Oct 3, 2026, 10:32 PMBill Cosby was allowed to rape because he validated white racism.
- Oct 3, 2026, 10:32 PM
Replies
SoozcatSoozcat@raphus.socialOct 3, 2026, 11:01 PM@Uair Also rape culture in general.
Carlcarl@chaos.socialOct 4, 2026, 6:49 AM@Uair how so, what did he do to validate racism? (Genuine question)
- Oct 4, 2026, 8:36 AM
He used to publish op-eds in the newspapers that would get nationally syndicated. He was big on blaming Black people, especially Black men, for systemic oppression. He described it as a personal failing. Black men abandon their kids, and that's why Black people are lower on the economic totem pole than white people.
Also, the Cosby Show was completely ficticious. This was the 80s. There were maybe five actual Black doctors or lawyers in America. We weren't very far out from outright Jim Crow back then. Cosby sold white America a bill of goods about wholesome and healthy Black families that wasn't in any way real. Of course, all teevee was garbage in the Reagan era, but I could see the not-so-hidden racism in his show.
Oct 5, 2026, 8:44 AMIts hard to find data about black doctors in the 1980s. During the civil rights movement, more than 80% of black doctors were graduates of medical schools at historically black colleges and universities. During the civil rights movement, two new such medical schools were founded.
In 2020, 5% of US doctors were black, which is less than half what it should be. Black enrolment in medical schools dropped with the end of Affirmative Action programmes.
There definitely was a black middle class in the 1980s and while there were fewer black doctors than there should have been, the assertion that this was entirely fantasy or racist seems a step too far. Representation in fiction is usually linked to positive outcomes for increasing diversity.