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1 he P oru and O bserver • M arch 12, 1997
P agi A3
Part II: The Triumph and Tragedy of Bill Cosby
by E arl O h r i H i I t HINSON, P h .D.
The occasion was the Academy of
• V Arts and Sciences’ Hall o f Fame
induction ceremonies in 1992. The
star-studded crown chuckled at the
one liners delivered by its principal
inductee. Bill Cosby. But the laugh­
ter stopped w hen Cosby turned seri­
ous and accused white film and TV
writers o f “ massacring" the black
image on screen. The indictment
seemed ironic coming from the man
whom America anointed as its most
treasured father figure. It was dou­
bly ironic because it pointed to much
o f the media and public’s schizoid
nature in making a black man their
symbol o f positive parenting at a
time when they busily branded black
men with the crime-drugs-violence-
derelict label Ifany black had earned
a passport from negative stereotyp­
ing it appeared it was Cosby. But he
knew better.
Even amidst the hyper-adulation
there were disturbing signs that Cosby
was not immune from racial prob­
lems. A civil jury found him partly
I ¡able for assau It ing a wh ite photogra­
pher during an argument. There was
no proof that he did. Even though the
jury held the photographer 90 percent
liable for the altercation, it still re­
quired Cosby to pay him damages of
20 cents. Much of the public laughed,
but a bitter Cosby quipped "he’s to
blame but I must still pay.”
C osby’s movies Leonard Part VI,
Ghost Dad, and the Cosby Mystery
Series were flops. Critics attributed
their failure to lousy plots and poor
writing, but, in truth, the public was
loath to accept Cosby as anything
other than an all-wise-sit-com TV
dad And this reflected a deeper
problem While the Cosby Show
ended, there is still no network dra­
matic series with a black star. Sit­
coms from Living Single to Seinfeld,
with their virtually all-white and all
black casts, are as segregated as
ever. And black sit-com s are as
buffonish as ever.
Even the media that patted itself
on the back for its deferential treat­
ment ofCosby after hisson’s murder
still made sly references to C osby’s
early problems with Ennis and re­
minded the public o f his well-publi­
cized estrangement from his daugh­
ter, Erin after her drug problems.
Cosby, sensing the danger from a
m edia trained to sn iff scandal,
pleaded for it to act "dignified.”
This momentarily blunted the m e­
dia feeding frenzy.
But Cosby took what could poten­
tially be harmful missteps He chal­
lenged the tabloid media to pay for
information on his son's murder
instead o f paying for smut on he and
his family. The Globe ($200,000)
and National Enquirer ($100,000)
happily took him up on it. This gave
rible precedent in encouraging the
tabloid media to pay for information
in a criminal case
Next, Cosby told C B S 's Dan
Rather that he thought o f getting a
357 Magnum and blowing away the
murderer o f one o f his children In
that moment Cosby turned from a
U ----------------------------------
Even the media that patted itself on
the back for its deferential treatment
of Cosby after his son's murder still
made sly references to Cosby’s early
problems with Ennis and reminded
the public of his well-publicized
estrangement from his daughter, Erin
after her drug problems.
------------------------------- V
them a permanent hook in the case,
and that almost certainly includes
any dirt they can dig up along the
way. This could hamper the investi­
gation by deluging the police with a
barrage o f false leads or damaging
gossip from crazies and cash seek­
ing opportunists It also set a hor-
grievingand sympathetic parent into
a vengeful and vindictive vigilante
ready to chuck the court legal sys­
tem This could reinforce the in­
creasingly fashionable notion that
frontier-sty le justice isok in America
Cosby topped that by suggesting
that the attorney for the killer should
State Treasurer streamlines
settling all trades and transactions for
all funds managed by the Treasury,
including the Public Employee Re­
tirement Fund, which currently stands
at $24 billion. State Street will also
provide financial reporting and main­
tain the safekeeping o f all state secu­
rities.
“This is a substantial and direct
savings to the funds that we have
under management," Hill said. "We
are consolidating from three custo­
dial banks to one, which results in a
savings o f approximately $3.3 mil­
lion peryear, in custody fees alone. In
addition, we expect to increase the
State Treasurer Jim Hill, in an
effort to save money and streamline
Treasury operations, has signed a
contract with State Street Bank and
Trust Company that will consolidate
a number investment functions under
a single financial institution. State
Street Bank was selected after Trea­
sury conducted a com prehensive
evaluation o f the major global cus­
tody banks in the market. The invest­
ment funds managed by Treasury will
realize about $21 million in savings
over the four year program term.
As the State Treasury’s custody
bank. State Street is responsible for
funds' earnings from securities lend­
ing.”
“Our goal with this new agreement
was to save state and local govern­
ments’ money, while increasing our
efficiency and accountability. We are
now paying less for our investment
accounting services and receiving
better, more efficient financial report­
ing."
Under the new custodial contract.
State Street Bank, located in Boston,
Massachusetts, will perform invest­
ment accounting and income collec­
tion functions, as well as administer
the securities lending program.
Heritage Pageant
Young World Talent Foundation, Inc.,
P.O. Box 19234, Chicago, Illinois
60619. Black Heritage International
Pageant will end the 1997 Youth
Conference 97, to be held July 3,4,5,6,
in Chicago Illinois. Sponsors Young
World Talent Foundation Inc., is ask­
ing Adults, Churches, Clubs & Orga-
nizations-civic and social to support
their national committee in your city
and state.
Girls between ages 13-18 can rep­
resent their city or state by entering
the 1997 Black Heritage Interna­
tional Scholarship Pageant. There is
no registration fee to enter. Dead­
line is March 15, 1997. Participants
must be enrolled in school and
present a talent (orator, dance, sing,
model, play an instrument, etc.).
To enter send $ 1.00 for your infor-
mation packet, made payable to:
1
Con f es fan f
Tara Floyd, Boston.
accept the same sentence as his cli­
ent if convicted Was Cosby saying
that a defendant had no right to a
legal defense? And that a defendant’s
Constitutional right to a fair trial
should be scrapped?
Cosby then made the bombshell
confession that he had a "rendez­
vous" with another woman (i.e. an
extra marital affair) twenty years
ago. He probably felt compelled to
reveal this after the arrest o f a twenty-
year old woman who claimed to be
his illegitimate daughter for attempt­
ing to extort $40 million from him
His denial w ould have been
enough for much o f the public. But
then he told Rather that their was the
"possibility" he was the w om an's
father Many Americans certainly
are no longer shocked by the sexual
hijinks o f celebrities and public fig­
ures. They might applaud him for
his candor and courage and forgive
his “sin " But Cosby ’s self-indict­
ment for private acts could have
damaging public consequences Par­
ticularly since many Americans,
driven by religious belief and neo-
Victorian family values, overwhelm­
ingly (70 percent in a 1996 opinion
survey) regard adultery as "harmful
to marriage." A substantial number
also think that there is absolutely no
excuse for it. The message is that the
public may accept philandering from
politicians and celebrities but not
from the number one dad who paid
sacred homage to marriage in his
best seller. Love and Marriage
But Cosby in between the quips in
Love and Marriage understood the
fragile twists, turns and traps that can
emperil a marriage, " I ’here are no
rules; you just wing it A wing and a
prayer, that's what marriage is."
And that points to one more prob­
lem America sometimes has a nasty
habit o f turning on its black heroes
at the first hint o f scandal I he Cosby
revelation could make some think
that if one o f America’s best and
brightest black men can be smitten
by wayward sexual lusts then maybe
there’s something to the racist myth
o f the sex-crazed black male
The black image that Cosby ac­
cused white writers o f "m assacring"
could be a dooming self-prophecy
for him I hat would be a tragedy for
the man who has made us laugh so
long and feel good about ourselves.
And it would be our tragedy too
Responses may be sent by e-mail
to Earl Ofari Hutchinson:
ehutchi344@ aol.com
Refugee status
requirements revised
The Immigration and Natural­
ization Service (INS) has revised
the requirements for refugees who
wish to have their spouses and
children join them in the United
States as derivative refugees, and
broadened the category o f those
eligible to file Form 1-730 Refugee
Relative Petitions.
A policy memorandum issued
August 27, 1996, changes the time
at which a relationship had to exist
between a refugee filing an 1-730
and a spouse or child. Now the
relationship must have existed prior
to the refugee's admission to the
United States and must continue to
exist at the time o f filing for "fol-
♦
lowing-to-join” benefits and admis­
sion. Previously , the relationship had
to exist when the refugee’s status
was approved.
Under the new policy, if the refu­
gee proves that he is the parent o f a
child who was born after his admis­
sion as a refugee, but the child was in
utero on the date o f the admission,
the child shall be eligible to follow-
to-join the refugee. If she is not the
principal refugee, the child’s mother
s h a 11 not be e I i g i b le to fo 11 ow - to-jo i n
the refugee unless she was married
to the refugee on the date of his
admission.
The policy also broadens the cat­
egory o f those eligible to file l-73O’s.
Now a person admitted to the United
States as a relative o f a refugee, but
who is not the refugee’s spouse or
unmarried child under 21 years of
age. may be able to file an 1-730 for
his own spouse and children
Most o f the refugees admitted to
the United States come from Af­
ghanistan, B osnia-H erzegovina,
Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, Roma­
nia, Somalia, the former Soviet
I In ion and Vietnam
People who may benefit from
this new policy should fiie a new I-
730, with accompanying docum en­
tation, to the appropriate INS Ser­
vice Center.
»
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