MSNBC Guest Speculates Cosby Would Have More Defenders If He Supported #BlackLivesMatter

During a segment on Bill Cosby finally being charged with sexual assault, an MSNBC guest tonight posed the question of whether people would have had the same reactions to Cosby if he hadn’t been a big promoter of “respectability politics.”

Melissa Harris-Perry, filling in for Rachel Maddow, talked to Ebony Magazine senior editor Jamilah Lemieux about Cosby’s infamous moralizing and how people were more interested in protecting an “imagined notion” of Cosby than actually looking into the allegations against him.

Lemieux imagined what would have happened if Cosby didn’t have that respectability politics and if he “was a supporter of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.”

“Say that he was a leftist,” Lemieux said. “Say that he was really on our side, quote unquote, politically. Would we be having this conversation?”

She asked if people would be more hesitant to turn their backs on him or if they would be able to easily separate the man from his actions, even if they’re more politically aligned.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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