Cognitive Dissonance and the Cosby Conspiracy Theorists
In 2014, Hannibal Buress reminded and shed light on the fact that not only was Bill Cosby a known serial rapist, but he had multiple accusations against him. This started a serious of fortunate events that lead to the toppling of a problematic Black man who loved his respectability politics. Throughout the demise of Cosby, I noticed that a lot of men and women said very alarming things:
“This is the court of public opinion!”
“We don’t know all of the facts, if he really did it, he’ll be found guilty!”
“Why did these women wait so long? They just want money!”
“He’s rich and famous! Why would he need to rape?”
“How does a BLACK MAN IN THE 70s rape White women and get away with it!”
Cosby fought the law, and the law won and found him guilty of his heinous crimes. Justice has been served, and women are vindicated. A guilty verdict was the criteria that many of these aforementioned Cosby supporters said they needed before they could accept his culpability.
Yet even with a guilty verdict, many supporters are still denying it. They are going as far to say this is a “crucifixion of a positive Black man, who gave a lot to the community,” and “if other rapists, such as Weinstein, Woody Allen, etc, can get away with it, why can’t a black man? This is racism!”
I just want to take the time to say that Bill Cosby isn’t the fucking hill to die on. He is a rapist. Over 50 women have accused him, and by fighting for his innocence, you are arguing that each and every woman involved is lying. I still want to know, why do you want a RAPIST to walk free and escape repercussions? Why do you advocate for a Black man to evade judgement day, like his White counterparts, instead of advocating for famous White males to endure punishment? Are Black men unfairly incarcerated and wrongfully accused of crimes? Absolutely, but in this case, the actions of a perpetrator was duly judged.
According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, out of every 1000 rapes, 334 are reported to the police, 63 lead to arrest, 13 cases are referred to prosecutors, 7 cases lead to felony conviction, and only 6 rapists are incarerated. Cosby has been abusing for decades before he became one of the 7 cases led to a conviction, and there are still so many more Black men who will never be referred to prosecuters. A perfect example is the tomfoolery that occurs at Morehouse College, and how they are known to abuse the women at Spelman College. But these women are told not to snitch and ignore the violation of their womanhood for solidarity in their Blackness.
Even if Black men do make it to trial (most don’t), their careers tend to not suffer. Some examples include Rick James, Chris Brown, Mike Tyson, R. Kelly, CeeLo Green, and Tupac Shakur to name a few. This logical fallacy also ignores the list of White men who have fallen from grace since #MeToo.
Rape knows no race, and I want the conversations to be a lot more nuanced and less reductive than saying “White women are known to lie to bring a black man down.” Because it’s not just White women that people don’t believe, it’s women of color, too. I beseech all of the rape apologists to value women and our experiences more, because this cognitive dissonance is frightening. It leads me to believe that either you don’t care because it doesn’t affect you, you don’t think you’re the “type of person” to get raped, you just have disdain for women, or you are an abuser, too.
