The Day – Race, the gender blame game won’t save Bill Cosby or Mayor Lori Lightfoot

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Bill Cosby and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot may not know each other, but both have given true racial victimization a bad name.

After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the actor-comedian’s sexual assault conviction, Cosby, who spent three years in prison, reacted through his publicist Andrew Wyatt that the decision was “justice for the ‘Black America’.

It’s a stretch. I’m sure the over 50 women who accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them, for example, wouldn’t agree.

It could have been worse. After Cosby’s conviction three years ago, his spokesperson called it “the most racist and sexist trial in the country’s history” and Cosby one of the “greatest civil rights leaders in the country. story, “comparing his case to the persecution of Jesus.

And, as in the case of OJ Simpson’s double homicide, Cosby’s victory only shows that a wealthy black man has a reasonably good chance of getting the quality of justice that until recently was roughly limited to rich white men. As “equal justice” this soup is pretty thin.

Let’s not forget that the court did not exonerate Cosby. The judges only concluded that his conviction should be overturned because it was based in part on evidence that a former district attorney had promised not to be used to prosecute Cosby in a criminal case – if he was testifying in one case. related civil.

This testimony included Cosby’s own confession that he groped, assaulted or raped around 60 women for more than four decades in sexual acts that he had the audacity or illusion to call consensual.

A new prosecutor ruled the evidence was too good to ignore in a criminal case. The high court decided otherwise. Judges ruled the broken promise violated Cosby’s constitutional rights and he was released after serving nearly three years of a three to 10-year sentence.

So be it. Don’t listen to those who say Cosby came out on a “technicality.” The right to due process is a key structural protection against mob justice – and African Americans in particular have seen far more than enough in our history.

Meanwhile, the day before Cosby’s release, Mayor Lightfoot was asked in an interview with WTTW’s Phil Ponce about the recent spike in violence in the town and his notoriously angry response to criticism of his management.

“In recent months, questions have been raised about your temper and your reaction to criticism,” Ponce said. Throwing in a reference to a Chicago Tribune editorial’s description as “irascible,” he asked “How much do you think that could have to do with the fact that you are a woman and especially a black woman? “

Lightfoot quickly responded, “99% of that. “

Oh? We can quibble about the percentages, but that feels more than a little high to me, especially given the many more pressing issues she has been criticized for, such as the city’s soaring homicide rate and departure rates. high / low replacement of top- level municipal officials.

Considering the mass of voters and the goodwill that greeted her election as the city’s first black and lesbian mayor – and champion of police accountability as head of the Chicago Police Board – it almost looks like to an act of panic to jump so quickly to play the racing card.

But, as the old saying goes, she knew the challenges she faced when looking for the job. For her, dismissing complaints on the defensive because 99% based on race and gender biases do not give anyone confidence, especially those who need the city’s services the most. It can’t solve all the problems, but neither should it add to the noise.

Still, she has her defenders and, it must be said, Cosby too. You’ll know it’s all over for Cosby, for example, when he loses the support of his longtime “Cosby” co-star, Phylicia Rashad, newly appointed Dean of the University’s College of Fine Arts. Howard.

“FINALLY !!!!” she tweeted triumphantly after her release. “A terrible wrong is being righted – a miscarriage of justice is corrected!”

But this good deed did not go unpunished to students and others of historically black Howard, who distanced himself from the tweet as Rashad’s personal opinion.

However, show business circles are already buzzing with a possible return of Cosby to this land of resuscitated careers. Don’t count on me.

The Clarence Page columns are distributed by the Tribune Content Agency.

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