Bill Cosby
Year of birth: 1937.
During high school, his talent for comedy was discovered,
which would become his career. He was an athlete – captain of the baseball and
track&field teams in school, and also worked various jobs before and after
school to help support his family. He did not complete high school, instead
working full time.
At 19 years old he enlisted in the Navy. During his 4-year
enlistment as a physical therapist, he worked with disabled Korean war
veterans. He also obtained his high school equivalency diploma. He then won a
sports scholarship from Temple University, where he studied physical education,
while still playing sports. From his experiences in the Navy and at various
jobs, including the one he worked during his college years, he decided to take
his talent for comedy to the stage. His first major show was at the Gaslight
Cafe in New York City, in 1961.
Mr. Cosby became known not just for standup comedy but also
for authoring several books and working on various television shows, including:
The Cosby Show, The Cosby Mysteries, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. His shows
generally portrayed characters of upstanding moral value and social
consciousness. Indeed, Mr. Cosby received many honors and honorary degrees
during his 55-year career, most reflecting his outstanding record of social
service. Mr. Cosby has contributed both time and money to various philantropic
efforts.
Bill Cosby married Camille Hanks in 1964, and is still
married to her. Together they have 5 children, of which their only son, Ennis,
was shot and killed while changing a tire on his car, in 1997.
Is that incident perhaps what caused him to reflect on the
African American community? In his Pound Cake speech, he berated young Black
men for putting more emphasis on sports, fashion and 'acting hard' than on
education, self-respect and self improvement. He continued urging youths toward
more moral lives, attacking the 'sag' fashion – wearing one's pants down past
the hips; the current trend of mysogyny in rap music and the growing drug
culture.
Donald Trump
Year of birth: 1946
He was born into an immigrant family – his grandparents were
all born outside of the U.S.. The Trump clan became wealthy through various
real estate deals. Young Donald was sent to an expensive, exclusive school.
However, he was expelled from there because of excessive bullying when he was
thirteen. He finished his basic education at New York Military Academy. He
avoided military service during his college years, using the draft deferment
option offered to students. He was certified fit for military duty in 1966, but
later obtained a medical deferment. Mr. Trump has never served in the military.
Prior to graduating college, Mr. Trump went to work in the
family business, and ultimately took it over. He is listed as one of Forbes'
top 500 billionaires, but his business dealings are considered 'sketchy'
because of various bankruptcies and because the company does not trade
publicly. Thus, little is known of the actual business holdings. However, much
is made of his many bankruptcies, and he boasts of dodging his tax obligation
through those losses.
The Donald J. Trump foundation, while bearing his name, does
not receive any benefit – time, effort or money, from Mr. Trump himself.
Furthermore, it is unclear what this foundation supports. Recent investigation
has revealed that foundation monies have gone to finance Mr. Trump's personal
whims.
Mr. Trump has married 3 times; twice to women who were not
American citizens at the time of the marriage. His first marriage dissolved in
part because of a sexual relationship with American actress Marla Maples, who
became his second wife. He engaged in a relationship with Melania, twenty-two
years his junior, while still married to (but separated from) his second wife.
Melania is his third wife.
Mr. Cosby – hard-working and socially conscious; Mr. Trump –
anything but socially conscious (and dead-set against immigration, even though
his family and 2 of his wives were immigrants). It appears those men have only
one thing in common: sexual misconduct.
As far back as 1989, Mr. Trump has been accused of rape
and/or unwanted sexual contact. Since then, and especially since October of
this year, when a conversation between himself and a young reporter revealed
Mr. Trump stated his superstar status gave him the privilege of groping and
kissing women, other women have come forward with similar stories. Mr. Trump
flatly denies all allegations, further insulting the women by saying they were
not attractive enough for him to want to kiss.
In 1965, just as Mr. Cosby's career was taking off (and only
4 years into his fifty-five year marriage), a woman accused him of drugging and
sexually assaulting her (no charges were filed). In February 2000, another
woman reported his lewd actions against her. Since then, scores of other women
have come forward, claiming Mr. Cosby drugged them and had unwanted sexual
contact with them. The accusations go back for decades; for almost as long as
he has been in show business. Mr. Cosby does not deny having sex with the
women, or even using drugs, but he states that any contact was consensual.
I am not here to judge, and I am certainly not calling those
women liars, or hoping to trivialize their experience. I am just trying to
understand why Mr. Cosby - Black, and with a proven record of helping society,
is on trial for sexual assault; while Mr. Trump - White, with a proven record
of helping himself, and repeatedly accused of the same crime, is running for president?
Besides skin color and philanthropy, one other factor
distinguishes these two men: wealth. Mr. Trump was born into money and high
social position. Mr. Cosby grew up Black in pre-Civil Rights America. The Trump name is well-known the world over;
the Cosby brand is restricted to the U.S. - and at that, for only certain
generations. His name is now ill-reputed, with many previous admirers
withdrawing their support.
True, the Republican party has withdrawn their support for
Donald Trump, but the American public has not. Quite possibly the same people
that condemn Mr. Cosby are avid supporters of Trump for president: the
far-right conservatives who would probably string up a rapist... as long as it
is not their candidate.
Doesn't all of this – Black/White, poor/rich,
do-gooder/bully - make you wonder about the polarity of American society?
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