian eye. However, this entire thing surrounding Bill Cosby is not a sex scandal. This is about predation, incapacitation, manipulation, assault, and rape - rape being about power, not sex. It was a power trip.

Bill had been out here drugging, manipulating, abusing, and raping women for about 40 years and getting away with it. This side of Bill Cosby was not even a massive secret. While it may not have been public knowledge, it was certainly known within the industry. As we have seen with most of the men named in this #metoo and #timesup era, their actions were not those of sexually deviant masterminds that fooled everyone, they were actions facilitated by those around them, willingly or not. They were also the actions of powerful men, using their power and influence to silence, shame and/or destroy anyone, not just their victims, who would challenge them, or call them out on their actions.

The judicial system does treat black men worse than all other men in America - a statistical fact that can be seen here, and here. Bill Cosby is not one of those black man statistics however, not even close. In fact Cosby has done something that no other black man that I can think of has ever done in America, and that would be get away with the rape and sexual abuse of almost 60, mostly WHITE women, suffering the lightest possible sentence. In the land of Emmett Till, the Central Park 5, and Brian Banks, this is nothing short of magic. The statute of limitations has been Cosby's friend here,and had Hannibal made his joke a year later, Cosby would likely have never seen a trial, much less a jail sentence. Bill Cosby could have been fated like Daniel Holtzclaw, or like Dr. Larry Nassar, but he was not. Lucky him I guess.


For many, Bill Cosby, his work and his art, especially in television, mean(t) a lot, well beyond  mere entertainment value. If that is the case, then hold on to Clif Huxtable if you must, but let Bill go.


It is hard for many people to square all of this. The irony of a man that preached respectability politics so loudly, a man whose entire media empire, and public image was build as that of a righteous and moral man, being accused of things so degenerate seems too baffling to be true. Remember that we are human, and we can be many things, even completely opposite things at the same time.
The famous "Pound Cake Speech" that condescends to the black youth to pull up their pants and to speak properly; and the drugging and sexual assault of Andrea Constand, the one case within the statute of limitations, and the one that has ultimately sent him to jail, both happen in 2004.

That nigga was magic.

No Violations Here

Recently I have seen a New York Times article making rounds on my Facebook timeline. The article is about sex slaves and the exploitation and abuse of women and girls in certain territories of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. "ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape"* is the title of the article and it delves into the newly codified rules of sex slavery in these territories and how they are being used as tools of recruitment.

The author, Rukmini Callimachi, uses the testimony of 21 girls and women, as well as official Islamic State documents, research by Amnesty International and other watchdog groups, and other sources, to get the information, and evidence to craft this article.

Flag of the Islamic State

The article begins, "In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin." setting a tone that stays for the remainder of the piece. Age is of little consequence; of the 21 females interviewed, the only ones not raped were those post-menopausal and those prepubescent. These rapes were not sinful, as we shall soon see.
How is it, that a religious group can, not just condone, but encourage this type of behaviour from its adherents when such acts are considered heinous globally, and even within the teachings of their religion? Well, simply, the girls and women being raped are Yazidi, and the newly codified sex slave laws, with the claimed backing of the Qu'ran, allow for the soldiers of the Islamic State to rape these women and girls. In fact, it is not even considered rape, but, in the words of the man who raped the 12 year old we are first introduced to, it is ibadah or worship**. He prayed before the rape, and after the rape.Guidelines for slavery, and, of course, rape, were all contained in material put out by the Islamic State's Research and Fatwa Department - seriously.

Callimachi goes on to describe the ways in which these women and girls come into these circumstances. They are rounded up and put into buses once used to facilitate the Hajj, but now with curtains covering the windows. We are hearing the tales of survival and escape, but there are still more in captivity, being abused and being raped, and there are yet still more entering into captivity and sex slavery.

This long post (I apologise), however, is not about the Islamic State, nor the the horrible actions it now officially sanctions and the crimes it has committed against humanity and, especially, humanity's women and girls. This is actually about us. Westerners (Caribbean included -woot,woot!). This is about how we reacted to this article and our 'speck in the eye' attitude to the Islamic State's 'log in the eye' behaviour.

Our disgust - well founded for sure -  does not quite match up with our local (western) attitudes towards women or rape. Maybe it is the whole ISIS-ness of it, and the official-ness and the Research and Fatwa Department-ness and the Islam-ness of it all that creates our deeper disgust. A 15 year old Yazidi girl recounting her rape(s), and the fact that it so closely correlates to that of a 12 year old girl, and several other women and girls is heart wrenching. We, without reservation or interest in the story of the rapist, believe her; believe them. Yet when six and a half dozen women accuse Bill Cosby of drugging and raping them, it takes months for some of us to start to believe them -  and this is only now in the months after Hannibal Buress brought it up during a comedy routine.
With this most recent surfacing of the Cosby rape allegations, the media went about asking industry insiders and other comedians about it; "Oh, yeh it has been said." or "It was known" were not uncommon responses. It was as if it was just another celebrity quirk. Mariah Carey likes white M&Ms, Lil Wayne likes a spliff and some purp, and Bill Cosby likes a bit of drug and rape; every now and again he may go for some statutory rape. WTF folks.

Bill Cosby meme collage.

Rick Ross, clearly from the Cosby School of Getting Laid, said,

"Put molly all in her champagne, she ain't even know it. I took her home and enjoyed that, she ain't even know it"

Now I'm not saying that Rick Ross is a rapist, he makes claims about many things in his music that he has never done or seen - hell, every rapper alive is the best rapper alive, but it speaks to our general attitude about such things when the lyrics main criticisms come in the form of internet memes, and it still enjoys regular club and radio play.

Buju Banton -"Gal mi serious, me haffi get you tonight, haffi get your body even by gun point."

"...haffi get your body even by stick up."

Burning Flames advises forced entry:

"...I know just what to do when a woman batten down she house,

and mek up she mind to keep you out.

...so the solution, to get inside,

'cus she lock down she house so tight.

...kick in she back door!"

All over a background sound effect of a screaming woman balling "murder, murder", and "call the police."

Let us not forget the Caribbean social meme of the school girl and the minibus. Glamour Gal Sue was liming in the van stand waiting for her man, "The Original Article Ruffneck Dan.***" When Vybz Kartel has to ask you not to "fuck inna de school bus****" we have a problem. Moreover, it is usually a relationship between a school girl and a bus driver, but most popularly, the bus conductor.

                                

Beyond this, rape is not just a too common occurrence in prisons, but an expected part of the incarceration experience. It is common in almost all pop culture references to prison - "don't drop the soap" Further to the point, most consider rape in prison an extension of justice and not a violation of a person and that person's rights and body. We have convinced ourselves that there is nothing wrong with this, much in the same way the Islamic State's soldiers are convinced that there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. The Islamic State has made legal their mistreatment of women and girls and their attitudes towards rape, we in the west maintain such behaviours as abhorrent and illegal, but our actions, our culture, our prison systems say otherwise.

The Islamic State's treatment of women and girls, their creation and perpetuation of sex slavery via methodological sex conquests, and their religious and, now, legal justification for all of this is horrible. The west - and us here in the Caribbean - are really not too, too far off in our treatment of women, exploitation of women and attitudes to rape. We may think of ourselves as more sophisticated, and we might well be, but, "It is not rape, it is worship." is not much different to, "It is not rape, it is justice." or "It is not rape, it is just a good time."

Last question, can husbands rape their wives, or nah?



*- Article linked here.
**-Ibadah is usually translated as "worship"
***- Madd - De Maddy Maddy School Patrol
****- Vybz Kartel - School Bus