phylicia rashad

celebrities

Phylicia Rashad says she was “misquoted”

celebrityabout

Today’s Side Eye once again goes to Phylicia Rashad, whose ignorance was on full display this week when she defended Bill Cosby by saying “forget those women” and claiming that there’s some organized effort to “dismantle” Bill’s legacy. Most of us were shocked that she could be so willfully ignorant, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. After all, Phylicia claims she was misquoted. Unfortunately, her explanations don’t make her look any better. Here’s what she told ABC News: “I am a woman. I would never say such a thing. I would never think such a thing,” she said. “My message is, what happens to a nation in which people knowingly and willfully disavow the tenets that describe the nation? … This is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of a legacy.” Rashad would not speak about the women who have accused Cosby of rape, nor would she say discuss the things they said happened to them. But she did open up about the “kind” and “generous” man with whom she remains friendly. “Speaking to the character of the man that I know, this has not been easy. This has not been easy at all but he’s not a coward,” she said. “I don’t know what he will do in that way but I know that he won’t be hiding. … He likes being around people too much and he respects people.” I mean, look – like I said yesterday, I’m sympathetic to the fact that it must be incredibly difficult to believe that someone you have known for years would be capable of something so awful. But your inability to come to terms with it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, lady. And you DID say “forget those women”. Maybe it was without thinking – clearly it was without thinking – but obviously you’re more concerned with preserving your idea of Bill Cosby than you are about right and wrong. That being said, I do agree with her about the innocent until proven guilty thing. I 150% think Bill Cosby is a serial rapist and sexual abuser of women, but I also couldn’t put him in jail for it without concrete evidence in a court of law. The problem here is that no one is going to try him, so basically he just “gets away with it”. Video below, if you’re interested: Follow us on Twitter | Facebook

celebrities

Phylicia Rashad defends Bill Cosby: ‘Forget those women’

celebrityabout

Oh man, I think of all the Bill Cosby defenders, the one that hits me the hardest is this one. Phylicia Rashad, otherwise known as Clair Huxtable, thinks that the 20+ women accusing Bill of rape and sexual assault are all in some giant plot together to dismantle his legacy piece by piece. Why? She doesn’t know. Who’s behind it? Dunno that either. What’s the point? Shrug. God help us all. Here’s what she said from Fox 411: But knowing this she did say to me “I love him” about Bill Cosby. She stands defiantly behind him. She told me that in the years she’s known him, she has never seen the behavior alleged by the women who say they were drugged and raped, or sexually harassed. “Forget these women,” Rashad said. “What you’re seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it’s orchestrated. I don’t know why or who’s doing it, but it’s the legacy. And it’s a legacy that is so important to the culture.” Rashad dismisses claims from both Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson. “Oh, please,” she said when their names came up. She also is quick to defend Camille Cosby. “This is a tough woman, a smart woman,” she told me. “She’s no pushover.” There is no question, Rashad said, that Camille Cosby has not been complicit or looked the other way as her husband terrorized women for the last 50 years. She said, “Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV,” alluding to people other than the women. “And it’s worked. All his contracts have been cancelled.” LOL, okay. God, the amount of delusion is unbelievable. Is Bill Cosby legally innocent until proven guilty? Sure. But if he’s never going to face an actual trial to prove his guilt or innocence, do we just brush off what he potentially did to these women? Frankly, who in the hell would decide now, when Bill is old as dirt, to try to dismantle his career? Why not during The Cosby Show’s run? Why not when it mattered the most to him? No one has an answer for that. I know that a certain amount of denial is normal when you don’t want to believe something – especially when it’s about someone you know well (or thought you did) and worked with for so many years. This is not a personal attack on Bill Cosby, though, Phylicia – it’s Bill that did the attacking. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook