HEATHCLIFF IS THAT YOU?

         " A word to the wise isn't necessary, it is the stupid ones who need all the advice"
                                                                                                                     Bill Cosby


William Henry "Bill" Cosby Jr was the author of language, cultural imagery and iconography that influenced my childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. The stand-up comedian, actor, musician and author who would get his Doctor of Education from the University of Massachusetts broke barriers in television not just for being  the first black man with a leading role on NBC's I Spy, but crushing the myopic, dystopic, monolithic portrayal of the black family and expanding the narrative of the richness of black culture in America by executive producing the eponymous ground-breaking "The Cosby Show" from 1984 to 1992.
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Bill Cosby not only became transcendent as"America's dad," but he became an enormous economic engine for NBC spawning an additional spotlight into black culture by expanding the narrative to include a snapshot of life at HBCUs through the creation of the show " A Different World".  Our collective chests swelled with pride as this brother from Philly, a four sport athlete, Navy veteran and just plain ol' funny guy was blazing the networks with unprecedented positive exposure of our culture.  We would anxiously wait to see what college he would be "reppin' by wearing one of their sweatshirts during an episode.  A Different World literally encouraged tens of thousands of black students to explore the previously hidden environs of historically black colleges and universities and become doctors, lawyers, engineers, software designers, college professors, Fortune 500 executives and university presidents.

Bill was OUR dude!  It seemed every university in the country was wrestling to get him to be the keynote speaker at their commencements. He was awarded a battery of Honorary Doctorates.  I will never forget when he accepted an invitation from my alma mater; Florida A&M University.  The anticipation was epic and the atmosphere was electric.  Mr. Cosby was gregarious, warm and naturally....funny.  FAMU, like so many other institutions of higher learning considered it a feather in their cap to have had the corporation that was Cosby Inc to have adorned the halls of their campus.

After the Cosby show went off the air and Mr. Jello pudding stopped being the imprimatur of guaranteed ratings sweeps, Bill seemed to change.  In the early 2000s he started to become very critical of the black community, more accurately what some would characterize as the hood element.  His "pound cake" speech; his public remarks in May of 2004 in which he was critical of African Americans who put higher priorities on sports, fashion and "acting hard" than on education,self-respect and self improvement drew howls from everybody from Michael Eric Dyson to the Congressional Black Caucus.  For the most part we were dismissive. We chalked it up to Cosby getting older and sitting on top of his stack of nearly half a billion dollars. Like our elders who spoke their mind, he was just going off because he could.

And then the rumors,........ followed by allegations,.......... followed by settlements.

All at once, Claire Huxtable's chill, pipe-smoking, bad-dancing, surgery-performing husband slowly began to turn into somebody we could not have known. Some could have possibly forgiven him for being a "playa from the Himalayas."  But over the course of four decades, allegations about not just infidelity, but drug-assisted sexual assaults from over 50 women began to flow like magma from a volcano.  Our Dr. Huxtable was transforming into a salacious, non-board certified, monster known as Dr. Clyde Hyde!  Universities started revoking their honorary doctorates and the venerated and iconic show bearing his name was yanked off of every network, even BET!.  This insidious dichotomy, this Shakespearean tragedy in which people were saying "oh hell no" to Othello was borderline iconoclastic.

Suddenly, the name Cosby, Huxtable, Healthcliff became anathema!  There is a sad irony in the progressive loss of William Cosby's sight.  It is lock step in conjunction with our inability to even remotely transplant him back into one of the most robust chapters in television history where black folks all over the country literally set their watches to the broadcast time of two of his creations. Heathcliff, it was never you!!!