Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘Cosby: The Clash of Sex, Race, and Celebrity’: First Book to Go Beyond the Headlines in the Cosby Saga

cosby - the clash of

*”I know people are tired of me not saying anything, but a guy doesn’t have to answer to innuendos,” Bill Cosby defiantly told a sold out audience at a Florida concert in November, 2014. In the months since then Cosby met all accusations of drugging and rape with stone silence. But millions have been anything but silent about the Cosby saga. There’s a reason. It is the complete package for public titillation: sex, race, celebrity allure, society’s treatment of rape, the black male and family image, the double standard in the criminal justice for the wealthy and famous versus the poor and faceless, and the media’s insatiable lust for gossip peddling about entertainers.

Political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson in his new Ebook, Cosby: The Clash of Sex, Race, and Celebrity takes an in-depth look at how these issues collide and have riveted public attention and debate in the Cosby saga.

Hutchinson notes: “During his heyday, he worked both sides of the racial street. He broke racial barriers in his dramatic and family comedy series. Though he did not make a public crusade out of his smashing racial barriers, he did not explicitly reject his blackness. His successes in the then supremely hostile medium of TV that had either ignored or viciously stereotyped blacks for decades were regarded as a singular triumph for blacks.  This firmly plopped him on the reveled icon pedestal.”

In Cosby: The Clash of Sex, Race, and Celebrity, Hutchinson delves into the controversy over Cosby’s image as America’s Number One Dad and how that unraveled but stirred even further debate about him and the black family,” In October, 2015, Ebony Magazine stirred a mini-firestorm of rage when it dredged up an old photo of the Cosby show television family, plopped it on its November cover, and then fractured the picture.”

Hutchinson confronts head on the issue of why so many of Cosby’s alleged rape victims waited decades to come forth, “Studies have found that rape is routinely underreported in dozens of cities. The rape claims were dismissed out of hand with little or no investigation. The study zeroed in on the prime reason for this, namely disbelief.”

Hutchinson gives a fair and balanced assessment of Cosby’s at times larger than life impact on race relations, the entertainment industry, and American culture that can’t be minimized or dismissed, “Cosby was a special case even by the standards of the rich and famed celebrity world. For a decade he reigned as America’s father figure — not black father figure, but father figure. He embodied the myths, fantasies, and encrusted beliefs about the role that a caring, loving, engaged dad is supposed to have with his family.

The Cosby saga, as the O.J. Simpson saga did two decades earlier, has cast the public’s glare on the issue of race, fame, wealth, and the celebrity status. In Cosby: The Clash of Sex, Race and Celebrity, Hutchinson tells how these issues go far beyond anything that Cosby will face in a Pennsylvania courtroom.

About the Author:
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of Trump and the GOP: Race Baiting to the White House (Amazon Kindle). He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

earl ofari hutchinson
Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Trump and The GOP: Race Baiting to the White House Kindle Edition
Earl Ofari Hutchinson – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018L9H2TS

earl ofari hutchinson trump ebook cover

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING