I knew something was wrong with Bill Cosby when...
I remember watching some old boxing classics on YouTube a couple of years ago, including the Larry Holmes- Gerry Cooney 1982 HW title match. I decided to watch one of the undercard matches which featured Puerto Rican boxing great Wilfredo Gomez as well, and in between rounds they were asking celebrities in attendance for prediction for the Main Event.
As you might know, Holmes-Cooney was one most racialized and polarizing sport events of the late 20th Century. In order to sell the event, Don King started promoting the fight as a black vs. white affair, with Cooney becoming the camera friendly white man who was going to become the Great White Hope by beating up the unrefined and somewhat unlikable black champion in Holmes. The racial tension on fight night was so high that there were snipers on the rooftops around the Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. To add insult to injury, Cooney, the challenger, not only got paid more than Holmes, but also was introduced last as if he was the true champion.
So, in between rounds of the Gomez fight, we get to see Bill Cosby, with a huge cigar in his mouth and a particularly arrogant smug in his face, which was partially covered by huge sunglasses. The reporter asks Mr. Cosby about his pick for the fight. One would think that given the divisive nature of the fight and the humiliations the black champion was being subjected to, he would say something eloquent, unifying, inspiring... Or that he was going to show his fellow black brother some much needed support...
Well, none of that. Cosby, in the most arrogant way possible, takes his huge cigar out of his mouth and says "Cooney... He's knocking Holmes out in 4!" If you look at the clip, he almost sounds like he was trying to sound like a redneck rooting against the black man. He was being dismissive of the black champion, but in a sellout kind of way, just like Jesse Lee Peterson hating on all things black: both a real hatred and an act to gain the support of white people at the same time.
In the end, though, the truth won. Holmes exposed Cooney as a creation of a racist American media who wanted any white man to become HW after dealing with Muhammad Ali for a decade, and eventually we learned everything we saw about Bill Cosby on TV was a mask hiding a very ugly and dangerous human being.
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Cosby has been an arrogant asshole for years. I remember his condescending, tsk tsklectures scolding African American men as if he was the perfect family man. What a sick joke that turned out to be.
Contrary to what many white people think, POC aren't color struck. We don't line up and defend other black people just because they're black. If we defend you, it's because we truly believe you are in the right - or are being treated very unfairly. But if we think you're wrong, don't expect us to go to the mat for you. And that definitely applies if you turn your back on your people, and line up with white folk to ignore or malign us, but then start crying "oppression" and try to run back to us and expect us to embrace you and protect you. Ain't gonna happen.
We won't judge you for making a different choice. But don't come running back to us when you figure out you made the wrong choice.
Black people be like: 
to his private life until he started become the scold/arbiter --of all-- for POC.... ( 
)
So, I had a lot of impressions about who he was that had to be "deleted" after more and more and more started coming out about who he truly is/was.
Still saddens me, I have to be honest... I don't defend him obviously, but it saddens me. It sort of feels like having your once beloved Uncle or Grandfather revealed to be a sexual predator-- really hard to accept I'd imagine.
Had Holmes not knocked him out, Cooney would have won on points. Holmes repeatedly landed jabs to Cooney and to most observers, commanded most of the fight. The official judge's final score cards had Cooney winning the majority of rounds.
The t.v. fight announcer said "The judges must have been watching another fight".
