Richard Pryor, remarking on white indifference toward the effects of drug addiction in the black community, was careful to articulate the selective empathy of white America when its’ victims wore brown and black faces. In America, it is axiomatic that no crisis is of great concern unless its victims are white. The cemeteries are a testament to the faceless thousands of black men accused of rape and sexual assault against white women. No evidence or trial was necessary. An accusation was sufficient. The penalty was death by the most gruesome and vile manner possible.

As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. When Bill Cosby was criminally charged with sexual battery, millions of women underwent a bizarre exorcism. Relieving themselves of the ghosts of casting couches past, their ranks swelled; and with righteous indignation they came forth to right age old wrongs. Matt Laurer, Harvey Weinstein, Senator Al Franken, Bill O’Reilly, and the Godfather of FOX, the late Roger Ailes were some of its’ most notable targets. Incredibly, all but one of these men have not been criminally charged.

Ailes and O’Reilly’s cases were settled quietly in mediation. The women left with fat separation checks and iron clad confidentiality agreements. Both of which, will be respected. Weinstein’s case, the only one with a hint of criminal prosecution, has stalled. While Laurer and Frankens cases, have quietly faded into relative obscurity. If it seems that the casualties of the ME TOO Movement are in Black and White, it’s because they are.

Starting with the grossly egregious prosecution, conviction and incarceration of Bill Cosby, it seems that ME TOO like Jeffrey Dahmer, has a peculiar appetite for black flesh. However, the accusations against black men seem to range across age groups and status levels. Tavis Smiley, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Former Congressman John Conyers, Morgan Freeman, Nas, Toure’ and now Chris Brown have all joined the ranks of the ME TOO hit list.

Not surprisingly, these men all face the presumption of guilt even before the evidence is presented. Again, this is not new. The National Registry of Exoneration, a study conducted by both the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law, found that
47 percent of the people who were exonerated of sex based crimes were black. This is out of a population of 14%.

While one may see the black elephant in the room, it is not alone. This disparity is not solely a matter of race. It is also the result of an overwhelming power gap that has existed between white and black America since their inception. It is a gulf that is based on the abysmal lack of collective political and feudal power sweeping black life.

The fact that Bill Cosby could burp Brett Kavanaugh’s net worth, is all the more profane when he one looks at the perverse outcomes of their individual situations. Cosby languishes in a prison cell, while Kavanaugh sits comfortably on the Supreme Court bench. The different outcomes in the cases can be measured by the political machines behind both men. Cosby had high powered public relations and attorney firms, where as Kavanaugh had the entire weight and authority of the reactionary conservative apparatus as a co-signer. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see which is more effective in the high echelons of power.

Outside of his attorneys and spokespersons, Cosby had no powerful constituency to advocate on his behalf. His only supporters were the limitless disenfranchised black men who knew all too well about the arbitrary and capricious nature of American Justice. Kavanaugh on the other hand, ran commercials on MSNBC of all places, to dramatize his perceived injustice at the very nerve of his accuser to allege that he was nothing short of the soul of decorum.

In America, power is reflected in the ability to inflict a consequence on one’s adversaries. It can be safely concluded that black men as a collective, can inflict consequences on no one other than perhaps, ourselves. It appears that not even success can protect us. Wealth, a weapon of absolution in the hands of white men, is a tool of mass incrimination in the hands of black men.

Thus it is a sad state of affairs when R. Kelly is free by a camera that shows his guilt, while Cosby is in prison with no evidence, and all the others have been forgotten about. Until black men are empowered, really empowered, the body counts will continue to climb and the lynchings will proceed unhindered by the lack of evidence or the slightest shred of suspicion. Under the law of tooth and claw, he who bites shall be bitten. But he who does not bite shall be eaten the f&ck up.

TONY MACEO is a senior blogger at the Negromanosphere and the Chief Blogger at Power and Strategy.com. Like and Share the articles. Subscribe to the website. Support by paypal@ wayofstrategy44@gmail.com or @ powerofstrategies on Patreon. TILL NEXT TIME I’LL HOLLA!..