Over the weekend, comedian Bill Cosby joined NPR host Scott Simon for an interview about art that Cosby and his wife Camille loaned to a museum. At the end of the interview, Simon switched gears and asked Cosby about sexual assault allegations against him.
Simon: This uh, this question gives me no pleasure Mr. Cosby, but there have been serious allegations raised about you in recent days.
Cosby: (silent, shaking head)
Simon: You’re shaking your head no. I’m in the news business, I have to ask the question: do you have any response to those charges?
Cosby: (silent, shaking head)
Simon: Shaking your head no.
The "allegations" Simon referred to were assertions by Barbara Bowman that Cosby drugged and raped her when she was a 17-year-old actor. Other women have come out with similar stories. Cosby's lawyer John P. Schmitt issued a statement saying Cosby wouldn't "dignify" the allegations with a response.
The Reverend Irene Monroe was taken aback. "I'm shocked," Monroe said Monday on Boston Public Radio. "We do have this iconic image of him as Dr. Cliff Huxtable, as well as the Jell-O Pudding man — the sort of consummate father figure."
That "consummate father figure" settled out of court with a person in 2006 when he was threatened with a civil lawsuit over similar charges. At the time little was said or written about it. Now, major media outlets are covering the story around the clock. One reason for the attention is a joke that comedian Hannibal Burress used during a recent stand-up gig in Philadelphia, in which Burress called Cosby a "rapist."
Monroe was glad Burress was the one to raise the issue. "I'm glad that it was an African-American brother [talking about Cosby], because had it been a white brother, it would've been an issue of race," Monroe said.
Boston Public Radio host Jim Braude noted that he and cohost Margery Eagan had interviewed Cosby once. "It was about as much fun as I've had on the radio. (...) We had read about these rumors, it never even occurred to us to ask about these things," Braude said. "I don't mean just the two of us, I mean the media in general."
The Rev. Emmett G. Price III also decried the lack of media coverage, saying even Simon — one of the few who dared bring it up — was careful in his questioning. "This great reporter [had] to tip-toe around. 'Well, you know I'm a reporter, you know I have to ask this.' What?"
Price was also struck by Cosby's silence, considering how outspoken he'd been throughout his career on issues of race and class. "He has been one who has never shied away from [talking about] working class-versus-elite, (...) about black-on-black crime. So for him to take a vow of silence" was unusual, Price said.
Monroe said new allegations against Cosby, decades after some acts were thought to have taken place, showed the public is taking violence against women seriously. "We have a history of men who behaved like this. Roman Polanski? Come on. Woody Allen — I've witnessed [Allen's behavior] myself working at Seventeen magazine many years ago, how he was just a predator with the young models," Monroe said. "While these young girls are here in the dressing studio, why would the institution allow him this kind of access?"
Price thought The Cosby Show's legacy wouldn't be tarnished despite the disturbing news. "The reruns will continue to run," Price said. "It's still a tremendous, rich legacy, it's still a moment in history in terms of television. And [audiences] will separate the individual from the shows."
And not all fans were eager to render judgment, either. Cosby performed Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania, although two subsequent appearances on Late Show with David Letterman and The Queen Latifah Show were canceled.
>> To hear the entire interview with Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III, click the audio above. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist for Huffington Post and Bay Windows. Price is a professor at Northeastern University, and the author of The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture: Toward Bridging the Divide.
