On Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015, timelines, news feeds, headlines and airways were flooded with the latest news in regards to the Bill Cosby case. If you are active on social media, this story is unavoidable. Several rapes and sexual assault allegations against Cosby arose earlier this year, along with the accusation that he had used sedatives or a date-rape drug on these women.
Now he has been arrested and will be charged in the investigation of alleged sexual assault in 2004. In just hours, hundred of people have flooded the Internet in defense of Bill Cosby. Their arguments include that there is no hard evidence against Cosby. They also use America’s fear of (and war on) black men in his defense. Many people have compared this arrest to the lack of arrests in cases where white police officers have murdered black people for no reason other than on the basis of racism and gotten away with it. A blatant flaw with this argument is that it is far too large of a spectrum.
Is our justice system flawed? Yes. Would the government and the media have handled this differently had the rapist in question been a white man? Why, yes, of course. But that does not change the fact that rape is a crime, sexual assault is a crime, and Bill Cosby has some serious allegations and charges that are indeed punishable by law.
To discredit the crime that is rape is to demean and disrespect the women who have come forward. Not only is it disrespectful to all of the women who have spoken against Cosby and all women in general who have been made victims of rape or any form of sexual assault, but also the black women Cosby has offended and all of the black women who are made victims of rape. There are people calling out the charges against Bill Cosby as an act of racism, as a war on black people, as black women don't exist. As if black women do not experience pain, as if the cries for help of the black women that Bill Cosby has allegedly hurt and taken advantage do not matter. And that is the issue at hand. This case is not a matter of race; it is a matter of rape.
