Heidi,
I don’t have an answer to that, mainly because the core competency of a lawyer is to find weaknesses in whatever you say and twist them to their advantage, and there are weaknesses in whatever you would say because issues of race (and gender) are social issues, and thus not cut and dry. They are very complex and do not fit a “this is Truth emblazoned by God”- like mold.
There are certainly issues of race involved both in what Cosby did and in any individual’s response — merely because everything we experience is experienced against a backdrop of America’s founding sin. Despite his early positive work, Cosby himself has a history of language and behavior that is troubling, if not downright anti-black.
But to deconstruct the complexity and importance of race in this instance for use merely as a tool for defense when his (admitted!) sexual predation covered the racial spectrum means they don’t care at all about actually acknowledging the issues of race. Is it about race? Undoubtedly. At least in part, if only because a Black man is on trial. But it is much more about misogyny and patriarchy, about the power of celebrity and wealth, about America’s view that women are primarily present for the pleasure of men.
If this were an issue of a single white woman condemning a Black man, Then we could talk about the troubling history of that particular social dynamic — Based as it is on the control of Black men as it is on white women. But this is sweeping and not founded strictly in any dynamic other than the power that a wealthy man can wield upon women. The indiscriminate expectation that women are a property of men.
America’s racism travels side by side with patriarchy (which I am a part). Sometimes those overlap. Things get messy and lines get blurry. Does Cosby have negative experiences that are based on his race that he could have avoided if racism weren’t a fact? Certainly. But he also has privileges because he is a man (and more because he is wealthy). One of those privileges is the fact that men everywhere can rape a woman with a decent assurance that even if she comes forward, society (both people and the courts) will most likely support the idea that it was probably her fault.
“Ask Black women how they feel about Cosby and then come talk to me.” Might be my response.
How dare they devalue a topic so important to so many people, so important to our country. How dare they take a topic so meaningful and use it as a disposable tool. It shows how little they think of it.
You could write a book about the Venn diagram of race, gender, and wealth in this case — someone probably is — and we all have our parts to play. But to defend Cosby’s actions on the grounds of race alone is to illustrate how little the lives and experiences of Black people mean that such an important aspect of our history (miscegenation) can be merely a tool. And how little the lives of women mean that they can be blamed for condemning a (again, admitted!) rapist.
