Bill Cosby's Dilema

In was watching Fox News Channel the other day and I saw a black conservative asked the question, "will the sexual abuse charges leveled against Bill Cosby hurt his message?" It was extremely painful to see this brother try to answer what should have been a simple question, with a simple answer, in a complicated manner.

For some reason black conservatives are so happy to have a person with some standing or clout in the Black community come to their side that they will do almost anything to keep them there. It is kind of like when famous musicians or other entertainers convert to Christianity. They become over night saints and heroes. The newly "Born Again" are expected to somehow give more credibility to the Gospel message than the average life long believer. In fact often times less is expected of them than the “common” believer. But this can be a dangerous game, as is the case here, when the celebrated person has a fall. It can actually be a set back and it will hurt the message. The answer should have been a simple yes, it will hurt him and it will hurt his message. Not because it will diminish what he said, but because it diminishes the man, and he will no longer be able to champion that message. It means we are back to the back breaking work of spreading the message the hard way; one lonely, and often obscure, black conservative at a time.

Now whether or not Mr. Cosby is innocent or guilty of the charges is irrelevant, or it should be, with regard to the things he was saying. Whether or not he succumbed to the temptations of the flesh should not diminish the fact that our community has serious problems that we, and only we, can truly address.

I sincerely hope that Mr. Cosby is innocent, not because of his coming to the conservative side, I actually think he is still a Liberal at heart anyway, but for the sake of his family and the good he has done and can yet do for our community. But in either event, take heart my brethren, the message in itself will win the day and others will come our side in due time.