from my cousin, Cheo Cokers page: re: Bill Cosby Cheo Hodari Coker 1 hr · YouTube · This clip summarizes the quandry many black people have when it comes to Bill Cosby. When I watched this I Spy clip two months ago, before the controversy reared its head, I marveled at a few things. For one, it features Nancy Wilson, front and center, as, in the words of Cos himself, a beautiful woman. You have to understand a few things to understand how subversively revolutionary this is. This is mainstream television in 1966--the same year Stokely defeated John Lewis to take over SNCC and move it towards Black Power, the same year the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, and the same year that MLK took the SCLC to Chicago, the same year James Brown performed Papas Got A Brand New Bag on Sullivan--and you have a black man in 1966 telling his white partner, playfully, to shut up so he can watch a beautiful black woman sing--during a time when black wasnt considered beautiful or worthy, and sassing a white superior--or even looking a white man in the eye--could get you beaten or killed. This is the Cos who intergrated mainstream television, who fought behind the scenes so that the first black stuntmen were hired, the Cos, who, in later years,would actively promote everyone from black stagehands to writers, producers and directors--and the same Cos who helped finance the completion of Spike Lees Malcolm X when the Completion Bond company took it away from him, and years before was one of the silent fiancial partners on Melvin Van Peebles Sweet Sweetbacks Badasssong.. This is the Cos who every black executive, agent, showrunner, etc...owes their careers to. The Cos who donated 20 Million to black colleges and , with shows like A Different World, inspired a generation of Hillman kids to aspire to college in the first place. The Cos of the USC Cosby Fellows program. This is why many are hesitant to turn their back on Bill Cosby and he can still eat for free at Bens Chili Bowl in DC. But now, after the allegations, you watch the same clip, and you cant get it out of your head. Now, instead of Cos taking a moment to revel in the beauty of Nancy Wilson --(whos 1962 LP Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley is a MUST by the way), his oogles resemble predatory lust. The last thing anybody needs is for this dude to go to her dressing room. You cant unring that bell. The countless depositions, the silence from Cosby himself, that stomach churning smell of death that, unfortunetly, smells like truth--his legacy is gone. All the Pudding Pops in the world cant erase that taste in your mouth. The man didnt bring him down. He did it to himself. So many people--it seems like from the very beginning--victimized. And every time you want to think about the good, youre repulsed by the bad. Damn. (Back to work....)
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 20:30:30 +0000
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