1) I am not defending Bill Cosby. Do I think he slept with all those women? Probably. Do I think he raped all those women? I don't know but probably not all of them. But like I said, I don't know I wasn't there. He is was a man in power.... and that leads to messiness. (is that a word?) And if he did at this point that is between him and God.
2.) What this whole situation does say is that WE must protect and train our daughter's to make better decisions. If a creepy young/old man invites you to his home or hotel room and offers you pills and alcohol as he tries to mentor you/give you advice about your career, you need to run like a big ass dog is chasing you!!! Because one is.
But on to my point....
As I watched Bill Cosby trip into that Pennsylvania court house, my heart sank. And everybody kept reposting and showing that damn video. Luckily for me this happened in 2015 and NOT 2010!
As a little girl, my Thursday nights revolved around watching the Cosby Show just like my current Thursday night revolves around TGIT. I wanted to BE(my version of) the Huxtables!! I was going to be a doctor. I was going to be Claire, have five kids, be a bulldog at work, an amazing mother, full of class and style, and a bomb ass blow out. I was going to meet my husband (who would be a lawyer) at Hillman. He would possess many of the qualities that made Cliff amazing. It was MY American dream.
This dream shaped in a lot of ways what my life has become. I applied to four colleges as a senior in high school. Three were HBCU's and my first choice was Howard. I did get accepted to Howard University as a biology pre-med major (although I realized before I got there that I wanted to be a teacher). Even after, leaving Howard with 2 degrees and no Cliff, I still had hope and a love for the Huxtables. My story may be playing out differently than planned, but I still give them credit for my dream, I was still fighting to be the Huxtables.
2010 was that point in my life when I realized that some things weren't going as scheduled. Luckily all of Bill's issues didn't surface till 2015ish. Things still haven't gone as planned in some areas of my life but at this point I've trashed that plan and just going let some of those things play themselves out. I am at peace not having the "American Dream" but I was still keeping hope alive!! Watching Bill Cosby trip that day killed part of that hope I had. It was a reminder that the Huxtables were made up characters. The people who played those characters are people. And people are not perfect.
Barack and Michelle stay strong!! You are all this little brown girl who wanted to be Claire Huxtable has left. You are all most of us have left.
