Bill Cosby, the man once considered “America’s Dad,” was sentenced to 3–10 years in prison this month for drugging and sexually assaulting a handful of women at his home some 50 years ago — or did he? 

Personally, I think we will never really know what happened to these women on the nights they claim they were given drugs and later sexually assaulted by Cosby. 

My question is why wait so long to tell the world what happened to you — if it actually ever happened? According to The New York Times, Cosby along with several women involved in the case have been debating this settlement for more than 12 years; however, the original settlement was made in 2005 with Cosby admitting to obtaining Quaaludes or Methaqualone to give to young women for sex in a deposition testimony. 

In the end, both Cosby and Andrea Constand — one of Cosby’s accusers — settled the case, with both parties signing a nondisclosure agreement in September 2005. 

If Cosby admitted to administering drugs to women but claimed the sex was genuine according to The Times, what made this case reopen years later? 

Sadly, I believe this case reopened and ended with yet another black man being stripped away of his hard-earned legacies due to rape claims. 

Cosby, the man who we, as well as our parents, looked up to, has been what I believe wrongfully convicted because a handful of white women have come to the stand decades later to retell the stories of the nights they experienced. 

In history, cases involved a black man and white women who claim they were hurt by a black man usually can go two ways: death and life served in jail — or at least this is what the justice system has shown people of color for the last 400 years. 

Take, for instance, the case of Darryl Hunt, who was wrongfully convicted in 1984 of the rape and murder of Deborah Sykes, a white newspaper editor in North Carolina. Hunt, maintained his innocence throughout the case, just like many black men who are wrongfully convicted. 

Yet again this is the result of a false testimony given by a racist human who was connected to member of the Ku Klux Klan who despised black people. 

There was also Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was abducted from a relative’s home and beaten to death by an angry mob of white individuals because a white woman said he whistled at her. 

After decades, however, we finally have the truth regarding Till’s case. “The woman at the center of the trial of Emmett Till’s alleged killers has acknowledged that she falsely testified he made physical and verbal threats, according to a new book,” according to the Chicago Tribune. 

Suspected black men found guilty of crimes against white individuals, women especially, have all been ruled pretty much the same — all in favor of the white people. 

Women should never have to face rape, but no human should have to face prison time for a crime they did not commit. 

Now let’s consider Constand, an employee of Temple University’s women’s basketball team who once told a Temple student that she could make money by falsely accusing a prominent person of assault.

As we can see through this, truth in a court of law does not matter as much as evidence — especially when it comes to African-Americans.

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